CFEC Crane Logo 2012
September 2, 2016
In This Issue
Education
More PLA Failures and Mishaps
Napa County Supervisors Move Forward with PLA "Negotiations"
Monterey Bay Community Power Discusses PLAs
San Diego Charger Stadium Update
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Education
School Bond Measures : The old record (recorded just last year) was 113 school construction bond measures on a ballot at one time. Today that number looks like child's play. California, in the November Presidential election, will have 184 bond measures on the ballot totaling more than $25 billion! While this might be good news for contractors the downside of course is that we have identified most of it as being potentially targeted for Project Labor Agreements (PLAs).  
 
Stay tuned ladies and gentlemen. Once this election is over and we see which ones received the necessary 55% approval, we will be back with a list of threats around the state and what you can do to help keep that work PLA-free.

Fairfield-Suisun Unified School District : A case in point as to how this works in this school district. It took unions 36 seconds to get a PLA moving on this District's $244 million bond measure after it was narrowly approved in June by voters with 57% of the vote. Imagine if voters had gotten wind of a PLA and now you know why pro-PLA school board members and their union masters kept this scheme under wraps. Well we discovered their "PLA Work Session" that was held last week and sent a withering email to the board calling them out on this underhanded attempt to rip off taxpayers and discriminate against workers and contractors.

Here is the
Agenda Item and PLA Presentation.

At the meeting the board of trustees agreed to bring the issue back up at their September 8th board meeting with the goal being to form an ad hoc PLA committee charged with "looking into" the use of a PLA.

What we need from you:
    
1. Contact the Board TODAY and express your opposition to the PLA:
Judi Honeychurch: JudiH@fsusd.org
David Isom: DavidI@fsusd.org
Jonathan Richardson: JonathanRi@fsusd.org
Pat Shamanski: PatSham@fsusd.org
Kathy Marianno: KathyMa@fsusd.org
John Silva: JohnS@fsusd.org
Chris Wilson: ChrisWil@fsusd.org
 
2. Show up at the board meeting to express your opposition to a PLA:
6:00 P.M. OPEN SESSION
FAIRFIELD-SUISUN UNIFIED SCHOOL DISTRICT
Central Office Board Room
2490 Hilborn Road
Fairfield, CA 94534


Freemont Union High School District: The Trustees at FUHSD voted 4-1 to approve a union-PLA for 95% of its $395 million construction bond. The PLA includes no threshold and is full of typical exclusionary provisions. The District's Superintendent insulted union-free contractors by claiming that the added costs of a PLA will be made up with "higher quality work."

State Center Community College: There will be a board workshop in September on alternative delivery methods and Project Labor Agreements. Stay tuned and be prepared to show up and speak out! 
More PLA Failures and Mishaps
On a daily basis we are reminded of the disastrous results of PLAs wherever they are attempted. We are also reminded of just what kind of people support PLAs. Here are some of this week's examples:
Napa County Supervisors Move Forward with PLA "Negotiations"
Some Napa County Supervisors are hell-bent to put PLAs on County projects regardless of what the facts say. This was on display again recently when the Supervisors discussed the issue of a PLA for their new $16 million Re-Entry Facility. CFEC's Eric Christen was again on hand to remind the Supervisors that a PLA will do nothing but increase costs and make it harder to hire local workers, most of whom are union free. Currently the Supervisors have directed staff to work with local big labor special interests to "negotiate" a PLA. At the Supervisor's meeting the unions asked why staff was not moving more quickly while staff was asking Supervisors to confirm that what they negotiated would actually help the County and not just be a boilerplate PLA. It is quite the eye opening discussion to watch and we encourage you all to do so.
Monterey Bay Community Power Discusses PLAs  
As part of a broader push to force PLAs on all power generating projects, the Monterey Bay Community Power Advisory Committee took up the issue of PLAs  when local union bosses made a presentation to them.  At their most recent meeting the committee heard from CFEC's and Labor Issues Solution's Kevin Dayton on why a PLA would be a bad idea for the Authority. We will keep an eye on this situation in Monterey County, a County that has recently become a hotbed for PLA activity.  
San Diego Charger Stadium Update 
The new Charger stadium plan continues to run into opposition and problems. CFEC's Eric Christen was interviewed in this news article that discussed the stadium and the union PLA, among other issues. What is worse for the Chargers and their union boss pals is the fact that the public hates the proposed plan and is looking set to crush it at the ballot box come November. Needing 66% approval the idea that a billionaire owner needs the public to pay for his stadium gets approval from only 25% of the voters.