Organized Labor

All-Union Job Providing Much-Needed Work for Trades

By 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.

The city had negotiated a set of community benefits agreements with Home Depot to allow the Big Box retailer to set up shop in the city; those are now part of the deal to enable Lowe’s to build its 107,000 square foot store. They include a $750,000 investment in workforce training, $100,000 for a day labor program, local hiring for the store, and an all-union construction crew.

Robinson construction out of southern Oregon is the general contractor for the job. While the company is non-union, as part of the deal to build in the city, Lowe’s and Robinson agreed to hire all union construction trades workers and use union sub contractors. The job site superintendent said the contractor was satisfied with the agreement and happy with the union crew. He said they had brought in only a few members of their management staff from Oregon. About 100 building trades members are on the job now, including laborers, carpenters, cement masons, operating engineers, electrical workers and pile drivers. Concrete walls have been poured and will be set up within the next few weeks. About one-half of the site will be for the store and half for a parking lot. Structural ironworkers and other trades will be on the job later in the summer, with roofers and more plumbers and electrical workers in September. The project broke ground last October and should be completed by the end 2010.

Sub contractors include Cupertino Electric, Rountree Plumbing, Interstate Concrete Pumping, and Stroer & Graff pile drivers. Robinson has built stores for Lowe’s in Aurora, Colorado; Tempe, Arizona; and Silverdale, Washington.

While opponents of the development, and Big Box retailers generally, cheered the demise of Home Depot’s project, supporters noted that the store would have generated significant sales tax income for the City as well as jobs. While the Lowe’s development could take some business away from smaller hardware stores, it could also attract customers to nearby stores and help revitalize the Bayshore Boulevard area that now contains many vacant storefronts and empty lots. In supporting the Lowe’s project, Supervisor Sophie Maxwell, who represents the southeastern neighborhoods nearby, highlighted the jobs it would bring to her district that has many unemployed residents as well as the additional sales taxes it could provide for the city. It would allow residents who now shop for home improvement products outside the city to spend locally. Home Depot estimated that San Franciscans spend more than $40 million annually at its store in Colma. Lowe’s has nearby stores in South San Francisco and San Bruno.

Mayor Newsom said that while he is not a fan of big box stores, “I think there should be self-determination, and the people of the southeast sector want a big box store.” And they want jobs.

The San Francisco Chronicle reported last year that, “Following Home Depot’s lead, Lowe’s also committed to hire half of the retail employees and a quarter of construction positions from the neighborhood, and an additional quarter of retail workers and the same proportion of construction jobs from within the city... The store is expected to create between 150 and 200 permanent retail positions and contribute $900,000 in annual sales and property taxes.” Half of the retail jobs would be filled by residents of the Bayview-Hunters Point neighborhood, and another 25 percent from other surrounding neighborhoods, under the deal with the City.