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HomeMy WebLinkAbout4A Public CommentAnthony Mejia From: Sent: To: Subject: Elmer Diaz <e1mer@ibew440.org> Thursday, May 27, 2021 6:09 PM City Clerk Item 4A public Comment NOTICE: This message originated outside of The City of Palm Springs --DO NOT CLICK on links or open attachments unless you are sure the content is safe. Good evening Mayor Holstege & council-members my name is Elmer Diaz I am a resident of Cathedral City which would be included in the tiered hiring system of a community benefits agreement. By adopting a CBA you will ensure that Palm Springs And Coachella Valley residents have an opportunity to build local area projects and receive accredited training for their respective crafts. You will also ensure that all projects get done on schedule & under budget. No more expensive change orders or half finished luxury hotels to look at. A CBA would mitigate a lot of the exploits found in construction industry, protecting both the customer and local resident-employees. I work as an organizer for the electrical industry in the Coachella Valley. One of my tasks is to visit jobsites both private and public works to establish relationships with individuals mostly electricians and contractors. Often on my job site visits in Palm Springs I find that local electrical contractors do not enforce the state law requirement of having all their electricians registered with the state as either a trainee indentured apprentice or journeyman. By adopting a CBA in Palm Springs you can ensure that local residents will be receiving accredited training and certification from their employers through accountability that can be found in a community benefits agreement. A CBA will ensure that all stakeholders have a level playing field and all contractors are following state law and accountability for when they don't. It will ensure that both the customer and the workers aren't taken advantage of by contractors that thrive under no accountability. Many anti-union organizations will claim how fringe benefits will be lost by workers. How pensions and retirement accounts won't be accessible. These are lies and not fact. Under federal law to claim a lifetime benefit from a pension, ANY pension, you must vest for 5 years before claiming that benefit at the appropriate age. No money is lost and the worker is made whole by receding a dignified retirement. These accounts have oversight and accountability so the opportunity for contractors to steal or cheat from the workers wages greatly diminish. I Urge the city Council to adopt a CBA with the local area building trades which will create a robust local economy and a resilient skilled trades community in the city of Palm Springs. Thank you all for your time, Elmer Diaz IBEW Local 440 Organizer & California state certified electrician #165500 Elmer Diaz I.B.E.W. Local Union 440 Organizer/Business Development Cell: 951-312-4135 Office: 951-684-5665 39615 Washington St. Suite G Palm Desert, CA 92211 1 ., 1-i.1 li-1 ffl!MNO. '\\I\ ?1.1blu Oiimun Anthony Mejia From: Sent: Olivia Seideman <oseideman@leadershipcounsel.org> Thursday, May 27, 2021 4:55 PM To: City Clerk Subject: Public Comment in Support of AB 339 -City Council Meeting 5/27/21 NOTICE: This message originated outside of The City of Palm Springs --DO NOT CLICK on links or open attachments unless you are sure the content is safe. Good afternoon, My name is Olivia Seideman, Civic Engagement Coordinator at Leadership Counsel for Justice and Accountability, a co- sponsor of Assembly Bill 339. I would like to thank the Palm Springs City Council for agendizing the letter of support for AB 339, and I would like to urge the Palm Springs City Council to sign onto a letter of support for AB 339 and for expanded access to remote public participation for all Californians. Thank you, Olivia Seideman Olivia Seideman (she/her) Civic Engagement Coordinator Leadership Counsel for Justice and Accountability 2210 San Joaquin St, Fresno, CA 93721 oseideman@leadershipcounsel.org I leadershipcounsel.org 559.570.5607 ext. 120 (o) I 510.410.0151 (c) 1 May 27, 2021 Palm Springs City Council 3200 E. Tahquitz Canyon Way Palm Springs, CA 92262 §, ~BC Southern . California RE: Community Workforce Agreement must take local workers and apprentices into consideration Dear Mayor and City Council: We have reviewed the staff report on item 4B, and we are appreciative of the efforts by the Council and City staff to take our concerns into consideration. On behalf of our member companies, their employees, and our apprentices we are asking your Council to allow local businesses to be excluded from the CW A, allow local workers and apprentices to work regardless of labor affiliation, and not require payment for benefits a worker will never qualify to use. All local workers, regardless of labor affiliation, should be allowed to work on city jobs. In the current form the CW A does not allow our local