The Santa Barbara City Council last week voted 6-1 to extend the Community Workforce Agreement between the City of Santa Barbara and the Tri Counties Building and Construction Trades Council by one year.
This pre-hiring bargaining agreement will encourage participation from construction workers and contractors between the Santa Barbara, Ventura and San Luis Obispo counties and the City of Santa Barbara.
This agreement satisfies the City of Santa Barbara Project Labor Agreement Ordinance that was adopted by City Council on Dec. 11, 2018. This specifies that any Public Works Department contract with an estimated budget of $5 million or greater requires a Project Labor Agreement to outline the terms for the hiring process, ensure proper work conditions as well as wages and benefits.
Council members Meagan Harmon and Mike Jordan spoke on the importance of this agreement and expressed interest in seeing data on participation from local laborers.
“In this age of AI where we’re talking so much about what the future of work will look like, I can say with certainty that Claude cannot replace the skilled tradespeople who are the backbone of our community, who are literally building our community,” said Harmon.
The agreement received one vote against it from Mayor Randy Rowse, who expressed concern for a lack of participation from local workers and contractors should this agreement bring in laborers from outside Santa Barbara.
“We’ve never precluded union labor, there’s never been a problem with that,” said Mayor Rowse. “We are looking for skilled labor, there’s no doubt about it. But I don’t think this is particularly the method by doing it. Having to hire somebody to actually manage this on the outside is not the way to do it.”
This agreement specifies provisions that will increase participation between the City of Santa Barbara and the Santa Barbara, Ventura, and San Luis Obispo counties, no work stoppages and an allowance for non-union contractors to participate with a limited number of core workers.
A Community Workforce Agreement is a pre-hiring bargaining agreement that usually outlines the hiring process of any given project and provides provisions like wages and benefits, allowances on the amount of contractors’ core workers and no-strike commitments.
The purpose of this extension is to allow the Public Works Department to negotiate minor changes to the agreement and for a longer agreement contract with the Tri Counties Council, while also collecting data on local laborer/contractor participation.
The current Community Workforce Agreement with the Tri Counties Building and Construction Trades Council was adopted on July 20, 2021, which is set to expire June 20.
The Tri Counties Building and Construction Trades Council has represented 24 craft unions in the Tri County area since 2005. They prioritize the improvement of construction workers’ health, safety as well as the economic conditions of their affiliates.
Since the agreement was adopted in 2021, it has overseen the completion of the Public Library’s $9.4 million Central Library Plaza project. The highest value contract currently under construction is the redevelopment of the Santa Barbara police station, bidded at $96 million.
Among the public commenters were Danny Zaragoza, secretary treasurer of the LiUNA Local 220 union, and Rich Nidary, a representative of the HVAC union, who each praised the agreement for its ability to produce local apprentices while also attracting sought after tradesmen to the county.
