The Anaheim City Council approved a proposed Project Labor Agreement, which they referred to as a “Community Workforce Agreement” at their meeting tonight by a vote of 4 to 3.
Surprisingly Anaheim Mayor Harry Sidhu and Councilman Steven Faessel, who are purportedly Republicans, sided with the labor unions and with Council Members Jose Moreno and Jordan Brandman in voting for the CWA.
Reportedly Faessell was blackmailed by the unions who demanded that he support the CWA or they would run an opponent against him next year. Since his Facebook page only has 232 followers it is apparent that Faessel is not very popular and was likely cringing at the thought of a contested primary election.
State Assemblyman Tyler Diep also showed up tonight to promote the CWA. He too is a Republican but he sided with the labor unions.
Anaheim Councilman Trevor O’Neil and his colleague Council Woman Lucille Kring were joined by Council Woman Denise Barnes in proposing revisions to the CWA that would have allowed non-union apprentices to work on Anaheim public works projects. But the rest of the Council denied the motion. O’Neil remained stalwart in opposing the CWA. In the end he proposed limiting the CWA to three years instead of five. This time the entire rest of the Council slapped down his motion.
The CWA will force non union workers to join the trade unions and pay dues if they want to work on Anaheim public works projects.
The CWA will not even guarantee that local workers will be hired as it states goals of 35% local hires but has no mechanism to enforce this. It will also disenfranchise hundreds of local non-union apprentices at the ABC, Association of Building Contractors, located in Anaheim.