In 2002, the Antioch City Council voted for a resolution opposing government mandates for construction companies to sign Project Labor Agreements with unions as a condition of winning a city contract.

Times have changed in Antioch (just like in California as a whole). At an Antioch City Council meeting on June 12, 2018, Councilmember Lamar Thorpe literally ripped a paper copy of this 2002 resolution down the middle during the discussion of the Project Labor Agreement for the Brackish Water Desalination Plant.

Symbolizing contempt for outdated ideologies of economic and personal freedom and individualism, the ripping paper was clearly audible to viewers as a warning to those who cling to old ways of thinking. The future of California is a mandatory collective workforce in a confrontational relationship with company owners and their appointed managers. Government-mandated prevailing wage for each trade on public works construction projects is not enough. Government-mandated union representation is imperative.

The city council voted in the end to require contractors to sign a Project Labor Agreement, perhaps to ensure state funding for the project and to avoid objections from unions to environmental review. Now the city council is finishing up the transition with an item on the October 22, 2019 meeting agenda to "discuss and provide direction to staff regarding Project Labor Agreements (PLA)."

We expect many union officials at the meeting to tell the Antioch City Council what direction to take. Also, we suspect a majority of the city council is already committed (by past union candidate questionnaires if not by personal inclination) to vote to proceed with negotiations for a Project Labor Agreement mandate on future city contracts.

The agenda (with staff report) is here: Antioch City Council Meeting Agenda - Tuesday, October 22, 2019