contractors to utilize their workforce. Specifically, it would require a local Core Worker to sit home in favor of one that is dispatched from the union hall. There is no guarantee that the union will dispatch a local resident to the job site. Apprenticeship is a gateway to prosperity for many, and we encourage your council to allow all apprenticeship programs to participate on city jobs. Enrolling in an apprenticeship program can be complicated and requires a serious commitment from the workers. Many of the union programs have waiting lists. This means that despite the promises that local residents will be recruited into programs they may have to wait years to be admitted. Apprentices also have to make a commitment for multiple years before they complete the program. A rising tide raises all ships, and all State Approved Apprenticeship programs should be allowed to participate. By including all programs, you ensure the benefits of apprenticeship are open to all and provide multiple pathways when they encounter a waiting list. Last, we encourage your council to allow contractors to pay into their employees existing health and retirement plans. The staff report clearly identifies the problems created by the language in the proposed CW A. Simply put, a non-union worker shouldn't be forced to pay into union plans they will likely never qualify to utilize. In closing, we urge your council to hold firm on the revisions you have requested to the CW A or do not enter into a CW A. Afterall there is no requirement that the city enter into a CW A. Yet if you do, local workers shouldn't be harmed by the CW A implementation. President / CEO '7/Z1/~zr 111 'Pub/,~ tmfl'lfA f ITEM NO. __ J_v. __ _ Associated Builders and Contractors Southern California Chapter 1400 North Kellogg Drive, Suite A, Anaheim I CA 928071 O (714) 779-3199 IF (714) 779-31931 www.abcsocal.org M P R E 107 4 East La Cadena Drive, Suite 1 • Riverside, CA 92507 Ph (909) 825-7871 • FAX (909) 825-0110 . E-mail: ielc@ielabor.org • Website: www.ielabor.org !>~- RICARDO CISNEROS Execvtive Secretory• Treasurer 5/26/2021 Honorable Mayor Holstege and Members of the Council, On behalf of the 298,000 affiliates/members and 1,252 voting Union Households in the Sectors of Private, Public & Building Trades the Inland Empire Labor Council, AFL-CIO represents in the City of Palm Springs and the region, I am writing to express our support for Item 3A, Labor Peace Agreement (LPA). I strongly urge the Council to adopt this LPA with the conditions as agreed with UFCW 1167 and the Cannabis Industry this evening. By entering into the CWA, there will be direct economic benefits and opportunities for the City's residents. Sometimes, it takes a lot of courage to do the right thing politicaly on behalf of workers. Labor and the community are proud of this Council for acknowledging the need of a Labor Peace Agreement. Currently the State of califomia requires all cannabis employers with (20) or more employees to enter into a Labor Peace Agreement (LPA). UFCW 1167 has worked with different municipalities to lower this threshold so that more workers have a voice on the job. An LPA gives employees the choice to have representation in their workplace, or not to have representation without the fear of intimidation by the employer. An LPA helps create a neutral environment and process that allows workers to decide what is right for them and their coworkers. LPA's help create true partneship between employers, workers and UFCW 1167. For this reason, we urge the City Council to vote the approval of Item 3A as written this evening, establishing an LPA requiring that employers with five (5) or more employees enter into an LPA will result in a more stable and prosperous industry. This will also increase the opportunity for good sustainable wage jobs, benefits and training opportunities for these workers. Thank you for your time and consideration. We count on your support. Sincerely, Executive Secretary Treasurer Inland Empire Labor Council AFL-CIO 1•t I N L A N D E M P I R E AFL·CIO lllll CIUlca ~ WE A R E 0 NE MOVEMENT 1074 East La Cadena Drive, Suite 1 • Riverside, CA 92507 Ph (909) 825-7871 • FAX (909) 825-0110 E-mail : ielc@ielabor.org • Website: www.ielabor.org RICARDO CISNEROS Executive Secretary-Treasurer 5/24/2021 Honorable Mayor Holstege and Members of the Council, On behalf of the 298,000 affiliates/members and 1,252 voting Union Households in the Sectors of Private, Public & Building Trades the Inland Empire Labor Council, AFL-CIO represents in the City of Palm Springs and the region, I am writing to express our support for Item 4A, "Community Workforce Agreement". I strongly urge the Council to adopt this CWA with the conditions as agreed with the Building and Construction Trades Council, AFL-CIO this evening. By entering into the CWA, there will be direct/indirect economic benefits to the community with the provisions for local hire. In addition, the education