Organized Labor

Change was the theme of the 60th State Building Trades Convention, where nearly 250 Building Trades delegates from around the state gathered in Palm Springs March 28-29 to discuss the state of the industry, re-elect officers, and hear about the fights ahead.

With the pace of technology, growth and other changes affecting the construction industry continually increasing, the convention, held every four years, is a good way for the building trades to take stock of its accomplishments and do some long-term strategic thinking about the years ahead.

The big news at the convention was the recent announcement that the Laborers had re-affiliated with the National and State Building Trades Council, adding another 11 local unions to our total in California alone. Our affiliates now number 159 locals and 22 Building Trades Councils.

But as Bob Balgenorth, President of the State Building Trades Council, noted in his opening remarks, while the Laborers rejoining the Building Trades is a step in the right direction, more labor solidarity is needed if we are to increase our collective bargaining strength. "We don't have the luxury to continue to fight with each other," he said.

"We must use our energy, our brainpower, our collective strength to deal with the changes and challenges of this new century. Across California, the ABC and the predatory, self-serving, money-grubbing forces that support it again are on the march," Balgenorth said.

As always, the prevailing wage fight remains the State Building Trades top priority. But as construction has begun to explode in California's small, sleepy cities – not our traditional source of strength – our prevailing wage fight is once again under siege. Now the battle has shifted to the charter cities, where small City Councils are trying to outlaw PLAs and pass ordinances that exempt their cities from prevailing wage regulations.

In response to the ABC's latest tactic against union construction, the State Building Trades sued the City of Vista in San Diego County in July 2007 and that lawsuit is now before a Court of Appeal on its way to the California Supreme Court. However, the trend continues as the cities of Carlsbad and Buena Park also announced recent plans for charter city elections.

Other highlights of the convention included an eminent speaker list, including California state officials and Mark Ayers, the new head of the National Building Trades Department.

California State Attorney General Jerry Brown, who works closely with the Building Trades on our issues, spoke about the dangers of the underground economy and the dangers presented by the Charter Cities elections. "It isn't fair for some contractors to play by the rules and other don't," Brown told the crowd. "We will prosecute any contractors who we find violating the law, but we need your help. Call it in. Let us know how we can help." Brown also pledged to defend prevail wages in charter cities.

California Superintendent of Public Education Jack O'Connell, spoke glowingly about the apprenticeship opportunities he has worked on with the building trades in providing to children who are not necessarily college bound. "Working together, we helped open doors to schools for our apprenticeship programs," he said. There are currently 290 Career Tech Academies around the state, with another 50 coming on line. The building trades were instrumental in getting standards developed for many of these academies that have grown out of the strategic alliance between the Building Trades Council and the Education Dept.

Mark Ayers, President of National BT Dept, spoke about the challenges facing the Building Trades in coming months and years. "We are facing a new era of accountability and customer services," said Ayers. "We must change the culture in the Building Trades with bold innovative moves. We must go on the offensive, with good public relations, political and legislative programs to counter attack the dozens of inroads contractors are making against prevailing wages and Davis Bacon legislation."

Plans are underway and specific programs will be unveiled at the upcoming Building Trades Legislative Conference in Washington, DC next month, he said.

Also on hand to deliver a talk on the latest news on PLAs was Peter Philips, a professor at the University of Utah, who recently completed an exhaustive study on PLAs showing that they do not cost more money nor do they dissuade contractors from bidding on jobs.

In other news, Dave Sickler will be returning to the State Building Trades Council, in charge of special projects. Dave will be spearheading a Leadership Workforce Academy that is being funded by the Labor Management Trust Funds. Housed out of the UCLA Labor Center, the Academy will be charged with finding ways to create more PLAs in partnerships with the city and county governments around the state.

In an overwhelming vote of confidence, the delegates unanimously re-elected Bob Balgenorth as president of the Council along with the rest of his team. Also re-elected were UA Int'l Rep Jim Kellogg as Secretary-Treasurer, Santa Clara-San Benito BTC Chief Neil Struthers as Northern California Rep and Sheet Metal Int'l Rep Brad Pleuger as Southern California Rep.

Delegates at the convention also unanimously adopted a resolution recognizing the urgency for craft unions to support Prop 99 in the June 3 primary. Prop 99, the real eminent domain reform measure, will protect homeowners by prohibiting government from using eminent domain laws to take a home to transfer to private developers.