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Friday, July 20, 2007 |The San Diego and surrounding communities have long been dominated by the “good old boy system.”
You take what I give you and like it. With the cheap labor pool south of the border this mentality is easily accomplished. If the labor movement succeeds here in Chula Vista on projects like this, developers will be signing more PLAs and thus creating a higher union density. Labor unions have a structured apprenticeship program, a decent pay scale, health care for employees and their families, a defined benefit contribution, and a membership who gets involved in the community. A higher union density would put more “boots on the ground” for labor friendly politicians and causes. This is disturbing to those who oppose us and one of the reasons why they don’t want us to succeed. Many of the same developers who do work in San Diego don’t hesitate to sign PLA’s in other large cities (L.A. and S.F). There are many people who do not want this to happen because of the potential of a stronger labor movement.
This is why Gaylord receives the support of the San Diego anti-Union Tribune and their one-sided coverage of the issues as well as most of the other media covering this story. You scarcely hear mention of the plus $300 million dollar subsidy of tax payer money in any of these reports. I believe Gaylord thought we were just going to roll over and go away after their CEO failed to sign the PLA negotiated by Gaylord’s representatives and the Building Trades representatives. They were incorrect in assuming IBEW was just going to go away.
Nicholas Segura is the president of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, Local 569.