Sacramento Entities Controlled by Big Labor Special Interests Are Denying Workers the Right to Work and UC Davis is Enabling this Bigotry by Placing Union-Only Project Labor Agreements (PLAs) on Major UCD Projects

For Immediate Release 
May 25, 2022
Contact: Eric Christen, 858-431-6337

May 25, 2022 – SACRAMENTO, CA – With UC Davis’ $1.2 billion Aggie Square union-only Project Labor Agreement (PLA) the latest example of construction union greed in the region, a coalition of contractors, apprentices and associations are coming together to re-establish equity and fairness in the UC Davis construction process.

US Davis has now placed their Sacramento Ambulatory project (SASC) and Tower Project under PLAs, totaling more than $4 billion in work.

These PLAs, “negotiated” by local union bosses, make it impossible for union-free construction workers and apprentices to be employed on any of the projects covered by them which means that the 86% of the local construction workforce that is union-free does not have the ability to work on these projects. 

“Usually, local big labor special interests use their bought and paid for politicians to lock up work for themselves under a monopoly PLA thereby discriminating against local workers and raising costs to tax and rate payers,” said Eric Christen, Executive Director of the Coalition for Fair Employment in construction (CFEC), a Sacramento based statewide organization created to fight PLAs.

“But now they are pressuring the UC Regents to do their dirty work for them on taxpayer funded UC projects. This bigotry leads to higher costs for the University and thus the taxpayer. On the Sacramento Ambulatory project, the only non-union electrical bidder dropped out because of the PLA and that project bid was left with ONE union bid that was 20% higher than the non-union bid. This is insane.”

CFEC is being joined by Californians for Construction Equality and the Black Contractors Association (BCA). The BCA is a California based entity that has the Country’s only certified black apprentice program. BCA’s President and Founder Abdur-Rahim Hameed had this to say about UC Davis’ PLAs:

“A UC system that already vastly underrepresents people of color is now engaged in making it harder for them to get work in the construction of their projects? This is outrageous. PLAs are written by and for labor unions, unions that represent less than 20% of the industry in California. What are the Regents thinking when they reward this group with a monopoly instead of helping give all the people of California a chance? Under PLAs our state and federally approved apprentices cannot work, period. They are explicitly forbidden under the PLA. We will be asking to meet with the Regents about this issue so they can see the error of their ways.”

The group will announce its intent to fight back using a variety of tactics including but not limited to suing the UC Davis and engaging in a public relations effort that seeks to educate the region about what UC Davis is doing in their name.