Organized Labor

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  Avni Jamdar at the Betel Apartments.
  Emerald Cities Agreement Covers Green Retrofits for Betel Apartments

By Paul Burton, Contributing Writer

The San Francisco Building and Construction Trades Council recently finalized a Community Workforce Agreement with the Mission Housing Development Corporation for the MHDC’s Energy Efficiency Retrofit project. Seven MHDC properties have been selected by the San Francisco Mayor’s Office of Housing to participate in its Green Retrofit Initiative.

The workforce agreement is similar to a Project Labor Agreement and was adopted after the Emerald Cities San Francisco collaborative convened negotiations among MHDC, the Council, the Laborers union, CityBuild, and community-based organizations. It will ensure union jobs for all the work, and will promote the participation of disadvantaged San Francisco residents in apprenticeship positions, and pathways into union apprenticeship programs.

“This is a unique collaboration as the Building Trades Council and community groups have taken a step toward working together in the Energy Efficiency sector, and under the Emerald Cities banner,” said Emerald Cities San Francisco director Avni Jamdar.

MHDC held an event in November to announce the agreement at the Betel Apartments on Hampshire Street. The apartments will get new water-saving, energy-efficient showerheads, kitchen and bathroom faucets and other plumbing fixtures, which will be donated by Moen Inc. for installation in MHDC’s affordable housing projects.

SFBCTC Secretary-Treasurer Mike Theriault thanked MHDC for “giving us an opportunity for a practical program. This is the first agreement of its kind. We in the Building Trades pledge our support to make it work.” Theriault and other Building Trades leaders have been in discussions with Emerald Cities for several years to develop the kinds of partnerships like the one for the MHDC projects.

The goals of Emerald Cities San Francisco’s partnership with the Building Trades, Moen, and community organizations include “increasing the energy and water efficiency of citywide building stock while prioritizing environmental justice in low-income communities through reduced energy costs, reduced carbon output, and other building retrofit benefits” as well as the “development of high quality jobs with good wages and benefits in construction and other industries related to energy efficiency, and through community workforce agreements and project labor agreements increase the number of union jobs and access to them for low-income residents, people of color, and women.”

At the kickoff event in November, Emerald Cities’ national president, Denise Fairchild, said the allied groups had “made an investment in the greening of our cities; it’s a small but important step forward.” Fairchild noted that buildings are the number one contributor to greenhouse gas emissions, due to inefficient design and consumption of energy, with transportation the number two contributor.

Improvements for 260 Families

“The future is in the work of greening these buildings,” she said. “This will impact the quality of life for 260 families in seven buildings who will pay less for utilities and have a healthier living environment. It will also have the benefit to the community of providing good jobs, making sure they are union jobs with high wages, benefits and career opportunities.” Dr. Fairchild’s experience includes launching projects at Los Angeles Trade-Technical College to provide inner city residents with career and technical education for high growth/high demand jobs in the L.A. region.

Supervisor David Campos hailed the collaboration as an example of how government, the private sector, labor and nonprofit organizations can work together. “The message to the community is that we are making an investment in the community for environmental justice and social justice, and showing that jobs and protecting the environment go hand in hand.”

David De La Torre of Laborers Local 261 noted that the workforce agreement “will be a model for collaboration. We pride ourselves on working with the community to try to provide sustainable jobs for San Franciscans. This is the first step.”

The Laborers have worked with community organizations that support San Francisco’s Local Hire Ordinance, including the Brightline Defense Project, which has sometimes been at odds with the Building Trades Council. Despite the contentious discussions around the local hire issue, Brightline’s executive director, Josh Arce, said that the adoption of the community workforce agreement with MHDC was “an evolutionary step in the process” of developing workable local hire policies. He noted that with high unemployment rates among construction workers, “unions have a lot to gain by working together with community organizations” that are pushing for jobs for San Francisco residents. “We are eager to see how this works. It’s not part of the local hire ordinance but complements it. It offers a path to apprenticeships and a pipeline to the trades.”

Aging Housing Needs Retrofits

Jamdar noted that there is a great need for the kinds of energy retrofits that Emerald Cities San Francisco is undertaking. “Most of the housing stock dates to the first half of the last century or before,” she said. “Most is un-insulated. Much is poorly heated by aging equipment. Utility bills run high. We are working to identify multi-family low-income housing to serve as pilot projects for deep energy retrofits.” She added, “Much of our multi-family housing needs seismic reinforcement; we contemplate combining this work with deep energy retrofits. We are establishing means of cooperation with San Francisco’s workforce development programs to assure access to our apprenticeships and to careers in the Building Trades for members of underprivileged communities.”

Other future work under the Emerald Cities banner may include energy-efficiency retrofitting of commercial and public buildings.

According to Larry Del Carlo, president of MHDC, work on the retrofitting at the Betel Apartments should be starting up within this month.

Emerald Cities Collaborative is a consortium of businesses, unions, government representatives, community organizations, research and technical assistance providers, and social justice advocates, united around the goal of “greening metropolitan areas in ways that advance equal opportunity, shared wealth, and democracy.”