Organized Labor

Sheet Metal Workers’ Local 104 Training Center

By Richard Bermack contributing Writer and Photographer

At the Sheet Metal Training Center in San Francisco, across the hall from a room with rows of yellow wooden drafting tables circa 1950s, another classroom is filled with AutoCAD computers and a video projector. “Some things have changed a lot and others are still the same,” explains Frank Cuneo, the training coordinator for Sheet Metal Workers’ Local 104. “We still use traditional drafting tools for basic layout, incidental patterns and sketching, and we use AutoCAD and other specialized software for detailing ductwork and complex layouts.”

Building the Trades

Tall Buildings (1)

By Michael Theriault, Secretary-Treasurer

There is a joy in building tall buildings.

For Operating Engineers and Iron Workers at the growing tip of structural steel jobs, and for Carpenters, Laborers, and other trades also at that of poured-in-place buildings, this joy can hold poetry. We have watched the sunrise while perched beside red-tail hawks, or seen peregrine falcons stoop to hunt from close by.

Labor Weighs In on High Speed Rail Line

$10-Billion Bullet Train From SF to LA Would Generate 160,000 Construction Jobs

Union members turned out in force for the State Senate Committee hearing on High Speed Rail Jan. 21 in Palo Alto. State Senators Joe Simitian (Palo Alto) and Alan Lowenthal (Long Beach) from the Senate Joint Budget and Transportation committees heard public input from proponents and opponents of siting the rail line on the San Francisco Peninsula. When built, it would move passengers from Los Angeles to the Bay Area at speeds of up to 220 miles per hour.

Crafts Demonstrate Skills at UCSF’s Institute for Regeneration Medicine

DPR: Complexity of Project Required Use of Union Labor

By Paul Burton
Contributing Writer

DPR is developing and constructing the $123 million, 67,000-sq.-ft. Institute for Regeneration Medicine at the UC San Francisco Parnassus campus. DPR’s Project Manager Martin Vegas said there were currently about 150 construction trades workers on the all-union job, including carpenters, operating engineers, laborers, sheet metal workers, ironworkers, plumbers, sprinklerfitters, glaziers, roofers, cement masons, insulators and electrical workers. He said that, “The magnitude and complexity of the job dictated that we use union subcontractors.”

Work Begins on $887 Million SF General Trauma Center

Work has begun on construction of the new San Francisco General Hospital and Trauma Center on Potrero Avenue between 22nd and 23rd Streets. The new building will be seven stories high, with two stories below ground. It will also incorporate environmentally sensitive design principles to bring it to a LEED certification level of Silver or better. It was designed by Fong and Chan Architects. The Department of Public Works retained Webcor Builders as the General Contractor.

Trans Bay Cable Project Completed

Testing Begins on System that Will Supply Up to 10 Percent of City’s Electric Power

By Paul Burton, Contributing Writer

Construction crews have completed the San Francisco substation at 23rd and Illinois Streets that will receive electricity from the city of Pittsburg via a 53-mile-long high voltage direct current (HVDC) transmission line—the TransBay Cable.

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Trades Headlines

Bay Bridge Construction May Stay Behind Schedule

KCBS, March 11

Construction of key elements for the new eastern portion of the Bay Bridge are fifteen months behind schedule, and Caltrans is no longer confident it can make up the lost time.

Speier inspects stimulus projects

San Mateo Daily Journal, March 9

U.S. Rep. Jackie Speier got a firsthand look yesterday at where millions in federal stimulus money is being spent in her district by visiting a massive construction project at San Francisco International Airport, an energy technology company in South San Francisco and a group of nonprofit leaders in San Mateo who have all benefited from the $787 billion American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009.

Exploratorium gets $90 million to prep for move

SF Chronicle, March 9

The Exploratorium, San Francisco's innovative hands-on science museum in the Marina, has received two anonymous gifts totaling $90 million to help prepare Piers 15 and 17 along the city's waterfront as its permanent new home.

Recovery Act in Action, #2: The Scaffolding is Up!

Huffington post, March 6

This episode of Recovery Act in Action takes place in San Francisco, where the Recovery Act is bringing private capital off the sidelines and putting construction workers back to work on a major renovation project, all while helping seniors stay in their homes.

New Kaiser hospital opens in Vallejo

SF Chronicle, March 2

A new 248-bed hospital is now open in Vallejo that officials say is built to the latest earthquake standards and features state-of-the-art electronic medical record keeping.

Kaiser Permanente Vallejo Medical Center opened to patients Tuesday after two postponements.