Construction Employers' Association

PRESS RELEASE

Daily Pacific Builder

“UNIONS 2001” EDITION

CEA Salutes its Union “Partners”

By Don Clark, President, Construction Employers’ Association;
General Operations Manager, Clark Pacific

August 27, 2001

Founded in 1985, the Construction Employers’ Association's (CEA’s) initial mission was to enhance the growth, profitability and success of CEA member firms by being the premier association in Northern California representing union commercial building contractors in collective bargaining and labor relations matters.

Five years ago, CEA broadened its charter to provide a greater level of services to its more than 100 members and to better protect and promote the interests of the unionized building industry. Today, CEA focuses most of its efforts in the arenas of labor relations/collective bargaining, governmental relations and safety.

Our membership roster speaks for itself. CEA now includes among its ranks virtually all of the major players in the unionized building industry. Collectively, our membership performs more than $10 billion in construction volume annually, both in the public and private sectors, and represents approximately two and-one-half times the total number of union carpenter labor hours than are represented by any other contractor association in Northern California.

A key factor to our continued growth and effectiveness as an organization has been the active involvement of the principals of our member firms.

Board Sets Policy

CEA’s board of directors sets association policy and guides its direction. The 2001 Board of Directors is comprised of the following 27 building industry leaders:

Sadly, we lost one of our association's strongest supporters and most respected leaders this summer - Don Warmby, who served as Chairman of Hathaway Dinwiddie Construction Company. Don was a past president of CEA and a longstanding member of our Board. For years he served on CEA's Carpenters Craft Committee. As a tribute to Don who, along with Jerry Overaa, was instrumental in initiating CEA's Construction Management University Grant Program in 1998, CEA's Board will confer its annual first place university grant award as the "Don Warmby Leadership Award," in recognition of Don's leadership and contribution to CEA and the unionized building industry.

Collective Bargaining and Labor Relations Representation

CEA negotiates and administers the following Northern California collective bargaining agreements on behalf of its signatory members: the Carpenters Master Agreement, Laborers Master Builders Agreement, Cement Masons Master Agreement and Operating Engineers Master Builders Agreement. Enhancing CEA members' competitiveness while maintaining industry stability are the primary goals in collective bargaining.

This year on the collective bargaining front, CEA took the lead in successfully bargaining with the Northern California District Council of Laborers an early extension of the 1999-2002 CEA-Laborers Master Builders Agreement through June 30, 2006.

Our professional staff is experienced in providing quality labor relations advice, assistance and representation to member firms. Members receive timely and relevant bulletins containing pertinent labor related information. Staff assists in mitigating members' labor disputes and associated liabilities. Most labor issues are settled without the need to go to formal arbitration.

Management-Labor “Partnering”

One of our key objectives as an Association is to promote and participate in activities that enhance management and labor "partnering" efforts with the key crafts employed by CEA members along with leaders of the other building trades unions. Besides working closely with the State Building Trades Council on key legislative and regulatory issues affecting the unionized sector of our industry, many CEA members have developed cooperative working relationships with business representatives representing the local building trade councils where they perform work.

CEA salutes John Neece for the leadership role he has played in the Silicon Valley construction industry. CEA and its members look forward to continuing to work with other Bay Area building trades council leaders: Stan Warren, Bill Nack, Barry Lubovisky, Greg Feere, Lou Franchimon and Neil Struthers.

We have continued to hold annual labor-management conferences with the Carpenters and Laborers Unions along with the entire building trades community in certain geographic areas, such as Santa Clara, San Mateo and San Francisco Counties. These conferences have been beneficial in building relationships between building industry executives and union leaders, providing a forum to constructively communicate and explore solutions about issues affecting our industry. A primary theme at these conferences is the recognition that the building construction industry needs to recruit more qualified people at all levels and provide quality training.

CEA Designates September as “Hire a New Apprentice Month”

Responding to the growing need to attract qualified people to enter the carpenters apprenticeship program and to achieve the apprentice hiring goals of the modified Eldredge Court Order, CEA is taking a leadership role in implementing an industry-wide comprehensive plan to promote the hiring of new carpenter apprentices. CEA and the Carpenters Union have designated the month of September as "Hire a New Apprentice" month. The Building Industry Marketing Program has approved a grant that will provide a significant incentive to carpenter employers in Northern California who hire newly indentured carpenter apprentices during the month of September, 2001. It is clear that our industry needs an infusion of new talent to sustain itself.

Legislative Representation

Several years ago, when the public works prevailing wage system was being threatened at both the state and federal levels, CEA established its Building Industry Legislative Program at the urging of one of our primary labor "partners" -- the Carpenters. The purpose of this program has been to advance and protect the interests of the unionized building construction industry by providing effective legislative advocacy with the California State Legislature, the Governor's office and state agencies on select key issues. CEA's Legislative Committee, led by Terry Street, President of Roebbelen Contracting, Inc. and Dana McManus, President of S.J. Amoroso Construction Company, works hard with CEA staff and legislative advocates to analyze, monitor and lobby key legislative issues which might impact CEA member firms and the Northern California unionized building industry.

