An initiative reportedly designed to maximize the number of local workers hired for large county government public works projects — worth $10 million or more — is posting desultory results after three years of actual experience.
Three years ago, the Santa Barbara County supervisors voted to require that large contracts be awarded to union shop companies as opposed to large non-union contracting firms. The thinking was this would maximize the number of local tri-county workers, improve the quality of work, and ensure labor peace.
In addition, the initiative — known alternately as Project Labor Agreements or Community Workforce Agreements — promised to deliver a union-supported apprenticeship program offering local youth a pathway to higher-paying jobs that would enable them to remain in their hometowns.
To date, the number of local employees getting these jobs has been less than it was before. On average, about 40 percent of those hired can be considered local, compared to 50-60 percent before. The percentage of local hires has ranged between 10 and 68 percent according to a report released to the supervisors two weeks ago.
As for the apprenticeship program, Public Works czar Chris Sneddon noted there was “a paucity of data.” Translated, he said the role of the much-ballyhooed apprenticeship programs has been neither emphasized nor tracked from job to job to determine the magnitude of its impact, if any.
The program was backed strongly by organized labor when the supervisors approved it and bitterly opposed by local non-union contractors. For candidates backed by the Democratic Party, support for the program was a key litmus test for political support. According to Sneddon, local union halls typically don’t have enough workers on hand to hire locally, so contractors getting large county contracts are forced to hire outside the tri-county area. Sneddon also noted that the big contracts requiring union workers have typically had only two bidders, and the bids come in higher than expected.
Supervisors Steve Lavagnino and Bob Nelson — both of whom skew politically to the right — expressed disappointment in the paucity of local jobs produced. For the other supervisors — who lean far more to the left — the numbers were politically awkward. The discussion took place just months before the June mid-term elections — when union support matters — and there was little appetite by the board majority to probe the matter.
Joshua Medrano of the Building Trades Council cautioned the supervisors from rushing to judgment based on less-than-stellar data. “Take a deep breath,” he told the supervisors. “Try not to have a knee-jerk reaction at this moment.”
