Taxpayers Association: Vote no on Measure E – missing a critical piece
Op-Ed
Bonds are an expensive form of debt and, like a home mortgage, are repaid with interest over time. Since 2002, Contra Costa Community College District voters have approved construction bonds totaling $406.5 million that, with interest, will cost taxpayers over one billion dollars.
Now, with Measure E, the District is asking voters to approve a $450M bond that would update school facilities and add much needed infrastructure.
There’s just one huge hiccup. Measure E is missing language that secures equal opportunity for your friends, neighbors and family members in construction. The district had the opportunity to add this language back in February, but chose not to seize it sending a strong message to 83.5% of contractors in the community they need not apply here for jobs.
83.5% is the number of California construction workers who were NOT affiliated with a union in 2013.
So your friends, your neighbors and young, aspiring construction professionals don’t get a fair shot at local work under Measure E – at their livelihood, yet have to pay for it on their property tax bill.
For years, Contra Costa Community College District operated with a construction bidding policy that ensured a fair playing field regardless of labor affiliation and delivered quality workmanship our community could count on.
Unfortunately, that ended in 2011 when a Project Labor Agreement policy that favors construction unions was adopted, discouraging 83.5% of local workers in the community from bidding on District jobs unless they signed on to the onerous union work rules required by the agreement.
On June 3, vote NO on Measure E for the Contra Costa Community College District. Give our deserving construction community a fair shot at local work.
Alex Aliferis
Executive Director
Contra Costa Taxpayers Association
What a pathetic message, union shops will bid on these jobs just like any non-union shops. Why is it that jobs are more important than education to the unions of this state? What the college district did was not lock out non-union shops with PLAs and the unions now want no decent facilities for community colleges because of it. There is a reason that 83.5 percent of construction workers are not unionized, they don’t believe in the strong arm tactics of big labor. Neither do I. Don’t let big labor dictate your decisions.