CEA is devoting its attention once again to sponsoring a bill, AB 1534 (Assemblyman John Longville), to provide some financial protection for contractors, subcontractors and construction workers in the event of a construction project owner default. The 1997 California Supreme Court's Clarke vs. Safeco "pay-if-paid" ruling placed general contractors in serious financial jeopardy by requiring them to act as guarantors of a construction owner's financial obligations.

The owner security requirements provided for in AB 1534 are an attempt to arrive at an equitable method for allocating risk by ensuring that the party who benefits from the work performed, the owner, has sufficient funding to satisfy its payment obligations. Last year's version of this legislation, SB 471 (Senator Hilda Solis) met the fate of a number of other significant bills in the final hours of the 1999-2000 legislative session. It failed passage when the Senate was unable to vote on many measures before its midnight deadline.

Another priority for our association this year has been to monitor and provide advocacy relative to the implementation of AB 1127. We are attempting to establish a new OSHA regulation to provide an affirmative defense for "controlling employers" (i.e., general contractors) facing an OSHA violation on a multi-employer jobsite for a subcontractor-created safety violation.

Last year, CEA was successful in negotiating with the Building Trades several key provisions in AB 1646 (Public Works Projects). First, AB 1646 eliminates the December 31, 2002 "sunset" provision for Labor Code Section 1775, the most critical portion of CEA's 1997 Brulte bill (SB 1338), providing that a general contractor may not be held liable for penalties for a subcontractor violation of prevailing wage laws if certain steps are taken. In addition, we were successful in negotiating a provision in AB 1646 eliminating the application of Labor Code Section 203.5 for any demand made by the State for wages related to prevailing wage violations. Historically, contractors who disagreed with prevailing wage claims by the State have faced added assessments of up to thirty times the amounts due for wages and public works penalties, pursuant to 203.5. With the elimination of this section, contractors now have the ability to challenge exaggerated or inflated claims without excessive penalties.

Other Building Industry Programs

Beyond its labor relations, collective bargaining and legislative advocacy services, CEA has selectively initiated and administered the following building industry programs: a quarterly safety forum program, an annual confidential building industry salary survey, a construction management university grant program, and a public works/prevailing wage program. CEA's web-site address is www.cea-ca.org. Key information about CEA's various programs and services can be accessed from our home page.

Safety Forums are Popular

Now in its fourth year, the CEA Building Industry Safety Forum Program chaired by Gary Kalian of Lathrop Construction Associates, Inc. continues to provide an excellent training and networking resource for safety officers, executives and key jobsite personnel of member firms. The Program's success is evidenced through the popularity of the forums it presents. Recent safety forums have featured guest speakers such as Bob Peterson of Robert D. Peterson Law Corporation, who spoke on the implications of AB 1127 and the general contractor's role and responsibilities relative to safety in the multi-employer jobsite environment; Janine Reid, of the Janine Reid Group, who offered members training in successful crisis management; and, Dale Daul, of St. Paul Construction Risk Control, who spoke on the essential elements of crane management.

The 5th annual CEA Northern California Building Industry Salary Survey was published this spring. The survey collected confidential salary and benefit data for members’ non-bargaining unit employees, including top executives, superintendents, estimators, project managers and administrative staff. The annual survey is a useful tool to assist participating member firms in their salary administration to retain and attract talented management and administrative personnel.

CEA is committed to supporting and promoting quality construction management education programs and to developing long-term relationships with prominent university construction management programs and their graduates. For several years, our Construction Management University Grant Program has awarded annual grants to the following universities: UC Berkeley; California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo; CSU Chico; CSU Sacramento; and Stanford University.

Public Works/Prevailing Wage Assistance

CEA's Public Works/Prevailing Wage Program continues to be a valuable resource to members performing public works. Our professional staff provides assistance and education to members with respect to compliance issues and the technical aspects of labor and prevailing wage laws. Members are advised of the prime and subcontractors' prevailing wage and payroll reporting responsibilities on public works projects along with the current enforcement policies of governmental agencies. Procedures have been developed by CEA that emphasize a preventative approach to monitoring the payment of wages to all workers and that strive to minimize the potential for penalties or liquidated damages. In addition, research, advice, and investigative services are available to members who encounter prevailing wage complaints on their projects.

CEA salutes its union “partners.” We will continue to focus our efforts on enhancing our unionized building contractor members’ competitive position in an ever-changing and challenging industry through effective collective bargaining, labor relations and governmental advocacy.

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