Organized Labor

Building Trades, PUC Agree to Terms on $4.3 Billion Project

By Paul Burton
Contributing Writer

After several months of negotiations, Bay Area and national building trades unions and the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission have reached agreement and signed a Project Labor Agreement for the SFPUC’s Water System Improvement Plan. The $4.3 billion project would seismically upgrade many of the pipelines, pumping stations, tunnels and dams along the system’s 167-mile long aqueduct that brings water to the City from the Hetch Hetchy Reservoir in Yosemite National Park.

"This is an historic agreement," said Mike Theriault, Secretary-Treasurer of the SF Building and Construction Trades Council. "By ensuring that our members work on this upgrade, The PUC can rest assured they will be hiring the most highly skilled workers in the world, trained through our apprenticeship programs. It will also ensure steady work for our members for years to come."

The aging system is vulnerable to earthquakes and crosses five major fault lines capable of generating a magnitude 7.5 earthquake. San Francisco voters passed Measure A in 2002 to issue $1.6 billion in bonds to finance part of the improvements, which would be the City’s largest capital project ever undertaken.

Five local building trades councils began meeting with the SFPUC in late July to hammer out the details of the PLA. Representatives from the AFL-CIO’s Building Trades Department and from the National Construction Alliance (NCA) have also been involved in the negotiations. The NCA includes the Carpenters, Operating Engineers, and Laborers unions.

The SFPUC and Mayor Gavin Newsom hosted a public signing ceremony held atop the concrete roof of the Stanford Heights Reservoir in the Twin Peaks neighborhood April 10. SFPUC General Manager Susan Leal noted that the first work to be covered under the new PLA would be at the Stanford Heights reservoir, which was built in 1923. The reservoir will undergo a major seismic retrofit, with work beginning in the fall of 2007 to be completed in 2009. Leal said that having the PLA would ensure that the work was done on budget and on time. "Unions built this city, and union labor will be used on this incredible, multi-county project," she said. An estimated 12.2 million labor hours will be required to complete all the different components of the project. Some of the work has already begun.

Mayor Newsom thanked the labor leaders for fashioning a PLA that will benefit workers and the City. "This is a labor town and we’re proud of it," he said. Newsom said that he and Sean McGarvey of the AFL-CIO’s Building Trades Department had been talking about the economic divide between the wealthy and the working class. "Union labor helps to preserve, protect, and promote the middle class," Newsom said. "This project isn’t just about rebuilding the water system, it’s about rebuilding families. We can reconcile the gap that exists and focus on strengthening the labor movement and working families. The work done by the crafts will define the future of our region." He said he hoped the Hetch Hetchy PLA could serve as a model for other projects.

Newsom presented McGarvey with a proclamation from the City declaring April 10, 2007, as Project Labor Agreement Day. McGarvey said the PLA would strengthen and maintain the middle class, not just by creating jobs but creating careers in the construction trades. He said he was particularly proud that the project would also create job opportunities for veterans. A provision of the PLA incorporates the "Helmets to Hardhats" model initiated by the BCTD. "Helmets to hardhats serves as a way to transition members of the military into construction careers and employment," he said.

National Construction Alliance Vice President Ray Poupore praised the Bay Area building trades leaders, saying, "This PLA is about protecting workers. The labor leaders here put their workers first." Poupore called the PLA a "win-win for San Francisco and the whole area."

SFBCTC Secretary-Treasurer Mike Theriault acknowledged the leadership of the other building trades councils who helped formulate he PLA. The overall project includes about 77 different projects in Alameda, San Francisco, San Mateo, Santa Clara, and Stanislaus Counties and will provide work for the construction trades for up to 13 years. Other BCTC leaders involved were Bill Nack (San Mateo County), Neil Struthers (Santa Clara and San Benito Counties), Barry Luboviski (Alameda County), and Lucille Palmer-Boyd (Stanislaus County).

Theriault noted that work on the water system improvement plan would also involve hiring young workers through the City Build program. "This will enable us to bring young people into the trades and provide them with quality work for many years," he said.

Members of the signatory unions, building trades councils, and national construction organizations took turns signing a copy of the PLA, along with Mayor Newsom and the SFPUC’s Susan Leal.

After the signing ceremony, the SFPUC’s San Francisco Regional Project Manager Howard Fung told Organized Labor that the Stanford Heights Reservoir project would be a $18 to $24 million project with about 40 workers employed at the peak construction time. "There will be a lot of concrete to pour and major structural work," he said. Work on the reservoir has gone out to bid.

The reservoir provides water to thousands of homes and businesses in several areas of the City. It currently is topped by a concrete roof, which will be seismically retrofitted. Reservoir circulation problems will be corrected with the construction of separate inlet and outlet piping and structures at each basin. The project will seismically strengthen the reservoir by adding frames, concrete shear walls, braces, struts and additional concrete footings. Other work will include crack repairs, sealing of reservoir roof, replacement of the expansion joints and cover plates, access and water quality improvements for sampling and disinfection, earthen embankment stabilization, erosion control, drainage, repair of existing liner, inlet/outlet valve repairs, roadway replacement, and removal of sediments, disinfection and chlorination upon completion. Security upgrades will include addition of a new 10-foot tall fence and modern security system. Old mechanical and electrical equipment for operating the reservoir will also be upgraded. The nearby Mount Davidson Pump Station will also be replaced with a new facility.

Some of the key components of the Project Labor Agreement include a no strike clause, prevailing rates for all work performed, using labor management trust funds to provide health care and pension benefits, hiring and dispatch through union hiring halls, a commitment to training and hiring local residents, and a joint administrative committee to maintain good lines of communication and to resolve disputes.

Signatories to the PLA are the Building Trades Department of the AFL-CIO, the National Construction Alliance, Building Trades Councils of San Francisco, San Mateo, Alameda, Santa Clara and San Benito, and Stanislaus/Merced/Tuolomne/Mariposa Counties. Unions signing on are Boilermaker Local 549, Bricklayers Local 3, Elevator Constructors Local 8, Northern California Carpenters Regional Council, Electrical Workers Locals 6, 332, 595, 617 and 684, Heat and Frost Local 16, Iron Workers Locals 377, 378 and 155, Operating Engineers Local 3, Cement Masons Locals 66 and 300, Plumbers Locals 38, 342, 393, 442, 467 and 483, Roofers Locals 40, 81 and 95, Sheet Metal Workers Locals 104 and 162, and Teamsters Local 853.