Elk Grove approves labor pact with building, construction trades for work on city projects
Elk Grove leaders approved a new labor agreement with local construction unions for work on major city projects that will prioritize hiring of Elk Grove and local workers.
The five-year Community Workforce and Training Agreement, or CWTA, with the building trades approved by Elk Grove City Council Wednesday sets ground rules for employment on construction projects.
Elk Grove and labor officials in the agreement said the pact would allow those projects to move forward without delays by locking skilled workers in place before shovels turn. The pact comes with a no-strike/no-lockout clause while prioritizing local hires and construction careers training for military veterans and underrepresented groups, according to the terms of the deal.
Backers say the agreement will also increase job site safety and the quality of crews’ completed work.
Contractors and their employees do not have to be part of a union. Non-union contractors can use as many as five of their core workers, the agreement states. The pact does not apply to private-sector projects.
Elk Grove leaders in a 3-1 vote Wednesday approved the pact. Councilman Kevin Spease voted against the agreement. Outgoing Councilman Patrick Hume abstained.
Elk Grove has a slate of 10 to 15 capital improvement projects on the docket over the length of the agreement with the Sacramento-Sierra Building and Construction Trades Council, the AFL-CIO and its member groups.
Those include site improvements to Elk Grove police headquarters on Laguna Palms Way and projects awaiting approval in 2023. The local trades council represents more than 15,000 union construction workers in the greater Sacramento region. In all, 19 unions signed on to the pact.
Elk Grove and labor groups have been in talks on the agreement for several years dating back to 2018, reaching an accord in September. Workforce development opportunities had been bandied about for years since 2013, said public works director Jeffrey Werner.
Elk Grove Councilwoman Stephanie Nguyen, who also leaves the council this year, recalled those 2013 talks as a leader of community organization Asian Resources.
“We’ve been trying to make this work,” Nguyen said before casting her yes vote. “It reminds me of (working in) those ZIP codes where we tried to get (residents) good-paying jobs. We supported the CWTAs then because we were able to give people good-paying jobs. It’s time.”
The pact also includes local hiring and recruiting targets for the city and trade unions:
▪ At least 50% of combined journey-level and apprentice hours are fulfilled by local workers with Elk Grove residents receiving top priority.
▪ Meet monthly-assessed goals for local hires.
▪ Compels unions to help create a plan to ensure that Elk Grove residents are recruited for apprentice-level jobs and that recruiting efforts reflect the city’s diversity and target unemployed and underemployed residents.
“We’re not just creating jobs but careers,” Elk Grove Mayor Bobbie Singh-Allen said in voting to approve the pact. “For us to be competitive, we must invest in our employees.”
Union workers packed Elk Grove council chambers in support of the agreement, going to the podium with stories of how a similar pact with the city of Sacramento with its prevailing wage guarantees and recruiting and training initiatives offered them careers close to home that lifted them into the middle class.
“We can’t tell you what this means (to us),” said Richard Bertacchi, president of Plumbers & Pipefitters Local 447. “It keeps money in our city.”
Non-union contractors and small business owners at the evening meeting said the labor pact excludes non-union skilled laborers and shrinks the pool of people that bid on city projects.
“This is blatant exclusion,” said Ian Vander Linden, a vice president at Roseville systems contractor KS Telecom and president of the Rancho Cordova-based Western Electrical Contractors Association. “You’re saying we can’t work in your city. I’m a small business owner. We’re all vested in our community. We’re skilled and trained. We pay prevailing wage rates. We have veterans. Veterans on the non-union side will be discriminated against.”
Representatives of industry groups including Northern California Building Industry Association said the union work agreement will lead to higher project and planning costs.
Spease, the council’s lone no vote, said he was seeking a more level playing field for non-union contractors.
He sought to lower the length of the labor agreement from five years to three, raise the agreement’s minimum project limit to $10 million, and allow non-union contractors to bid on city projects if a project fails to receive three bids in its initial round.
Other council members balked at provisions that contractors must contribute to unions’ benefit trust funds. That led to Hume’s rare abstention.
“There’s a lot in this agreement to support,” said Hume, who sat on the city’s ad hoc committee that helped negotiate the plan. “But the idea of (contractors) paying into pension plans is patently unfair. I’m not pro-union or anti-union. I’m pro-work. I can’t vote for it, but I don’t want to vote against it.”
But Councilman Darren Suen, the other member of the ad hoc committee, said the work is “an extension of the city.”
“When you have public sector work, I see that as an extension of the city. We take care of the employees doing that work,” Suen said. “You’re doing work for the city. It’s fair to expect benefits commensurate to that.”
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