The Truth About Project Labor Agreements

Why is the Northern California Power Agency (NCPA) staff and commission chairman (Lodi Mayor Larry Hansen) so desperate to have a project labor agreement and 30-year maintenance labor agreement for the construction and maintenance of the Lodi Energy Center power plant?  Why are they so eager to make a $150,000 payoff to an affiliate of the State Building and Construction Trades Council?

As you can see from the urgent alert below, the NCPA staff is forcing the 20 commissioners from all over Northern California to gather again at a special meeting on November 2 and vote on these backroom deals, apparently before Associated Builders and Contractors and other allied groups cause too much trouble in exposing the union scheme.

This time the NCPA is providing convenient talking points (courtesy of the lawyers of California Unions for Reliable Energy?) for the commissioners to respond to the charge that project labor agreements cut bid competition and raise costs for their ratepayers.  NCPA is obviously expecting “interest groups” such as Associated Builders and Contractors to stir up trouble among “members of the community” about these costly backroom deals and perhaps even make the commissioners accountable to electric ratepayers for their votes.

Some of the commissioners from rural areas may soon be getting their first taste of metropolitan hardball union politics.  For example, the City of Biggs has a commissioner.  In 2002, its city council received national attention when it considered changing the city’s name to “Got Milk?”  Biggs is an agricultural town with a population of 1800, but gets one vote on the 20-member commission, just like the City of Santa Clara and City of Roseville, which have populations over 100,000.  Will the City of Biggs agree to a costly surrender of power plant construction to California Unions for Reliable Energy?

Here is the notice about the special vote sent out shortly after 5:00 p.m. on Friday, October 23 from Jane Dunn Cirrincione, Assistant General Manager of the NCPA:

Good afternoon. NCPA has learned from our General Counsel’s office that yesterday’s NCPA Commission vote regarding the proposed Project Labor Agreement for the Lodi Energy Center was taken without a quorum of project participants present, and as a result, is non-binding in nature.  Given the importance and time-sensitivity of this issue, the proposed agreement will be agendized for our upcoming November 2nd Special Meeting of the Commission.  That meeting is slated to be held at 10:30 a.m. here in NCPA’s headquarter offices in Roseville, and we encourage you to please attend in person if possible.  If possible, please contact Denise Dow of NCPA at (916) 781-4202 or [email protected] by close of business on Monday, October 26th if you can attend the meeting here in Roseville.

Attached you will find talking points related to the proposed Project Labor Agreement that you may find to be helpful in providing background and possible talking points for you should you receive letters from interest groups, media inquiries or questions from members of your community regarding this issue. Please be sure to call on us if we can be of assistance.

Thank you, Palo Alto, for your gracious hospitality in hosting the Commission in your beautiful city this week!

Best regards, Jane

Jane Dunn Cirrincione
Assistant General Manager