Hartnell College sides with unions, could face fight in construction negotiations.

“Which side are you on?” the old labor song asks. It was a choice Hartnell College trustees had to make in early May, when the board decided to require a project labor agreement, or PLA, in the construction of the college’s planned $23-million science building.


In a passionate standoff May 7, union advocates and detractors amassed in a Hartnell meeting room to fight over the merits of a PLA, which sets employment terms between a contractor and union. 


Dozens of union employees showed up to support the PLA, which advocates say will help ensure the project is completed without problems like strikes or work stoppages. 


Critics say the agreement could discourage non-union contractors from bidding on the job. The Salinas Valley Chamber of Commerce tried to organize a contingent to oppose the measure, but their presence was overshadowed by enthusiastic workers.


In a four-to-three vote, trustees sided with the unions and mandated a PLA between the to-be-determined project contractor and the Monterey/Santa Cruz Counties Building & Construction Trades Council.


The unions appear to have won the war, but a side battle is still playing out as Hartnell and the union negotiate the PLA’s terms. Nicole Goehring of the Associated Builders and Contractors, an anti-PLA group, has sent the Hartnell board suggestions on how to amend the language to make the agreement “fair” for non-union workers. 


If negotiations don’t work out to the Associated Builders and Contractors’ satisfaction, Goehring says, it may look at “the possibility of litigation.”


But Ron Chesshire, CEO of the trades council, says the PLA is a “win-win” for the college and the community. With a PLA, “your work is performed efficiently, economically and without interruption,” he says.


One of the major benefits of a PLA, advocates argue, is that it helps keep contracting jobs local. That’s important to Hartnell, which wants 75 percent of labor to be locally sourced, says Candi DePauw, Hartnell’s board president.


But skeptics say the labor agreement will in fact make the project less competitive locally: The stringent union requirements – like making non-union members pay union fees – may exclude bidders and increase costs. 


DePauw says the college has had a good track record hiring locally. So far, she says, 73 percent of construction stemming from Measure H bonds – which have paid for several campus projects and will fund the new science building – has been handled by local companies. About 70 percent was done by union workers. 


The last time Hartnell signed a PLA was in 2004, according to college president Willard Lewellen. But as time has passed, he says, nobody at the school seems to remember how effective the decision was. Since then, PLAs have not been put to use because the option was never brought to the table. 


This time, the trades council made the pitch to explore a PLA at a community meeting, prompting board members to raise the issue.


“Now that this decision has been made, everyone’s going to work together and go forward for a positive experience,” DePauw says.


Negotiations could take anywhere from a week to a month, she adds. The college aims for construction on the new science building to start in August and be complete by 2015.