Organized Labor

28,000 New Building Trades Jobs to Come On Line

By Paul Burton
Contributing Writer

Calling it a good example of real economic development and workforce development, San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom signed a $1.9 billion appropriations bill for the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission (SFPUC) Dec. 19 that will fund improvements to the regional water delivery system that brings fresh water to the Bay Area.

“At a time of global recession, growing unemployment and a state budget crisis that jeopardizes construction projects across California, this bill jumpstarts $1.9 billion in spending on dozens of construction projects throughout the region, rebuilding our water system for the future and putting tens of thousands of people to work,” Newsom said. “California’s economy desperately needs the boost that new investment in our critical infrastructure will bring.”

The bill will create the equivalent of 28,000 new jobs in the Bay Area over the next five years and nearly 11 million hours of new work in building and construction trades between 2009 and 2015, noted the SFPUC. San Francisco Board of Supervisors had approved the funding for the San Francisco portion of the bill two days prior, on Dec. 17.

“On behalf of the men and women of the Northern California construction trades, I’m thrilled these projects are moving into the field and into construction,” said Bob Alvarado, Executive Director of the Northern California Regional Council of Carpenters. “With rising unemployment and the current economic recession, the customers of the Hetch Hetchy regional water system will get better bid prices and the millions of hours of anticipated craft labor will get the Bay Area back to work.”

Alvarado added that the projects would not just provide jobs for journeymen but for young people in San Francisco, San Mateo, and Alameda counties through union apprenticeship programs.
Arthur Jensen, CEO and General Manager of the Bay Area Water Supply & Conservation Agency, agreed, saying that the investment in the WSIP would create “jobs for the future.”

The overall $4.4 billion Water System Improvement Plan (WSIP), includes 85 individual projects to seismically upgrade and improve the Hetch Hetchy regional water system. Funded in part by $1.6 billion in bonds approved by San Francisco voters in 2002 — the city’s largest capital project ever undertaken – the project will upgrade many of the pipelines, pumping stations, tunnels and dams along the system’s 167-mile-long aqueduct that brings water to the Commission’s 2.5 million customers in San Francisco, Santa Clara, Alameda and San Mateo counties from the Hetch Hetchy Reservoir in Yosemite National Park.
The aging system is vulnerable to earthquakes and crosses five major fault lines capable of generating a magnitude 7.5 earthquake. Projects in Alameda, San Francisco, San Joaquin, San Mateo, Santa Clara and Stanislaus Counties will provide work for the construction trades for up to 13 years.

The $1.9 appropriations bill will fund construction of 28 major regional water system pipelines, tunnels, pump stations and dams in six Bay Area and Central Valley counties over the next 18 months. The agency’s updated estimate of craft worker hours needed to complete the construction schedule is based on a model for large public works infrastructure projects, combined with project-specific engineer’s construction cost estimates for the San Francisco Bay Tunnel, New Crystal Springs Bypass Tunnel and Calaveras Dam replacement projects. San Francisco and San Mateo Counties will provide he majority of construction hours for the three projects. Crafts include work in carpentry, concrete, electrical, heavy equipment operation, masonry, painting, roofing, sheet metal, structural steel, tunnel work and mechanical.

“The major projects in San Francisco are completed or underway, but now we’re ready to move into construction on the major pipeline, tunnel and dam projects across the region,” said SFPUC General Manager Ed Harrington. “Our success depends upon a reliable, well-trained workforce and continuing the strong partnerships we’ve created with regional labor and economic development leaders.”

The funding for this project comes at a time when many private sector projects have been put on hold due to a tight credit market for developers and businesses. Newsom said he was pleased that the new Obama Administration had pledged to invest in infrastructure improvements as a means of job development in his economic stimulus proposal. Newsom thanked building trades leaders and said that he was enthusiastic about “creating real jobs that are necessary to stimulate the economy.”

Also on hand for the signing were San Mateo County Supervisor Rose Jacobs-Gibson, Stanislaus County Building Trades Council Business Manager Lucille Palmer-Boyd, Alameda County BCTC Executive Secretary-Treasurer Barry Lubovitsky, several staffers from the SFPUC, and many construction union members. State Assembly Majority Leader Alberto Torrico thanked Mayor Newsom for his leadership in “putting $2 billion worth of work on the street to create almost 30,000 jobs.” He called San Francisco’s investment in its infrastructure a good example of how to get things done to stimulate the economy.

SFBCTC Executive Secretary-Treasurer Mike Theriault said the appropriation of funds for the Hetch Hetchy improvements was crucial at a time when, “our members are hurting because of bad news in the private sector.” Theriault said the number of building trades members who were out of work had increased to the thousands and that, “without this work, it could be tens of thousands—with the attendant ripple effect of more foreclosures, and more retail stores closing as workers have less money to spend.”

“We need this work,” Theriault said. “This is going to help keep us alive and put folks back to work.”

Theriault said that the WSIP projects would keep union members working, and bring new people into the trades. In addition to apprentices and local hires, returning veterans would be placed in jobs through the Helmets to Hardhats program initiated by the Building Trades Department of the AFL-CIO. Young workers will be brought into the projects through City Build and similar community-based programs. “This will enable us to bring young people into the trades and provide them with quality work for many years,” he said.

The bill signing ceremony was held at the Alemany Pump Station project near McLaren Park. The project is one of several already underway to seismically retrofit or replace existing structures, and is covered by a Project Labor Agreement between the SFPUC and the Building Trades.

The Alemany project involves replacing the old pump station facility built in 1941 that no longer complies with building and seismic codes, as well as replacing old pumping equipment and piping. Monterey Mechanical began construction in the spring of 2008; the target completion date for the $31.225 million project is Fall 2010. Monterey Mechanical is a signatory to master agreements with the Pipe Trades.