Building Trades News

Feature Story

Crafts Demonstrate in Orange County for the Right to Organize

On Jan. 8, Building Trades unions demonstrated in the City of Brea in support of the right of union representatives to access a private construction job which is allowed by the California law. The Supreme Court has upheld this right several times.
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Tradeshow and Sign Craft Local 831 – E3 Expo, LA Convention Center

Week after week, the skilled tradeshow workers from Local 831 transform the barren halls of Southern California’s convention centers into a hi-tech city of flashing lights, elaborate structures, and sometimes even waterfalls for the region’s vast tradeshow industry. Then, days later, they return to tear down the exhibits and prepare for the next show.
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From the Executive-Secretary

An Open Letter to all Elected Officials

Unemployment is the problem!

For months now, all of you, as elected Representatives of the People, have been dealing with business bankruptcies, budget shortfalls and covering your behinds because the depression/recession that has hit the United States, your own state and businesses. We understand that you are concerned with ways to stop the economic slide that would balance your budgets and hopefully limit any employees being laid off who provide service to the public. However, you have it all wrong.

After Eight Years, Labor Once Again Has Voice in White House

By Roy San Filippo
Staff Writer

Secretary of Labor Hilda Solis The atmosphere at this year’s Building Trades Department Annual Legislative conference was remarkably different than the previous eight years. Thanks to the massive mobilization efforts by the Building Trades, the new administration in Washington is pro-union, in contrast to the anti-union, anti-worker agenda under Bush-Cheney. Vice President Joe Biden summed it up in his taped address to the conference, “Welcome back to the table.”

Fierce Lobbying Effort by Crafts Revives Dormant Project

By Roy San Filippo
Staff Writer

The Los Angeles City Council voted unanimously on March 6 to remove the obstacles blocking the expansion project at Providence Holy Cross Hospital. The move came after intense pressure from the community and from building trades craft unions who argued that the much needed hospital beds and the well-paying construction jobs created by the project should not be held hostage by the organizing efforts of the SEIU nurse's union under the guise of further environmental study.

By Beige Luciano-Adams
Contributing Writer

The collapse on Wall Street had affected both pension funds and financing available for construction projects. In this climate, the select projects that bring members a two-fold benefit of both a solid return on their pension funds – and a critical surge of new jobs for local trades in their area are especially welcomed.

The new Horizons office campus at Playa Vista, which is nearing completion of its first phase of development, is one such silver lining.

WesPac Jet Fuel Pipeline Moves Ahead

Phase 1 of the $75 Million Project Promises Jobs for Local Crafts

By Beige Luciano-Adams
Contributing Writer

Having secured approval from the Los Angeles Transportation Commission, developer WesPac Energy is bringing its proposal – for the first phase of a 23-mile pipeline that will transport jet fuel from the Los Angeles Harbor Area to LAX – to the Los Angeles City Council in May.
The Los Angeles Transportation Commission voted in April to approve a 6.5-mile installation of underground pipeline that stretches from the Wilmington storage tanks at the Harbor to the Kinder Morgan Watson Pump Station at Alameda and Sepulveda in Carson.

Building Trades Join LA County Federation of Labor in Town Hall Meeting with Labor Secretary Hilda Solis

By Roy San Filippo
Staff Writer

Several U.S. military veterans testified at a Town Hall meeting on Good Jobs at Union Station in Downtown Los Angeles on April 24 to bring attention the many issues veterans face when trying to re-enter the workforce.
The event was organized by the Veterans Committee of the Los Angeles County Federation of Labor, AFL-CIO, the town hall was attended by over 700 veterans, community members and elected leaders including U.S. Secretary of Labor, Hilda Solis, Speaker of the California State Assembly, Karen Bass and L.A. County Supervisor Mark Ridley-Thomas.

Make it easy to buy Union – LA labor 411

Trades Headlines

Plan could clear way for O.C.'s tallest skyscraper

The mayor of Santa Ana is trying to engineer a behind-the-scenes deal that would clear the way for the long-stagnant One Broadway Plaza skyscraper project to break ground.

Mayor Miguel Pulido announced that he was working on the deal during his State of the City speech Wednesday. If it works, he said, One Broadway Plaza – planned to be the tallest building in Orange County – could get off the ground "in the very near future."

Crystal Signs Agreement and Partners up With Union Trades Department AFL-CIO

LOS ANGELES, CA -- Crystal Properties Holding, Inc. signed a Construction Project Labor Agreement (PLA) for the future ROCKFORD RIVER DISTRICT DOWNTOWN REVITALIZATION program in Rockford, Illinois with the Craft Local Unions Affiliated with the Building & Construction Trades Department AFL-CIO.

Union President and Business Representative and Organizer, Brad Long, and International Union of North America Business Manger, Tom DalSanto of Local #32 - A.F.L. / C.I.O., stated, "The union trades are exited to be involved with Crystal Properties Holdings, Inc."

Jack Henning, California Labor Federation Executive Secretary- Emeritus, 1915-2009

San Francisco, June 4 — Longtime California labor leader Jack Henning died today at his home in San Francisco. He served as executive secretary-treasurer of the California Labor Federation, AFL-CIO for 26 years before his retirement in 1996.

"Jack was a lion of a man and a great labor leader,” said California Labor Federation Executive Secretary-Treasurer Art Pulaski. “His vision and his magnificent oratory inspired several generations of union activists.”

LA city workers protest against layoffs

Hundreds of city workers, along with family members and supporters, demonstrated outside the City Hall in Los Angeles June 9th in protest against layoffs.

The demonstration was designed to push the City Council to abandon a plan "to impose massive pay cuts through furloughs," organizers said.

The demonstrators, most of them members of the Coalition of L.A. City Unions, urged the City Council "to abandon a short-sighted plan that would devastate city services and impose massive pay cuts through furloughs," a coalition statement said.

Biden says state's high-speed rail project is primed for recovery funding

California may get a significant share of the $8 billion set aside for rail projects, the vice president says. A planned high-speed corridor would link L.A. to San Francisco in under 3 hours.

Though California is in the throes of a budget crisis, Vice President Joe Biden said Wednesday that the state's high-speed rail project is well-positioned to compete for a significant share of the $8 billion that the Obama administration set aside in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act for rail lines.

Construction resumes on Providence Holy Cross expansion

Construction on the $181 million expansion at Providence Holy Cross resumed this week, six months after the project was halted for an environmental study. Despite the delay, the four-story, 136-bed wing is still slated to open in 2010, and is expected to employ 240 workers.

Hospital officials say the facility at 15031 Rinaldi St., will be the first "green" hospital building in California. It will include a new Women's Pavilion, a neonatal intensive-care unit, observation rooms for emergency patients, a gastrointestinal lab, more surgical and critical care beds and a 100-seat chapel.

Hill International Awarded Contract by LADWP to Advise On Renewable Energy Projects

Hill International (NYSE:HIL), the global leader in managing construction risk, announced today that it has been awarded a three-year contract from the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power (LADWP) to provide owner's representative consulting services for various transmission and renewable energy projects.

Jerry Brown Keynote Speaker at Building Trades Luncheon April 2

California Attorney General Jerry Brown spoke to nearly 100 Building Trades members and officers and supporters about the state of California at the Building Trades News’ bi-annual networking luncheon April 2, 2009 held at the Staples Center. Special thanks to AEG for co-hosting the luncheon. Click here for photos of the event.