theCURRENT: Your Labor Relations Leadership Update

In Q2, UCON negotiated Master Agreements for the Cement Masons, Teamsters, and OE3 Pumpers. Most notably, our contractor-led negotiations teams were able to re-open tentative agreements negotiated by other associations to improve terms and conditions for contractors in significant ways. Ultimately, these final negotiated agreements successfully met UCON's primary labor relations strategic objectives: maintain competitive economics by all possible means, create consistency across contracts statewide, and enhance legal protections for contractors.  

In line with growing influence across the state, UCON recently became a joint masthead for the Cement Masons (N. CA). Masthead status primarily refers to being the primary bargaining partner with a certain craft as well as the association agreement that gets submitted to the DIR to set prevailing wage.  

UCON renewed our focus on improving the industry through partnering with our Industry Partner Meetings (IPMs). The value proposition is simple: most competitive issues contractors face cannot be resolved through bargaining. Partnering provides the arena to set the industry agenda and the launch point for collective action by the industry.

UCON and ECA recently completed a merger more than a year in the making. In many ways, the integration of UCON and ECA was aligned before merger talks began. Simply put, our shared values and common mission drive our decisions and the reason we exist: to support and advocate for heavy civil contractors across Southern California.  

UCON's credibility and influence ultimately stem from the decisions, vision, and policies set and driven by UCON's contractor leaders. It, therefore, follows that our future successes will be determined by how well we train and develop our next-gen leaders to carry the industry forward, especially as so many of our experienced industry leaders and negotiators retire.  

Contractors who work for PG&E are already familiar that PG&E recently adopted a new policy that requires using IBEW signatories and members on various scopes of work traditionally performed by other crafts. For example, traffic control contractors who have traditionally performed work with Laborers are now losing work to IBEW signatories under this mandate. However, this change not only jeopardizes the work of traffic control contractors, but also that PG&E will enact this mandate on current and future electrical line undergrounding work and even other scopes.

A recent shift in grievances filed reinforces the need to pay final checks in a timely manner when project restart timelines are unclear and face potential long-term delays.

While it's a standard industry practice to "keep guys on the bench" during the ups and downs of a project schedule, the longer an employee sits, the more likely they may seek clarity on their continued employment situation and maybe seek payments owed.