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January 24, 2014 

In This Issue
California High-Speed Rail PLA Faces Long Odds
Opponents of Sacramento Kings Arena and its PLA Gather Enough Signatures to Qualify for Ballot!
East Bay Municipal Utility District to Vote on PLA
PLAs that Snuck Through
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California High-Speed Rail PLA Faces Long Odds
It is getting lonely for California High-Speed Rail supporters. The 58 gazillion dollar train wreck of a project, the most expensive project in human history, is facing an increasingly unlikely future as recent court cases and Congressional Republican support for the boondoggle takes its toll. There is one group, however, that can still be counted on to show it some love: Construction trade unions. Why? The PLA that is covering it of course. This excellent piece shows how lonely it is for union bosses these days with even many of their liberal allies abandoning them. 

Opponents of Sacramento Kings Arena and its PLA Gather Enough Signatures to Qualify for the Ballot!

Those who support building the Sacramento Kings Arena in a way that doesn't discriminate against workers and rip off Sacramento citizens have gathered enough signatures to qualify an ordinance for the June ballot. The ordinance asks whether or not this deal, which rips off taxpayers and discriminates against workers through the use of a union-only PLA, is good for the city.

 

Merit shop contractors and organizations were instrumental in getting the signatures needed to qualify this measure. Without them this effort simply would not have succeeded. 

 

You can read more about the qualification story in this Sacramento Bee article.
East Bay Municipal Utility District to Vote on PLA Tuesday!

The East Bay Municipal Utility District (EBMUD) will consider a pilot Project Labor Agreement (PLA) for the $15M Chabot Seismic Upgrade Project at its board of directors meeting on Tuesday, January 28. It is a standard PLA with all the usual components meant to keep well-qualified contractors, workers, and apprentices off this work.  

 

In June of 2012, the EBMUD Legislative Committee received a staff report recommending the use of PLAs on a case-by-case basis on projects costing over $25M, leading the committee to direct staff to go back and study PLAs and the use of PLA waivers by federal agencies. 

 

The meeting is Tuesday, January 28, 2014 at 1:15pm at the EBMUD Administration Building, 375 11th Street, Oakland, CA 94607-4240.

 

We encourage you to do two things to help us thwart this power grab by local union bosses:

  1. Show up and ask your industry friends to join you at the East Bay Municipal Utilities District (EBMUD) meeting. 
  2. Contact the EBMUD Board of Directors TODAY to let them know you stand opposed to the PLA and why.

Meeting Details

 

When: Tuesday, January 28, 2014 at 1:15pm

  

Where: EBMUD Administration Building

               375 11th Street, Oakland, CA 94607-4240

 

For more information and to let us know whether or not you can attend please contact us at info@opencompca.com.

 

Thank you for your consideration.

PLAs that Snuck Through
PLA proponents are increasingly desperate to hide the fact that they are attempting to use their elected tools to get discrimination passed. They are using techniques that range from avoiding a vote altogether, to re-naming the PLA anything other than a PLA so as to avoid us catching it. It's embarrassing but can be, at times, effective.
 
Two recent examples of this happening are:
 
The Marin County General Hospital Replacement Project: When county voters approved a $394 million bond to pay for this project they of course had no idea a PLA would be part of the deal because, again, PLA proponents know how unpopular these schemes are. Instead they waited for the bond to pass and then sprung the PLA on the public. A behind the scenes "agreement" has now been reached.
 
Antioch Unified School District: On the 11/13/13 consent calendar (page 124) the Antioch USD School Board approved a PLA 4-1. Being in an area renowned for its corruption and incompetence when it comes to anything education related, the agenda and minutes are not even optimized with text recognition so the PLA didn't appear in web searches or with the find function. No one saw it, no one reported it.
Join us at Stronghold Engineering on February 20th!
Join leaders of the construction industry at Stronghold Engineering on February 20th in order to learn more about Project Labor Agreements and what you can do to fight them! If you would like to RSVP or need any additional information, please email Alicia Pearlman at alicia@opencompca.com today.
 
When: February 20, 2014 from 5:00-6:30pm
Where: Stronghold Engineering
Donate Today
Whether it is through the use of our emails, weekly newsletters, gatherings, or other tactics we here at CFEC work hard to educate elected officials, business owners, and other entities about the discriminatory and harmful effects of PLAs. We are able to continue these efforts because of the generous support shown to us by our members. Please donate today and help us continue to keep fair and open competition alive. Thank you! 
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