The tyranny of the blue supermajority

Union membership in the U.S.A. is slipping out of sight, the decline is also affecting the very “blue” California which almost matches New York in being pro-union.

The Washington Post: “Union membership has plummeted in the U.S., from nearly one-third of workers 50 years ago to one in 10 American workers today.”

According to January data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, 10.7 percent of American workers are union members today.

{mosads}Fifty one years ago California elected Ronald Reagan Governor since, it has plunged into a Black Hole of Democratic “supermajority rule” of two-thirds control of the 120 member state legislature. Additionally, all statewide elected officers lead by “Blast from the past” wannabe governor-for-life, Democrat Jerry Brown, run the state.

The only protection left for 39 million-plus Californians from this cabal of leftists is the courts, state and federal.

Protection?

Despite the precipitous decline in private union membership, including in California, State Assembly Bill 199 was introduced in January by state Assemblyman Kansen Chu, D-San Jose at the bidding of the union-affiliated California Building and Construction Trades Council.

The legislative bill requires workers be paid “prevailing wage” on residential projects that have “any agreement with the state or a political subdivision” — a provision that extends the current statutory requirement way past the redevelopment agencies that don’t exist any longer, public agencies and low-income housing projects.

Those are covered under existing state law.

“Prevailing wage” generally means union wages in the jurisdiction. In other words, “prevailing wage” under this bill means the level of wages paid the highest paid construction workers in the state, not an average, not a median or mean wage, but the highest.

In California, union members generally work on hi-rise condominium or apartment projects while non-union work forces build 1-4 unit residential projects which are the vast majority of housing construction.

 For example, Alan Nevin, director of economic and market research at Xpera Group, a real estate analysis firm says most projects built with public funds in California require prevailing wage which is generally 30 percent higher than the pay of an average worker.  He estimates that roughly 25 percent of residential construction in California is built by union labor.

A million-dollar payroll thus becomes a million three-hundred thousand dollar payroll.

Assemblyman Chu says his bill guarantees “fair wages” for workers on projects using tax dollars. That’s the current law. Notice the subtle language change from “projects using public tax dollars” to projects “that have any agreement with “the state or a political subdivision.” Does that mean any project that has a building permit that the developer pays for? Or how about an agreement between the developer and the governmental agency to build and donate a park, or school?

Building Industry Association (BIA) executive Borre Winckel of San Diego predicts that paying the “prevailing wage” would add up to $90,000 to the cost of a 2,000 square-foot three-bedroom house in San Diego. That’s in San Diego where the average house now costs $495,000.

Adding $90,000 to the existing $495,000 makes for a price of $585,000 to buy in San Diego County. Using conventional financing a buyer would need to have a minimum down payment of $58,500 and a minimum income of $100,000 in today’s low interest rate universe.

First time buyers? 

Forget it.

If Assemblyman Chu succeeds, fewer people will be able to buy a house in California. If he really wanted to help California he would offer a new bill that would require the very unions he is “helping” to recruit new Black, Hispanic and Asian workers as members. Those unions have traditionally restricted membership to mostly White men.

For example, in 2012 studies in Philadelphia, PA resulted in the then Mayor Nutter referring to construction worker unions as “Economic Apartheid.” 99 percent of the workers were male, 76 percent White and 67 percent lived in Philadelphia suburbs, not in the majority Black city itself.

In the New York Times (2 December 2010, John Upton) we find an article that describes a dispute that shut down a huge city effort to solar-energize all major city buildings in the heavily unionized San Francisco, California.

“Electricians, roofers and other unions are battling over “green collar” jobs that are emerging with the city’s aggressive pursuit of clean energy.” $75 dollar-an-hour electrician union members objected to $42 dollar-an-hour non-union members, mostly Blacks that were hired to sweep and cleanup work sites.

What Assemblyman Chu ought to do is to propose a bill that forces union membership to reflect the demographics of California where over 15 million Hispanics outnumber Whites and are seven times the Black population.

Nationally only 8.8 percent of union members are Hispanic; they do outnumber everyone in the Laborers Union, but in the craft building trade unions one is hard pressed to find enough Hispanics to fill a bus.

Assemblyman Chu, where art thou, donde estas?

Contreras is the author of “The Mexican Border: Immigration, War and a Trillion Dollars in Trade” and “Murder in the Mountains: War Crime in Khojaly” both published by Floricanto Press in 2016. 

The views expressed by contributors are their own and are not the views of The Hill.