Labor Position Paper

By Noreen Evans

I am proud to have the endorsements of numerous labor organizations, including the California Professional Firefighters, the California Nurses' Association, the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, California State Employees Association, the Santa Rosa City Employees' Association, and the Santa Rosa Police Officers Association. In the Assembly I will advocate for issues that are important to the working men and women of District 7.

PUBLIC EMPLOYEES

• Supported an amendment for the City Charter requiring binding arbitration in contract negotiations for all Santa Rosa public safety employees;
• Supported a state initiative for binding arbitration for police and firefighters;
• Fought for union shop for Santa Rosa City employees;
• Supported garage employees' efforts to organize;
• Led the effort to reduce city expenditures without staff layoffs or reduction in benefits.

• Supported application of prevailing wage laws to projects that are built with a combination of public and private funds; the City fought this issue all the way to the Court of Appeals, ultimately resulting in a court decision holding that prevailing wage laws apply to such public/private projects;
• Convinced the Santa Rosa City Council to back out of supporting an appeal by the City of Long Beach in its lawsuit to prevent prevailing wage laws from applying to charter cities under certain circumstances;
• Opposed the Santa Rosa City Council's efforts to contest application of prevailing wage laws to a recent hotel/conference center development.

• Worked with a local coalition of labor leaders to introduce a living wage ordinance for the City of Santa Rosa, but on a 4-3 vote the City Council refused to study the issue;
• Organized a Coalition for a Better Sonoma County that includes the Sonoma County Building Trades, SEIU Local 707, and IBEW Local 551 in an effort to reintroduce the living wage issue, and the coalition was successful in electing a progressive candidate to the Santa Rosa City Council in 2002.

• Working with the IBEW, Plumbers, and others, opened negotiations between local labor, the City of Santa Rosa Redevelopment Agency and a private developer for a project-labor agreement on a local hotel conference center development;
• The City Council rejected it on a disappointing 4-3 vote, one councilwoman having reneged on campaign promises she had made only a few weeks earlier to obtain labor support for her re-election campaign.