In an effort to hire more community members for large construction projects and set terms and conditions for project owners, the Santa Barbara County Board of Supervisors voted 3-2 (with 4th District Supervisor Bob Nelson and 5th District Supervisor Steve Lavagnino dissenting) to pass a Countywide community workforce agreement during a Dec. 2 special meeting.
Conversations for the labor agreement began in 2014, and in 2019, the supervisors directed staff to work with union representative Tri-Counties Building and Construction Trades Council to create a draft community workforce agreement (CWA) on public construction projects.
Staff proposed a five-year agreement for county public projects worth $10 million or more, and it will ensure local hiring, improve trades training, provide apprenticeship opportunities, help resolve disputes, and help the projects be delivered on time, the board letter said.
Within the agreement, nonunion contractors are also required to hire a certain number of union employees, which brought concerns of hiring equality that nonunion organization representatives discussed during public comment.
“This is a carefully collaborated agreement, and the community workforce agreement is a strategy to promote local hire,” 3rd District Supervisor Joan Hartmann said. “I’m confident with an annual review we will have a chance to look at this, [and] with a five-year lifetime on this, we can reconsider. I think it will be a great success.”
As a midsize county, Santa Barbara often goes out of county for complex projects, and this will help keep hiring within the community, Hartmann said.
Pamela Shaw, the Association of Builders and Contractors’ Engagement Officer, said that the agreement will hurt a majority of the county’s skilled nonunion professionals and they’ll be “shut out from their own backyard.”
“For years, you’ve operated with a construction bidding policy that ensures a fair playing field, regardless of labor affiliation, and delivered the quality workmanship our county could count on,” Shaw said. “Please do not limit the opportunities for local skilled and trained construction professionals who want to build your communities. Please do not pass this CWA.”
More than 80 percent of local contractors within the tri-counties area (spanning from Ventura to SLO County) are nonunion, and this agreement could reduce the number of bidders for future projects, making construction costs more expensive. Although the board letter said that the agreement mitigates the concern, 5th District Supervisor Lavagnino agreed with Shaw.
He said the county already has outstanding work quality and it doesn’t differentiate between union and nonunion workers, and he doesn’t see the need to change this now when limiting the competition could increase costs for taxpayers.
“It may help strife on large projects, but I’m not convinced it will outweigh the possible liabilities we’re going to have. I don’t have any compelling reasons to change the playing field,” Lavagnino said. “I’m not going to be able to support it, but I think both sides play an invaluable role in our community, and I hope that it will allow us to do business the way we’re doing it now.”
Fourth District Supervisor Nelson said he also wouldn’t be comfortable supporting a five-year agreement because he’s not sure local labor will come from the CWA.
Although there are unprecedented challenges the county could face, the agreement could be a learning experience and help the county move forward, 2nd District Supervisor Gregg Hart countered.
“The time is right for us to take this action. We have been considering this policy since 2014 and I think we should all be proud of the work that’s gone on,” the supervisor said at his last meeting before becoming a state Assembly member. “I’m looking forward with open eyes and a spirit of optimism.”
This article appears in Dec 8-15, 2022.