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Board directs staff to negotiate community workforce training agreement after heated debate; vote 4-1
Summary
After hours of testimony from union representatives, contractors and workforce groups, San Joaquin County supervisors voted 4-1 on Oct. 7 to direct county staff to negotiate a Community Workforce Training Agreement (CWTA) with the San Joaquin Building and Construction Trades Council and return with an implementation plan and recommended ordinance.
The San Joaquin County Board of Supervisors voted Oct. 7 to direct county staff to negotiate a Community Workforce Training Agreement (CWTA) with the San Joaquin Building and Construction Trades Council and return with a draft implementation plan and recommended ordinance. The motion passed 4-1; Supervisor Ding voted no.
Supporters — trade unions and apprenticeship programs — urged the board to authorize negotiations to expand local hiring, apprenticeship pipelines and family-supporting careers in construction. Tim Robertson, executive director of the San Joaquin Building Trades Council, told supervisors the council runs apprenticeship and pre-apprenticeship programs that place local residents into long-term careers: “Passing this deal…will allow us to multiply the number of opportunities available in our apprenticeship readiness program and our apprenticeship programs to continue to build for the future of San Joaquin County.” Liz Sutton of Sheet Metal Workers Local 104 described an all-women cohort and said project-labor agreements and local training keep wages and spending in-county.
Labor speakers highlighted MC3 pre-apprenticeship classes, jail-to-work programs and programs for women and formerly incarcerated residents. William Gonzalez of District Council 16 said the council recently opened a training center in Tracy and urged the board to use CWTAs to prioritize local hires and career pathways.
Opponents — primarily merit-shop contractors and trade associations representing nonunion firms — said a CWTA would shrink competition, exclude local open-shop contractors, and raise costs. Eric Christen of the Coalition for Fair Employment in Construction and representatives from Associated Builders and Contractors Northern California and WECA argued that CWTAs and project-labor agreements often limit bidders and can increase project costs; they asked that any negotiations include merit-shop contractors. Several local general contractors said they employ hundreds of county residents and would be disadvantaged by a union-only approach.
Board discussion focused on competing priorities: increasing local job opportunities and building career pipelines vs. protecting open competition for county contracts. Supervisors asked staff to return with options on thresholds, term length, local-hire goals (where legally permissible) and how to include merit-shop participation in negotiations. Supervisor Dhaliwal moved to direct staff to negotiate; the motion passed 4-1. Supervisor Ding recorded the lone dissent, citing concerns about excluding small local contractors.
What the board directed staff to do
- Negotiate a Community Workforce Training Agreement with the San Joaquin Building and Construction Trades Council. - Return to the board with a draft implementation plan and a recommended ordinance/resolution for further board policy direction.
Next steps
Staff will begin negotiations and return with a draft CWTA, implementation options and recommended ordinance language. The board asked staff to consider thresholds for covered projects, how to maximize local hire within legal limits, and whether carve-outs or exceptions should be included for small local contractors.
Ending
The board’s 4-1 vote directs staff to negotiate with the trades council; supervisors instructed staff to return with multiple options for board review rather than a single template agreement.
