Veresen, Inc.; the project owner/ developer, has the opportunity to appeal the FERC decision and plans to do so after the recent announcement on March 22nd that it has finalized the key commercial terms with JERA Co., Inc. (“JERA”) in respect of the long-term provision to JERA of natural gas liquefaction capacity at the Jordan Cove LNG facility. The preliminary agreement covers the purchase by JERA of at least 1.5 million tonnes per annum of natural gas liquefaction capacity for an initial term of 20 years. This agreement is subject to customary conditions including the execution of a detailed liquefaction tolling agreement, which Veresen and JERA will continue to work together to conclude, and the project obtaining applicable regulatory approvals. Negotiations for the remaining liquefaction capacity are ongoing with other parties.

With a $7.5 billion project on the Southern Oregon coast, we expect many travelers during construction. Please take a moment to complete this one question survey so we can better understand the needs of traveling workers:

JORDAN COVE LODGING SURVEY

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Sen Wyden is having a series of 3 town hall meetings – we will rally to let Sen Wyden know that we do not support the same old Fast Track Authority (FTA) which he has opposed in the past.

We hope you can attend one of these town hall meetings and ask him a question regarding his intentions regarding Fast Track Authority and the Trans Pacific Partnership or just let him know that you oppose Fast Track Authority and more corporate trade agreements like the TPP and Trans Atlantic Free Trade Agreement.

• * Grants Pass (10:00am Saturday January 17th- Rouge Auditorium at Rouge CC. 3345 Redwood Highway in Grants Pass)
• * Klamath Falls (3:30pm Saturday January 17th at OIT College Union Building- 3200 Campus Drive in Klamath Falls)
• * Newport (1:00pm Sunday January 18th at the Commons at Oregon Coast CC. 400 SE College Way in Newport)

To Learn more on the TPP visit: http://www.exposethetpp.org or http://www.citizen.org/TPP

Ask Senator Wyden: “You opposed Senator Hatch’s Fast Track legislation in 2014. Will you do the same in 2015?”

WE HOPE TO SEE YOU THERE TO OPPOSE THIS ANTI-UNION/ ANTI-WORKER LEGISLATION!

You now have online access to your Mix 20/20 Dispatch Profile at the link below:

Mix 20/20 Member portal

To log on, simply provide your Member ID (just the 8 numerical digits) and 4 digit pin code just as you would when using the phone automated system.

You can view your current work areas, skills, and other personal information.

You can verify your Out of Work Date and Renewal Date for both the Construction and Tradeshow Out of Work Lists.

As always, skills sheets are available on our web site under Member Resources. Now is a good time to audit what is on your profile and fill out a new sheet if an update is needed.

If you have any questions please contact the dispatch department at 1-800-953-6444.

You can always find access under the “Member Resources” tab on the menu above.

*Please note that you will still need to use the phone automated system to place/renew yourself on the Out of Work List.

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Your bargaining team is recommending a YES vote on this proposal.

Ballots must be postmarked by August 5th, to be counted on August 9th. Below is the letter you should soon receive in the mail, and also the full tentative agreement you will be voting on.

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The City of Portland is about to try out a new kind of project labor agreement on public construction contracts. The 23-page “Model Community Benefits Agreement” approved Sept. 5 mandates that on future City construction projects, unions will represent workers, and women and minority workers and contractors will have expanded opportunities. The community benefits agreement, approved in a 5-0 vote, was developed in nearly two years of meetings among unions, minority contractors, pre-apprenticeship training programs, and city officials, and will apply to projects of over $15 million.

The agreement sets goals:

• At least 18 percent of the work will be performed by minorities, and 9 percent by women, and the targets apply both to journeymen and apprentices;
• At least 20 percent of the work on contracts of over $200,000 (and subcontracts of over $100,000) will be performed by apprentices;
• At least 20 percent of the hard construction costs will go to women-owned, minority-owned and “disadvantaged” businesses, and joint ventures with minority and women-owned businesses will get a preference of up to 5 percent in bidding on contracts; and
• At least 30 percent of the workforce will be hired from areas identified by the U.S. Small Business Administration as “historically underutilized business” zones, census tracts that include downtown Portland, inner Southeast and Northeast Portland, and the Lents, and Cully neighborhoods in outer Southeast and Northeast, as well as areas of Gresham, Hillsboro and western Clark County.

In the new community benefits agreement, contractors agree to abide by the terms of union contracts, and to use union hiring halls. Except in this case, nonunion contractors that are state-certified as “disadvantaged business enterprises” are allowed to use some of their existing “core employees” — those who’ve worked the equivalent of seven months full-time work in the previous 18 months — with no requirement that the workers become union members or that the employer provide union benefits. However, the contractors have to document that their health and fringe benefits are comparable to the union benefits. And new hires would have to come through union hiring halls.

