UPDATE: Letter from Coalition for Fair Employment in Construction to Fresno Unified School District Board and Top Administrators

From: ericchristen 
To: xxxxx
Cc: xxxxx
Date: February 25, 2020 at 12:29 PM 
Subject: Why is your union Project Labor Agreement (PLA) being hidden from the public? 

Fresno Unified School Board Members,

At you board meeting tomorrow you will be voting on a “negotiated” Project Labor Agreement (PLA) for the Herrera Elementary School project. Question: Why isn’t the PLA publicly available online for the general public to review it? While I assume it is because it’s just a generic PLA that openly discriminates against union-free contractors, employees and apprentices it is nevertheless shocking that you are keeping it hidden.

I am formally requesting the PLA be sent to me electronically so that we have time to review it before tomorrow’s meeting. This item will impact how millions of dollars will be spent and while I would like to think the media was doing its job by asking for this I need to make sure that it is requested before big labor special interests are handed a monopoly.

I look forward to your prompt response.

Eric Christen
Executive Director
Coalition for Fair Employment in Construction
www.opencompca.com

Tomorrow (February 26, 2020) the Fresno Unified School District elected board of trustees will vote to require companies to sign a Project Labor Agreement with unions as a condition of working on the Juan Felipe Herrera Elementary School Project. See these links:

February 26, 2020 Fresno Unified School District Meeting Agenda Packet, on Fresno Unified School District board of trustees website

Project Labor Agreement Staff Report, Presentation, and MOU for Agenda Items B-11 and B-12, extracted from agenda packet

Project Labor Agreement for Herrera Elementary School, obtained from the school district

Material in the board's meeting agenda packet includes a staff report and slide presentation about the Project Labor Agreement and a Memorandum of Understanding, but not the Project Labor Agreement itself. This union agreement must be obtained directly from the school district's administrative office.

It is routine nowadays for local governments to withhold copies of the actual Project Labor Agreements and other background information from the public when these union-backed items come up for votes. Since the beginning of 2019, the Coalition for Fair Employment in Construction has identified a lack of public transparency for Project Labor Agreements considered by these elected boards:

1. Sacramento Municipal Utility District Board of Directors
   
2. San Joaquin-Delta Community College District Board of Trustees (based in Stockton)
   
3. Fresno City Council
   
4. Central Unified School District Board of Trustees (based in Fresno)
   
5. Coachella Valley Unified School District Board of Education (Riverside and Imperial Counties)
   
6. Vista Unified School District Board of Education (North County - San Diego)
   

Now the Fresno Unified School District board becomes the third governing board in Fresno County since January 1, 2019 to hinder the public's ability to obtain background information and/or evaluate the Project Labor Agreement. Obviously this strategy has been deliberately engineered by union lobbyists.