Members of the Building Trades
On the Job Site
San Francisco School District Intern Program: Year Two

Wrapping it up and Putting it in a Bag

By Richard Bermack
Contributing Writer and Photographer

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Last year, a Project Labor Agreement with contractors renovating San Francisco schools created a program to introduce high school students to the building trades by placing student interns at job sites. The program was so popular that this year, the number of placements more than doubled.

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Building the Trades

Credit Where Credit Is Due
By Michael Theriault, Secretary-Treasurer   

Image In getting projects approved and members to work we count as usual allies on the Board of Supervisors Michela Alioto-Pier, Carmen Chu, Bevan Dufty, and Sean Elsbernd. These four were steady in supporting Lennar’s project at Hunters and Candlestick Points, a project that means twenty years of work for us. We owe them thanks.Our greatest gratitude for Board approval of the project belongs of course to Sophie Maxwell, who from her arrival there until now just before her last term’s end has shepherded the project through the screes and scarps, the high passes and deep gorges of City Hall.

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Top Stories
San Francisco Supervisors Say Yes to Hunters Point Redevelopment Plan

thumb_3421477454_2e864cbd52_o.jpgProject Would Create 1,000 Construction Jobs for Next 20 Years

By Paul Burton, Contributing Writer

In a major victory for the building trades that will have long-term job-creating impact, the San Francisco Board of Supervisors approved the redevelopment of the Hunters Point Naval Shipyard July 28. Development of the new neighborhood for about 24,500 people would create more than 1,000 construction jobs each year for the next 20 years, according to the developer, Lennar.
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Board OKs Earthquake Bond Measure for November Ballot

Funds Will Pay Union Workers for Seismic Retrofitting

The San Francisco Board of Supervisors voted last month to place a measure on the November ballot that asks voters to support a $46 million bond to finance seismic retrofits of multi-story wood-framed buildings vulnerable to earthquakes. The measure would mandate that building owners make the necessary improvements, and would provide low interest or no interest loans or grants for retrofitting “soft-story” wood frame structures—multi-level properties with a store or garage on the first floor that include small hotels and affordable housing units.

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SF Unified School District Projects Offer Much-Needed Work
thumb_hhms7.jpgOngoing Construction, Renovation Projects Funded by $430-Million Bond

By Paul Burton, Contributing Writer

Several more projects covered by the project labor agreement between the Building Trades and San Francisco Unified School District are currently underway in the city this summer.
Organized Labor recently visited two job sites—Downtown High School and Herbert Hoover Middle School. The work at the two schools is largely to bring them into compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) that mandates that schools be accessible to disabled, or handicapped students. The work is funded through $450 million in general-obligation bonds approved by SF voters in 2006 to continue SFUSD’s building improvement work—including meeting disability-access requirements and health and safety codes, and rehabilitating the buildings and grounds of 64 schools in the SFUSD.
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‘Healthy San Francisco’ Law Wins Legal Challenge
thumb_ammiano_clo.jpgHigh Court Refuses to Hear Case Brought By Restaurant Association

The City of San Francisco prevailed in its effort to provide health care to residents when the United States Supreme Court on June 28 refused to hear a legal challenge filed by the Golden Gate Restaurant Association. The business group had sued the city in November 2006 over a provision of the Health Care Security Ordinance that mandates that all companies with at least 20 workers provide health insurance, pay into health care reimbursement accounts or contribute to the Healthy San Francisco program.
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Lowe’s Under Construction on Bayshore Boulevard

All-Union Job Providing Much-Needed Work for Trades

0101s.jpgBy Paul Burton, Contributing Writer

Construction of a San Francisco Lowe’s home improvement store is underway on Bayshore Boulevard, at the site formerly occupied by Goodman Lumber. The site has been vacant for nine years. Home Depot planned to build a store at the site and reached an agreement with the San Francisco Board of Supervisors in 2005. But the company dropped its plan in 2008, citing a downturn in the home-improvement sales market that saw its earnings decrease by about 19 to 24 percent in 2008.

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Trades Headlines

S.F. envisions high-tech future at Pier 70

SF Chronicle, August 30

A historic San Francisco  shipyard, once an industrial center for the West Coast, will become a hub of modern technology under plans for the city's sprawling Pier 70 at the edge of Mission Bay.

 

Major changes coming to Treasure Island

KGO, August 17

Major changes are coming to Treasure Island. Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi was there to talk about a redevelopment plan that will create a community and thousands of jobs at the former naval base.

 

Ambitious transit project takes off

SF Examiner, August 12

After decades of planning, construction work on the Transbay Transit Center officially began Wednesday following a politician-heavy groundbreaking ceremony.

 

First Bay Bridge tower section goes up

SJ Mercury, July 28

Workers lifted the first section of one of the new Bay Bridge towers into place Wednesday, one of the most visible signs so far that the multi-year project to replace the aging eastern span is nearing its latter stages.

 

Funding fears won't delay transbay transit work

SF Chronicle, July 14

Despite concerns that the sagging real estate market and the state budget crisis could leave the Transbay Transit Center underfunded, transportation officials plan to forge ahead with the $1.6 billion project.

 

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