On behalf of the Tulare County Board of Supervisors, I am writing to respectfully oppose Senate Bill 1412 (SB 1412) by Senator Hertzberg, which would establish prequalification procedures to determine a contractor's eligibility to bid on, and be awarded, a public contract. SB 1412 perpetuates a biased, bifurcated system in favor of union labor contractors and continues to ignore the challenges rural communities face in meeting skilled and trained workforce requirements.
SB 1412 exempts public works that are covered by a project labor agreement from its prequalification requirements. Subjecting non-union labor contractors to prequalification requirements that union labor contractors are exempt from unfairly tips the scale in favor of union labor contractors and reduces competition in the public contract bidding process.
With just 14% of California's construction workers unionized, these policies disqualify the majority of willing and able construction workers from participating in the labor market.* These anti-competitive practices contradict the author's argument that the use of a skilled and trained workforce ensures "public agencies and taxpayers [receive] the highest quality of constructions," and instead ensures that public agencies and taxpayers receive only union-built constructions.
A skilled and trained workforce prequalification requirement will further handicap Tulare County's ability to award public works contracts as we already struggle to meet the existing skilled and trained workforce requirements imposed by SB 418 (Hernandez 2017) and AB 3018 (Low 2018). For example, for every three low- or very low-income housing units needed in Tulare County, there is only one unionized worker available to participate in the project.
While apprenticeship programs are abundant in California's major metropolitan areas, they are sorely lacking in its rural communities. If the state wishes to incrementally increase skilled and trained workforce requirements, it must invest in apprenticeship programs in underserved areas to assist local governments in adhering to state law.
SB 1412 burdens local governments with implementing an unnecessary and biased skilled and trained workforce prequalification process and does little to facilitate actionable solutions to the challenges rural counties face in awarding public works contracts. For these reasons we must respectfully oppose SB 1412.
Sincerely,
Eddie Valero, Chairman
Tulare County Board of Supervisors
cc: Senator Dodd, Shaw Yoder Antwih Schmelzer & Lang, Tulare State Delegation
* Gedye, G., Bedayn, J., Montalvo, M., Botts, J., Duara, N., & Paz, E. (2021, September 23). What's the role of unions in the 27st century? CalMatters. Retrieved April 13, 2022, from https://calmatters.orglexplainers/california-unions-explained/