and workforce training for the City's residents and veterans will alow increased economic prosperity and opportunities for the City's residents and veterans. Sometimes, it takes a lot of courage to do the right thing politicaly on behalf of workers. Labor and the community are proud of this Council for acknowledging the need of a community workforce agreement to help build back our economy for the future, not just for the City of Palm Springs but the Region as a whole. Like the decision of Hero Pay in the City of Palm Springs is good for the working class, the CWA is also a good decision for you to make on behalf of all current & future construction workers in this area. A CWA provides the City of Palm Springs the ability to bring new jobs and career possibilities to the community. Apprenticeship training opportunities would be made available to local residents with good jobs and benefits to help sustain households in the City of Palm Springs. For this reason, we urge the City Council to vote the approval of Item 4A this evening, establishing a Community Workforce Agreement as agreed by the San Bernardino/ Riverside Counties Building Trades Council with the conditions the Building Trades Council has agreed to and no additional changes or exemptions as presented in the Staff Report. We have one shot to get it right and this opportunity is in front of you right now, we count on your support. Sincerely, Ricardo Cisneros Executive Secretary Treasurer Inland Empire Labor Council AFL-CIO JTEMNO. 1z-,(4 41-l-/itlL {Ym~ f- Hello Honorable Mayor Holstege and City Council My name is Russell Cordell. I am an electrician and have worked throughout Riverside County for 41 years. As a resident of Palm Springs for 21 years, I urge the City Council to vote the approval ofltem 4A this evening, establishing a community workforce agreement as agreed by the San Bernardino/Riverside County building trades council, with the conditions the building trades council has agreed to and no additional changes or exemptions. A Community Workforce Agreement is so much more than just local hire language. It is a commitment from city leadership to create opportunity for the communities they represent. Opportunities for: women, LGBTQ, minorities, at risk youth and previously incarcerated individuals. Opportunities for all of these individuals that include: nondiscrimination in referrals, employment and contracting, regardless of race, gender, sex, age, sexual orientation, political affiliation or membership in a labor organization. These opportunities are backed by: equality for wages, benefits, working conditions, hiring, career advancement, training and union representation for all. By creating exemptions for local contractors, you are allowing local contractors to profit from your communities tax dollars without the commitment of creating these opportunities. Equitable opportunities do not have exemptions for a select few. I urge the City Council to vote the approval ofltem 4A this evening establishing a community workforce agreement as agreed by the San Bernardino Riverside County building trade councils with the conditions the building trade council has agreed to and no additional changes or exemptions. Thank you for your time and commitment to creating equitable opportunity for Palm Springs. Sincerely, Russell Cordell ------------- '?JI tl 1 /'<)\ ITEM NO. 4 ~ ~ w\, \A(; L CUM~' Hello Honorable Mayor Holstege and City Council My name is James Ingles. I am an electrician and have worked throughout Riverside County for 35 years. As a resident of Palm Springs for 49 years, I urge the City Council to vote the approval ofltem 4A this evening, establishing a community workforce agreement as agreed by the San Bernardino/Riverside County building trades council, with the conditions the building trades council has agreed to and no additional changes or exemptions. A Community Workforce Agreement is so much more than just local hire language. It is a commitment from city leadership to create opportunity for the communities they represent. Opportunities for: women, LGBTQ, minorities, at risk youth and previously incarcerated individuals. Opportunities for all of these individuals that include: nondiscrimination in referrals, employment and contracting, regardless of race, gender, sex, age, sexual orientation, political affiliation or membership in a labor organization. These opportunities are backed by: equality for wages, benefits, working conditions, hiring, career advancement, training and union representation for all. By creating exemptions for local contractors, you are allowing local contractors to profit from your communities tax dollars without the commitment of creating these opportunities. Equitable opportunities do not have exemptions for a select few. I urge the City Council to vote the approval ofltem 4A this evening establishing a community workforce agreement as agreed by the San Bernardino Riverside County