Local contractors fill City Hall to condemn ‘anti-competitive’ proposal
By Charles Douglas
Humboldt Sentinel
Local union rep Sid Berg may have bitten off more than he could chew in trying to push a re-write of Arcata city policy to favor apprenticeship training run primarily by organized labor.
An overflow crowd in Council Chambers tonight held back little in expressing their anger at the potential loss of city public works contracts for local building firms, most of whom would not qualify under the draft regulations.
“This proposal will tip the scales heavily in favor of union contractors,” Humboldt Builders Exchange spokesperson Rob McBeth said. “It’s very discriminatory to small sole proprietor businesses…in this time of tight budgets and scarce resources, why would you want to reduce competition?”
A staff report by city manager Randy Mendosa essentially concurred with this analysis, stating that the proposed Project Labor Agreement would take local firms out of the process to bid on City construction contracts, opening the door to out-of-area companies large enough to maintain a cadre of union-approved apprentices.
Berg, the business representative for Plumbers and Steamfitters Local 290, took issue right off the bat with the tone of Mendosa’s report, claiming it wasn’t a union issue, but one of job training. He claimed to have taken 90% of the proposal from boilerplate language available on the California Division of Apprenticeship Standards’ website.
“The state’s broke, they don’t have the money for enforcement, that’s why very few contractors are using apprentices,” Berg said. “That’s why we’re bringing this to the city, for local enforcement.”
Under the proposal, 60% of the workforce on any City building contract would have to be graduates from a state certified apprenticeship program. Thing is, for a program to be state certified, it goes through a cumbersome process that critics claim to be discriminatory against non-union shops. That, and the prospect of Arcata adding another layer of bureaucratic oversight over contractors by burdening with new reporting requirements, effectively killed the idea.
“It’s not the city’s responsibility to get that stuff, it’s the responsibility of the contractor to notify the apprenticeship programs that they need people for their jobs,” city purchasing agent Harold Miller said. “We don’t want to get in between the contractor and the apprenticeship program.”
Heavy hitters from Mercer-Fraser, Wendt Construction, Danco Builders, Kernan Construction, and more turned out to hammer the same pro-local, anti-paperwork message home; they were even joined by Sue Long from the Fortuna City Council.
Les Charter of Arcata-based O & M Industries, which had the greatest turnout of the evening, summed up the feelings of many: “One of the things that makes Humboldt County unique is coming up with a small contractor, you learn how to do everything…if you mandate that workers have to go through a union-accredited or state-accredited union program, they can’t do more than one thing…I’m not anti-union but I’m pro-choice.”
Councilmember Shane Brinton, possibly due to participating via teleconference from a vacation in his girlfriend’s home state of New Mexico, was the only one apparently deaf to the public outcry, insisting that the Council move forward on the scheme.
He made no fewer than five motions, albeit as a disembodied voice through a black speaker box in front of his normal seat at the Council dais, attempting to direct a rehearing of Berg’s original proposal after some retooling. Brinton’s first motion, to form a committee with Berg, city staff and local builders to revise the policy language, was seconded by Mayor Michael Winkler, but failed 2-2, with Councilmembers Susan Ornelas and Alex Stillman opposed and Councilmember Mark Wheetley absent.
Brinton’s next few motions, all variations on the original, all failed for lack of a second, and the Council eventually moved forward 4-0 on a “feel good” statement which supported the training of apprentices to state and federal standards, while ditching Berg’s entire plan.
Support local job training by wiping out local firms. Insane!