The Ohlone Community College District’s “Request for Qualifications of Design‐Build Entities – Design‐Build Services for South Parking Structure at the Ohlone Community College District Fremont Campus” states that “The District anticipates entering into a Project Stabilization Agreement with the Building Trades Council of Alameda County, the terms of which will apply to this project.” Companies will be required to “Work with Builders Trade Council (sic) of Alameda County to ensure complete compliance with Project Stabilization Agreement.”
After voters approved the sale of $150 million in bonds with Measure A in March 2002, the Ohlone Community College District built the $111 million Ohlone College Newark Center, the $33 million Student Services Center on the main Fremont campus, and took care of $16 million in other projects on the Fremont Campus. Somehow these projects were completed without requiring contractors to sign a Project Labor Agreement, and the buildings are still standing. But times are different now.
In November 2010, voters in Fremont, Newark, and Union City (in Alameda County) approved Measure G, which authorized the Ohlone College Board of Trustees to borrow another $349 million for construction by selling bonds. As usual, voters were not told that unions might be given control of the work. On September 7, 2011, Ohlone College staff presented a Project Labor Agreement (PLA) information brief to the Ohlone College Board of Trustees during a workshop to discuss the construction program funded by Measure G bond sales.
I expect the Ohlone College Board of Trustees – still feeling jubilant and empowered from the November 6 election results – will vote for a Project Labor Agreement at their November 14, 2012 meeting in front of a packed room of union activists. Perhaps some of the board members will even express regrets that Ohlone College is among the last of the San Francisco Bay Area community college districts allowing construction trade workers to build something on campus without union membership or representation.
Interesting fact: the largest taxpayer in the Ohlone Community College District is Apple Computer, which owns industrial property worth $389.5 million, comprising 1.03% of all assessed valuation in this community college district.
Here’s the current status of Project Labor Agreements for community college districts in the San Francisco Bay Area:
| Community College District (CCD) | Year as PLA Target | Year of PLA Enacted |
| Peralta CCD (Alameda County) | 2004 | 2004, 2009 |
| Chabot-Las Positas CCD (Alameda County) | 2003 | 2006, 2010 |
| Ohlone CCD (Alameda County) | 2002, 2011 | Looks like 2012 |
| Contra Costa CCD (Costa Costa County) | 2000 | 2012 |
| College of Marin (Marin County) | 2005 | 2008 |
| Hartnell CCD (Monterey County) | 2004 | 2004; rescinded 2004 |
| Monterey Peninsula College | Not Yet | Not Yet |
| Napa Valley College (Napa County) | 2004 | Not Yet |
| City College of San Francisco (San Francisco) | 2002 | 2005 |
| San Mateo CCD (San Mateo County) | 2002 | 2002, 2007 |
| Cabrillo College (Santa Cruz, San Benito, Monterey Counties) | 2004 | Not Yet |
| Foothill-DeAnza CCD (Santa Clara County) | 2007 | 2008, 2011 |
| San Jose-Evergreen CCD (Santa Clara County) | 2006 | 2011 |
| West Valley-Mission CCD (Santa Clara County) | 2005, 2008 | Not Yet |
| Solano CCD (Solano County) | 2003 | 2004 |
| Santa Rosa Junior College (Sonoma County) | 2002, 2005 | Not Yet |
See my www.UnionWatch.org analysis of why California’s community college districts are inclined to require construction contractors to sign Project Labor Agreements with unions: Unions Increase Control of California’s Community College Boards.
[…] (See the current revised list below, which now also indicates the imminent end of fair and open bidding competition at the Ohlone Community College District in Fremont, as reported in my November 8, 2012 article Another Project Labor Agreement in the Works for a California Community College District: Unions Wil….) […]
[…] I predicted in my November 8, 2012 blog post Another Project Labor Agreement in the Works for a California Community College District: Unions Wil…, the Board of Trustees of the Ohlone Community College District (in the San Francisco Bay Area, […]