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This report explores one potential benefit that sometimes emerges from the innovative bargaining structure of Project Labor Agreements (PLAs) —local hiring goals—through an assessment of projects developed by three public agencies in Los Angeles County: the Los Angeles Community College District (LACCD), the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD), and the City of Los Angeles. Although a local hiring provision is not a universal element of PLAs, it was a negotiated element in each of these agencies.
Our research and analysis included individual-level data for over 38,000 blue-collar construction workers on LAUSD and City of Los Angeles PLAs. From the LACCD we received aggregated data that described the district’s local hiring results on nine building projects. We also conducted interviews of officials, contractors, and workers involved in Los Angeles–area PLAs.
We focused our attention not on the negotiation process that generated PLAs with local hiring goals, but rather on the results. We asked these questions: In these PLAs, were local hiring goals reached? More specifically, did the PLAs increase the number of local hires and local apprenticeship hires for construction on the covered projects? We also asked subsidiary questions regarding whether larger or smaller contractors had an easier time meeting PLA goals: How were goals met throughout the lifecycle of a project? Did a contractor’s experience on one PLA project improve the firm’s local hiring performance on other projects under the PLA? Did the contractor have more difficulty meeting local hiring goals when a project was fast-tracked (as measured by the amount of overtime on the project)? Who was more likely to be a local worker—an apprentice, a journeyworker, or a foreman? How did the size of a contractor affect its ability to meet local hiring goals?
The California Construction Academy launched July 18–19, 2008, at the UCLA Downtown Labor Center. The focus of the conference was on local hire and project labor agreements (PLAs), and the impact of “green” jobs on the construction industry. Both are key topics that will impact the construction industry in the coming years.
Academy Director David Sickler opened the conference along with Robert Balgenorth, director of the State Building and Construction Trades Council, and Kent Wong, director of the UCLA Labor Center. María Elena Durazo of the L.A. County Federation of Labor provided the opening for the second day.
The opening panel focused on the new Construction Careers Policy adopted by the Community Redevelopment Agency of the City of Los Angeles (CRA/LA), and featured Deputy Mayor Larry Frank, Cecilia Estolano and Board Member Madeline Janis from the CRA/LA, and Richard Slawson from the L.A./Orange County Building Trades Council. The Construction Careers Policy requires that contractors on most CRA-subsidized projects hire more local and “at risk” residents from the communities in which the projects are being built and comply with a PLA that ensures more jobs on these projects are middle-class, union jobs
The second day focused on “green” jobs and was led by a panel with Robert Balgenorth, Tim Rainey from the California Federation of Labor, Jonathan Parfrey from Green L.A., and green contractor Ed Smeloff. A special workshop addressed the impact of California Assembly Bill 32, the Global Warming Solutions Act, which addresses greenhouse gas emissions.
For more information on the California Construction Academy, contact David Sickler at ddavidsickler8@aol.com or 213-480-4155, x218.
This year’s UCLA Community Scholars class is focused on policy initiatives that use the construction industry as a workforce development strategy to provide economic opportunity for Los Angeles’s low-income communities. This year’s scholars include representatives from key building trades unions, such as the ironworkers, painters, electrical workers, and pipe trades, as well as from community organizations in South Los Angeles who are doing cutting edge work in this area. There are also scholars from the City of Los Angeles and Los Angeles Unified School District as well as UCLA Urban Planning graduate students.
The construction industry is ripe for change. A building boom and an aging construction industry workforce has created a high demand for new, trained workers. The City’s redevelopment agency and other City departments are considering policies that would require large, subsidized projects to implement local hiring, project labor agreements, and worker education and training strategies. And job development in low-income communities is a key goal of Mayor Villaraigosa’s administration.
The Community Scholars have heard from panelists such as Dan Flaming of the Economic Round Table, Deputy Mayor Larry Frank, Workforce Investment Board member Teresa Sanchez, NDLON Executive Director Pablo Alvarado, and experts like contractors, apprenticeship coordinators, and apprentices themselves.
The class will culminate in a report to the mayor and other elected officials that makes recommendations and explains the history and debate around project labor agreements, local hire agreements, and the costs and social benefits of each.
Read the CRA Report Helping LA Grow Together: Why the Community Redevelopment Agency Should Adopt the Construction Careers Policy.
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