L.A. Plan Gives Low-Income Workers Access to the American Dream

by James Parks, Apr 30, 2008

IBEW member John Harriel says a union job helped turn his life around.

After a strong push by union members, clergy and community groups, the city of Los Angeles last week passed a landmark law that will fight poverty by expanding opportunities for low-income residents to access union construction jobs. 

The new “Construction Careers and Project Stabilization Policy” requires that most of the projects funded by the city’s community redevelopment agency hire more local and low-income residents from the communities where a project is being built. The policy also encourages partnership, through a project labor agreement (PLA), between developers and contractors and the Los Angeles/Orange County Building Trades Council. A PLA defines wages and work rules for a project based on community standards and is approved by the workers’ representatives and the agency awarding the contract before the project begins.  

Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa told a rally celebrating the new policy:  

[The policy] is a big step forward to make sure that a big portion of future construction jobs in L.A. go to local residents…because it is only fair that these funds truly benefit the community by providing construction careers for Los Angeles residents.    

Hundreds of millions of dollars are spent each year in commercial construction in Los Angeles—but low-income communities traditionally see little growth from that investment and residents in those communities have rarely benefited from the jobs on those projects. 

Dozens of workers, clergy and community leaders testified before the City Council in support of the bill. Workers like John Harriel, 38, who transformed his life and built a thriving career through construction union apprenticeship programs. Harriel, who spent six years in prison for dealing drugs, today is a foreman supervising a crew of 13 workers.  

A member of Electrical Workers Local 11, Harriel told the crowd at the rally: 

I can honestly say that the main reason I was able to turn my life around is because I had access to a good middle class job. Having a good job gave me the incentive to turn my life around. It gave me a way out of the life I had been living. It gave me hope that I could do better. 

Flor Barajas-Tena, director of the construction program at Los Angeles Alliance for a New Economy, the leader in the effort for a living wage in Los Angeles, says:  

By requiring that redevelopment subsidies stay in affected communities through local hiring and by ensuring that the jobs created are middle class, union jobs, this policy will deeply impact Los Angeles’ underserved communities and help strengthen our middle class. 

Richard Slawson, executive director of the Los Angeles/Orange County Building and Construction Trades Council, adds: 

This policy is good for the construction industry, good for workers, and good for the community.    

Maria Elena Durazo, executive secretary-treasurer of the Los Angeles County Federation of Labor, says the new policy, which is expected to result in more than 5,000 new jobs over the next five years,

recognizes that construction must be a source of both good, middle class careers and growth for the communities.   

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