building trade councils with the conditions the building trade council has agreed to and no additional changes or exemptions. Thank you for your time and commitment to creating equitable opportunity for Palm Springs. Sincerely, J arnes T. Ingles ITEMNO. i5)i1lr\ ~~ f'A¼~~ (¼wYI'~ Painters & Allied Trades District Council 36 Luis F. Robles Business Manager DRYWALL FINISHERS, FLOORLAYERS, GLAZIERS, PAINTERS, TRADESHOW & SIGNCRAFT Mayor Holstege and Members of the City Council, On behalf of the Painters & Allied Trades District Council 36, we are urging support of the approval of the Community Workforce Agreement (CWA) for the city of Palm Springs under the Inland Empire Building & Construction Trades Council's FINAL VERSION. This CWA will provide for thousands of high skilled, middle class construction career opportunities for hard working men and women in Palm Springs and the region. It will also provide veterans hire priorities allowing them to be rewarded for their service by earning good wages and benefits with our Helmets to Hardhats program. These goals will be achieved through this Community Workforce Agreement with the Inland Empire Building & Construction Trades Council. We expect the CWA will also provide for increased Housing, including 15% of affordable units. Furthermore, it also will provide the City with additional Park and Open Space for the local residents. We also expect the CWA will provide commercial space for retailers, restaurants, and hotels, which shall provide revenue that will feed into the region's economy including revenue for the City's General Fund. Again, we strongly urge the City Council to approve this Historic Community Workforce Agreement with the Inland Empire Building & Construction Trades. Thank you for your hard work and service. Respectfully, Luis F. Robles Business Manager District Council 36 1155 Corporate Center Dr ive , Monterey Park, CA 91754 TEL: (626) 584-9925 s/a1/~1 ITBMN0.4~ ]1A~fA~ Cl;w,rntivtr FAX: (626) 584 -1949 Joe Duffie President May 26, 2021 United Food and Commercial Workers Union Honorable Mayor Holstege and Members of the Council, Matt Bruno Secretary-Treasurer I am writing to express our support for Item 4A on the agenda for the City Council Meeting on May 27, 2021, a Community Workforce Agreement by and between the City of Palm Springs and the San Bernardino/ Riverside Counties Building and Construction Trades Council, AFL- CIO and the signatory Craft Councils and Unions. UFCW Local 1167 fully supports the Community Workforce Agreement (CW A) with the conditions the Building Trades Council has agreed to. A CW A provides the City of Palm Springs the ability to bring in new jobs and career possibilities to the community. Apprenticeship training opportunities would be made available to local residents, including women, the LGBTQ+ community, veterans, under/unemployed residents, at-risk youth, and previously incarcerated individuals. These historically underserved groups of workers deserve the ability to have access to good paying jobs that offer equality for wages, benefits and safe working conditions. A CWA in Palm Springs is especially important for workers and the community as we move forward from the devastating effects of the COVID- 19 crisis. For these reasons, we urge the City Council to vote to approve Item 4A, establishing a Community Workforce Agreement as agreed by the San Bernardino/ Riverside Counties Building Trades Council with no additional changes or exemptions as presented in the Staff Report. Since:n J ':~uffie, Pf;;;; utf~ Local I 167 JWD:kf 855 West San Bernardino Avenue• P.O. Box 1167. Bloomington, CA 92316 ------ Business Office: (909) 877-5000 • Toll Free : (800) 698-UFCW • (Mon. -Fri. 8:30 a.m. -4 p.m.) Insurance: Food and Meat (909) 877-111 O • Drug and General Sales (909) 877-2331 ...... u From:Anthony Mejia To:City Council Cc:Monique Lomeli; Cindy Cairns; Shari Wrona; Llubi Rios; Justin Clifton Subject:05/27 Item 4A, Community Workforce Agreements Date:Thursday, May 27, 2021 4:03:00 PM Attachments:Belongie_Silverman_2018.pdf Belman_Bodah_2010.pdf Figueroa_et_al_2010.pdf Herrera_et_al_2014.pdf Nugent_2017.pdf Zabin_MacGillvary_2020.pdf Tesfai_2020.pdf Philips_Waitzman_2020.pdf Mayor and City Council: This agenda correspondence will be included in the next batch. However, I am forwarding this email directly so you can obtain the electronic attachments. If you’d like a hard copy, please let me know. Anthony J. Mejia, MMC City Clerk From: Jovanna Rosen <jovanna.rosen@rutgers.edu> Sent: Thursday, May 27, 2021 3:29 PM To: Christy Holstege <Christy.Holstege@palmspringsca.gov> Subject: community workforce agreements NOTICE: This message originated outside of The City of Palm Springs -- DO NOT CLICK on links or open attachments unless you are sure the content is safe. Hi Christie, Here are some resources on community workforce agreements (sometimes called project labor agreements, sometimes part of a community benefits