Tempers ran hot as close to 100 people packed into the tiny board room in the George R. Gordon Education Center in Martinez to negotiate a Public Labor Agreement for Measure A funded projects throughout the district October 15.
If passed, the PLA would dictate which construction companies would be able to work with DVC on any future projects.
“This agreement ensures decent jobs and apprenticeships for our young people,” said proponent Barb Johnson. “PLAs just use good business sense.”
After a long and contentious debate, the Board came to a decision to amend the resolution before them and vote on the agreement itself in November.
These amendments included exempting projects under $2 million from the agreement, and requiring bidders to provide apprenticeships and emphasize local and veteran hiring.
Union members spanning the district were in attendance in support of the PLA, as well as reps from state officials such as Assembly Members Nancy Skinner, Joan Buchanan, and Susan Bonilla, state Sen. Mark DeSaulnier, and Congressman John Garamendi , who all showed their support for the agreement.
Sen. Lois Wolk addressed the public in support of the agreement.
“There are three top priorities in our society today: educating young people, building public infrastructure, and putting people back to work,” she said. These three points provided the backbone for the union’s argument.
The PLA would stipulate that a certain percentage of workers on a given job must be hired locally, in an apprenticeship program, on unemployment and veterans that have sought work through Helmets To Hardhats.
The support from the unions dwarfed the more critical population which was carried by the non-union contractors present at the meeting. Esther Hoekster, an interior designer who contracts non-union labor, claimed the message was unbalanced.
“You look in the room and you see they [in referring to unions] were all prepared well ahead of time, while the other side was unaware,” said Hoekster. “I just got the email about the issue this morning.”
Matt Heavey, a local non-union worker, believes the agreement would be discriminatory and equated it to Rosa Parks’ “back of the bus” experience almost 60 years ago.
“PLAs take liberty away from us,” said Heavey.
After the public comments were up, things got choppy as the Board went on to make amendments to the resolution. When the negotiations seemed to lag, city council member John Márquez said his piece.
“With all due respect, we’ve been talking about this since 2006 and we’re still talking about this now. That’s a long, long time. We need to cut the talking out and either approve or disapprove this resolution,” he said.
The amendments had non-union supporters in an uproar, driving one man to ask if making such amendments to the resolution at the meeting was a violation of the Brown Act. The council lawyer, however, assured that everything being done was legal.
After adding some finishing details, the Board would vote to pass the resolution 5-1, only President John Nejedly would vote against. The deciding vote for the Public Labor Agreement will be held at the Board’s next meeting in November.
