By Mike Ege : sfstandard – excerpt
Two of the Bay Area’s most powerful construction worker unions are at bitter odds amid a push to extend state housing mandates. One side is branded as sell-outs; the other is accused of pulling up the ladder.
Mirroring disagreements at the state level, the local labor fight centers around a new housing bill and spilled out into the open this week as labor leaders took swings on Twitter over language in the bill related to work requirements….
Lorena Gonzalez Fletcher on twitter:
@LorenaSGonzalez Please tell me the last time a bill that red-lined labor standards out of existing law was passed in California? Well, Scott Weiner & Buffy Wicks apparently think it’s time to try. Why? Because they want developers to be more incentivized to build market rate housing. #SB423…
More profits for developers, less benefits for workers. That makes zero sense from folks who claim to be pro-labor….
Last week, state Sen. Scott Wiener (D-San Francisco) introduced Senate Bill 423, legislation that would make SB 35, which required an expedited process for housing projects in counties that failed to meet production quotas, permanent. It’s supported by the Housing Action Coalition and other pro-housing supply groups.
The bill is also backed by the Nor Cal Carpenters Union, a regional body representing 22 individual unions and over 36,000 members—many of whom surrounded Wiener at a Feb. 13 presser announcing the bill.
But among those who offered a Bronx Cheer for the bill was Wiener’s former colleague and fellow Democrat, Lorena Gonzalez-Fletcher.
The former San Diego assemblymember, now a leader at the California Labor Federation, threw shade on Wiener and co-sponsor Assemblywoman Buffy Wicks (D-Oakland) accusing them of “red-lining” labor standards out of the bill…(more)
Some people supporting unions object to building more market rate housing. Whatever stops the continuing push for density. The appetite for Wiener bills is dwindling as the demand for market rate housing and values plummet.