agreement, depending). I’m not sure how much you know about all of this so some of this might be basic information for you. It’s really important to consider sources here—union density in the construction industry (the share of total construction jobs that are union) has declined dramatically since the 1950s/60s—something like a decline from about 50% to about 14% of the total industry. The Bureau of Labor Statistics has exact figures. There’s so much money at stake here that the nonunion construction firms have supported the rise of a major lobbying force that has helped effectively secure executive orders to prevent PLAs on federal projects (both Bush presidents and Trump, as I recall; repealed by Clinton and Obama, and I haven’t checked for Biden). One of their strategies is to put out a lot of material talking about how terrible/inefficient/costly PLAs are. I say this to let you know that the website TheTruthAboutPLAs and other conservative sources are not independent nor, from my view, reliable, due to their ties with nonunion lobbying. I also think it’s important for you to know this because this history is (from my view) a major reason driving unions to pursue community workforce provisions—since it helps them to secure more union work. So there’s a lot of politicization, power, and money at play here. But potential coalitions, too. Like I said, there’s a good comparison priority hire ordinance enacted by the City of Seattle a few years ago for city projects over $5 million. But, of course, there are regional cost differences at play here (mostly land and labor cost), which might make $5 million in Seattle somewhat comparable to $1 million in Palm Springs. I don’t know the exact threshold, but certainly a $5 million cost threshold in Palm Springs would trigger far fewer projects than in Seattle. There’s also one in Portland (https://www.portland.gov/omf/brfs/procurement/social-equity-contracting) though I am not very familiar with this policy. I’m not aware of others at the municipal level, but if you learn of any, please let me know. Most policies are more narrowly targeted school districts, ports, transportation agencies, etc. The biggest concern I’ve seen about moving targeted hire from ad hoc agreements to broader policies is that they get more politicized, and therefore there’s a huge risk that the policy gets watered down to lower hiring requirements overall (as unions have argued happened in Seattle). I don't think that means you don’t do enact benefits policies at the municipal level— incremental changes at scale can create meaningful improvement and there’s an expertise gained and a level of resources that you can dedicate to enforcement, etc. when you increase the scale. Just something to consider. But this is pretty cutting-edge community development work, from my perspective, and I haven’t seen any good research on this besides the Belongie & Silverman article. The Partnership for Working Families has been really integral to getting these agreements passed nationwide, so they have some resources on their website (https://www.forworkingfamilies.org/page/policy-tools-community-workforce-agreements) and it’s worth reaching out to them, I think. The closest affiliate organization in LAANE, in Los Angeles, an organization that was instrumental in the first CBAs and the PLAs at Metro, the port, and maybe the LAUSD PLA. Folks at Metro might be helpful and responsive, too—though a transportation agency policy is less comparable for you than the Seattle and Portland municipality-level policy. My work (a book that’s hopefully coming out next year) has focused on what happens after the agreement gets passed, which seems less relevant to the stage you’re at now, but worth thinking about in anticipation. I argue that after the agreement gets passed, developers and unions frequently still work to avoid the agreement, successfully finding ways to get around the community workforce provisions. As a result, it’s really important to include enforceable clawbacks, enforcement and oversight provisions in the contract, and to think through potential loopholes. For example, an agreement might be written to only cover on-site work, so developers might move a lot of work off-site, using modular construction methods, enabling them to avoid hiring and wage requirements for much of the project work. Your legal background will be invaluable here. Beyond these contractual provisions, it’s important to foster good working relationships with unions, developers and (sub)contractors, to help effectively direct workers and create functioning pipelines, since targeted hire is really complex and a huge coordination effort. Partnerships with community colleges could help, too. If you get that far, let me know and we can chat further. Hope this all helps! Let me know if I can provide any additional insight or resources, or if you have more specific questions. And, of course, hope you’re doing well. Jovanna