Project Stabilization Agreement’s Have Been Extended to all Prop S Projects in the SD Unified School District

Back in December the San Diego Daily Transcript released an article about the extension of the project labor agreements to all Prop S projects in the San Diego Unified School District.  In the article, Carlos Rico discusses how the district board of education voted unanimously to extend the Project Stabilization Agreement (PSA) to the entire Proposition S construction bond projects.  The board indicated that its vote to extend the PSA was due to an independent study that said projects utilizing the PSA were meeting local hiring goals.  The independent study also found that there was no project cost change between PSA and non-PSA projects, the number of bidders was lower and that, on average, the projects completed faster on PSA projects.

So what does all of this information mean for you?

If you are a union contractor, this is great news for you.  San Diego Unified School District has essentially eliminated competition from non-union contractors by ensuring that only union employees receiving union benefits can be employed on these projects.  Any non-union contractors who do decide to bid on these projects would still have to hire employees through the union hiring halls, so either way the union receives the benefits.

If you are a non-union contractor this may bring some complications to your life. Any contractor who is working on a San Diego Unified School District project that is funded by Prop S must sign a project labor agreement, pay into union dues, union health care, pension and other union benefits.  It also means that a majority of employees must be hired from union hiring halls, meaning that any non-union employer with his own crew of employees will not be allowed to staff his own job with his own employees.  He must, instead, hire employees through the union hiring hall.

Union contractors believe that project labor agreements will bring job security and stability to these projects. Non-union contractors feel that these project labor agreements hog-tie those contractors who have worked on San Diego Unified School District projects for years.  Soon the freedom that non-union contractors have enjoyed for many years may be a fleeting memory of the past.