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Santa Barbara contractors decry union-backed plan Print E-mail
Written by Staff report   
Wednesday, 10 March 2010

Construction contractors and business leaders on March 10 denounced a proposal they say would discriminate against non-union shops and drive up building costs for taxpayers in Santa Barbara County.

John Holehouse, president of Holehouse Construction Co., called a proposal to restrict bidding on public projects in the county to union shops “a shark dressed as a dolphin.”

The county Board of Supervisors voted Feb. 16 voted to consider the deal, billed by its proponents as a way to employ local workers and to codify a project’s financial and labor agreements.

But Juliet Bailey Bischoff, controller at J.W. Bailey Construction Co. in Santa Barbara, said the proposal would force non-union workers to pay union dues and contribute to union pension funds that the workers would likely never use.

The business leaders spoke at a rally held at the Santa Barbara County Administration Building. The Coalition for Fair Employment in Construction, a nonprofit that fights such agreements, sponsored the event.

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Jeffrey Sveiven | 2010-03-10 16:13:11
This is good for the local community, ensures local labor (I see a lot of L.A. based companies bringing employees into Santa Barbara and Ventura counties), and does not discriminate against non-union shops as they can sign temporary agreements with the unions for these projects.
Doyle Davis - operations manager | 2010-03-10 16:41:24
This is not good for our local contractors. Signing temporary agreements with unions for projects that the employee will never see union benifits from because they will not be vested union members puts a strain on local contractors and will drive the cost up on projects.
Jack Byers - President, Jack'N Tool Box, I | 2010-03-10 18:58:59
How can some of our County Board of Supervisors be so out of touch with the real world and our local situation? It is no wonder that we are in these troubled times with such representatives. We need real people working on solving the real problems!
Randy Gulden - Business Owner | 2010-03-11 09:01:44
The people that would benifit are the unions and the elected officials that the unions donate to. The construction costs will be driven higher due to lack of compitition. The result will be another level of government oversight. State law as written mandates fair and open bidding process on public works projects. Being skewed union only is hardley fair or competitive. Our tax dollars should not be given to special interst groups.
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Copyright (C) 2007 Alain Georgette / Copyright (C) 2006 Frantisek Hliva. All rights reserved.

Last Updated ( Wednesday, 10 March 2010 )
 
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