San Jose can’t progress if workers are left behind
“The sky is falling! The sky is falling!” If Disney were to produce a re-boot of its 2005 movie “Chicken Little,” the lead role would go, hands down, to Matt Mahood, CEO of the Silicon Valley Organization (SVO), formerly the San Jose/Silicon Valley Chamber of Commerce.
San Jose civic leaders are very familiar with Mahood’s demo reel. Like clockwork, when any progressive, pro-working family policy is proposed, the SVO’s Mahood shouts from atop City Hall’s rotunda that the sky has started its descent and San Jose businesses will begin laying off workers and closing their doors.
Yet, whether it was increasing San Jose’s minimum wage, passing the Opportunity to Work initiative, or his recent opposition to hiring local construction workers and paying them a family sustainable wage on taxpayer subsidized projects, like Chicken Little, Mahood’s predictions have been flat wrong. Go outside. Look up and see that San Jose’s sky is still there and local businesses are booming.
As Silicon Valley’s revenues and profits skyrocket, it is important that local workers come along for the ride so that they can afford to live in our city. Sharing in this prosperity becomes more important when some of that prosperity comes from taxpayer dollars spent to subsidize businesses.
Unfortunately, our local construction workforce has not shared in that prosperity. A recent study conducted by Working Partnerships USA reported that:
• More than half (54 percent) of blue-collar construction workers employed in Santa Clara County earn less than $40,000 per year
• 42 percent live in housing that is not affordable at their level of income
• 41 percent either depend on public health coverage or are uninsured
• 12 percent receive food stamps
The construction industry is split between two business models: The “high-road” model in which companies compete based on productivity, efficiency, timeliness and quality of work; and the “low-road” model in which companies compete primarily by paying their workforce as little as possible to maximize profits.
Fortunately, the “high road” construction model prevailed. We are grateful that Mayor Sam Liccardo and an 8-3 City Council majority rejected the SVO’s tired “sky is falling” narrative and chose to uplift local construction workers, level the playing field among contractors and provide opportunities to grow and sustain our local middle class.
The compromise ensures all construction workers on city subsidized private development projects are paid a market-rate wage; provides employment opportunities and on-the-job training for entry-level apprentices to learn a skilled construction trade; and creates career opportunities by hiring local workers, including youth, veterans, and other disadvantaged populations.
To achieve these results, we had to work together. A coalition of mechanical, electrical, plumbing and sprinkler fitter unions, the South Bay Labor Council, the Santa Clara and San Benito Counties Building & Construction Trades Council, local contractors and Working Partnerships USA worked intensely with Mayor Liccardo to find a solution that we and a council majority could support.
Businesses in San Jose need a credible voice when public policy is being debated. Unfortunately, the local chamber of commerce was more interested in protecting the status quo and disseminated a hysterical and misleading narrative disparaging our local hire compromise. Local workers prevailed over the usual SVO mantra that the sky would fall, but, yet again, an opportunity was missed for collaboration.
We cannot progress as a city if workers are left behind and if workers have no credible local business organization to collaborate with. While watching “Chicken Little” is good matinee entertainment, it has become a predictable, disastrous reality show with the CEO of the chamber as its main character.
Steve Flores is the business manager for UA Local 393. Dan Rodriguez is the business manager for IBEW 332.