Meanwhile, the community benefits agreement spells out that unions will represent all workers on the project — whether they’re members or not. Accordingly, even nonunion contractors will deduct union dues — whether or not workers are union members — to cover union costs of collective bargaining, contract administration, and grievance processing.

The agreement also commits unions and contractors to use a veterans employment program known as Helmets to Hardhats. And it mandates that managers, supervisors, and owners be given “cultural competency” training.

Significantly, it dedicates 1.5 percent of City construction budgets to help women and minority workers and contractors get ready for the job:

• 0.25 percent will pay to monitor and enforce the agreement, overseen by a committee composed of representatives from labor, management, and community groups;
• 0.75 percent will go to Worksystems Inc. to award grants to pre-apprenticeship training programs that focus on training women and minorities; and
• 0.50 percent will pay for “technical assistance and business support” for women- and minority-owned contractors, such as that provided by the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce and the Metropolitan Contractor Improvement Partnership. [A disparity study by the City showed that out of $660 million in City contracts over the five-year period ending mid-2009, minority-owned businesses accounted for 0.6 percent, and women-owned businesses 1.9 percent. Women- and minority-owned businesses got 140 of the 547 contracts over that period, but most were relatively small. The technical assistance fund would help them scale up to be better positioned to handle bigger contracts.]

Calling the community benefits agreement “1.5 percent for equity,” former Portland city commissioner Jim Francesconi likened it to Oregon’s “1 percent for art” mandate, in which a portion of public building costs is dedicated to public art.

Francesconi, now an attorney, was hired by Operating Engineers Local 701 and Pacific Northwest Regional Council of Carpenters to develop the community benefits agreement. Groups including the Columbia Pacific Building and Construction Trades Council, pre-apprenticeship training programs like Oregon Tradeswomen Inc., Constructing Hope, Portland Youthbuilders, and Construction Apprenticeship & Workforce Solutions (CAWS), also had a hand in crafting the agreement.

The City Council resolution which enacted the model agreement declares that the City has “a compelling governmental interest in ensuring that it is not a participant, either passive or active, in perpetuating the effects of past or present discrimination.”

Maurice Rahming, immediate past president of the Oregon chapter of the National Association of Minority Contractors, explains that in the past, construction contractors didn’t hire women and minorities. Racial and gender disparity continued after overt discrimination ended, Rahming says, in part because sons tend to follow fathers into careers in construction. And access to these jobs matters a great deal, because journeymen can earn $39 an hour or more plus benefits — depending on the trade — on public construction jobs that are subject to state and federal prevailing wage laws.

The community benefits agreement is a breakthrough, Francesconi told the Labor Press, for several reasons: It’s the first time in Oregon that a government has required project labor agreements on its construction projects, and it represents a new unity between unions and minority communities.

Nonunion contractors have often defeated proposals for project labor agreements, Francesconi said, by forming alliances with minority contractors or community members and arguing that unions don’t work well with minorities.

“Minority contractors have been pitted against the unions as if they’re opposing sides of an argument. This agreement says, ‘You know what? We’re not on opposing sides.’” — Maurice Rahming

“Here the opposite has happened,” Francesconi said. “Minority contractors and community representatives want a relationship with the unions, and advocated for this project labor agreement. And the unions went a long way to provide training and support for minority and women workforce and minority businesses, and carved out this exception for disadvantaged minority- and women- owned businesses where they didn’t have to join the union.”

Rahming, who is both a black business owner and a signatory contractor with IBEW Local 48, agrees: “Minority contractors have been pitted against the unions as if they’re opposing sides of an argument. This agreement says, ‘You know what? We’re not on opposing sides.’”

To test run the community benefits agreement, City Commissioner Randy Leonard offered up two Water Bureau projects that are already under way: the Kelly Butte reservoir replacement, and the Interstate Maintenance Facility renovation. The Kelly Butte project — to replace the 10-million-gallon above-ground steel tank with a 25-million-gallon reinforced concrete underground reservoir — had already been awarded to Hoffman Construction, but the City is modifying that contract. In the Interstate Maintenance Facility Renovation, the City will construct a 28,000-square-foot LEED Gold building to replace a 1925 building that rates poorly for seismic and fire safety and disabled access. An adjacent 38,000 square foot building will be built in a second phase.

The day the community benefits agreement was approved, City Council chambers were packed to the edge of the second-floor gallery with 175 people who turned out in support, most wearing red T-shirts made by CAWS bearing the slogan, “community benefits for all.”

Portland Mayor Sam Adams told the crowd the community benefits agreement is about “taking another step to become a city of the most equal opportunity for all Portlanders.”

Doug Tweedy, executive secretary-treasurer of the Pacific Northwest Regional Council of Carpenters, commended the City Council for being the first agency to “step up to the plate and do the right thing.”

“Opportunity is what this is all about,” he said. “The disparity within our workforce and our contracting community is documented and does exist.”