Summer Repaints

The painters have had a busy summer thanks to the Organizing Efforts of the Summer Repaint campaign. In the past five years the Union Market Share in School repaints soared from around a meager 20% to now sitting at over 70%. Every summer many schools do renovation and rehab work funded by bond initiatives passed through voting. Our Union, through political relationships and the supporting of bond measures, work with various school districts to ensure this work is done by reputable contractors. Getting a School District to implement a Project Labor Agreement is the Gold Standard in ensuring our members perform is work that keeps so many of us busy during the summer.  Some note worthy PLA’s in our region include: University College of San Francisco, City College of San Francisco, San Francisco Unified School District, San Mateo Union High School District, San Bruno Park School District, and San Mateo Community College.

Even without PLA’s, thanks to tireless efforts of our Union Organizers, much of the school work goes Union! Public School renovations are funded by public tax dollars which triggers the work to be done under prevailing wage. Prevailing Wage is the UNION wage. This does not necessarily mean it has to be done union. Any company can bid Public Works, but they have to pay the Prevailing Wage. For a long time nonunion contractors would bid and be awarded this work. They would falsify payroll records and under cut their employees. Often times not paying people what they were owed by not having workers sign in on sign in sheets, paying people cash instead of certified pay roll, and cutting corners on the project to get the job done faster, leading to faulty work. This means renovations have to be done more frequently costing taxpayers’ money.

Our organizers monitor any school in our area that is up for renovations from start to finish. They attend bid walks, letting all contractors in attendance know who they are and what they are doing. If the job goes nonunion they are there everyday to confirm the number of employees and check the work being performed. Their efforts have ensured that even nonunion workers get what they are entitled to and ensure the job is done to the specifications that were bid.

Throughout the years, many low road contractors, when seeing the Organizers at the bid walk, simply walk away from the job. Some school districts have actually asked our organizers to be consultants when choosing contractors and this effort has led to many districts going union and even getting PLA’s in place.

If you are working on a School now, or have in the past, Thank the Organizers!