California is adding green jobs. That means more labor fights.
SACRAMENTO, Calif. — The millions of dollars California is pumping into climate jobs are adding fuel to long-simmering conflicts among the state’s powerful labor groups.
Fights between environmental groups and labor unions, two key political constituencies in deep-blue California, are multiplying as the state adds green jobs. They’re threatening to slow California’s progress on climate change.
“There is progress, but we’re not where we need to be,” said state Sen. Scott Wiener (D-San Francisco), whose bill to connect new buildings to the electrical grid more quickly stalled in June after labor unions accused him of trying to circumvent collective bargaining by making it easier to hire non-unionized contractors.
Clashes over whether wildfire workers should be paid more and whether solar panel installers should also be allowed to install batteries are pitting labor unions against wildfire prevention advocates and a segment of the renewable energy industry.
Underlying all of the squabbles is a tension between cost and job quality that policymakers will have to contend with for the next two decades as California hurries to neutralize its carbon emissions while trying to make sure the shift benefits middle- and lower-income residents.
“The state really has a choice whether to let the market determine skills and wages and labor practices in general, or whether it should intervene,” said Carol Zabin, director of UC Berkeley’s Labor Center.
Union representatives say a bill in the state Legislature to increase pay for workers who trim roadside brush and create fuel breaks in wildfire-prone areas will help attract more applicants.
“We all want more forest mitigation done,” said Tim Cremins, political director for the Western region of the International Union of Operating Engineers, which is sponsoring the bill. “We want it done with a more skilled and better paid workforce."
The bill, CA AB338 (23R), is drawing opposition from rural counties that want to move faster on wildfire treatments, though. The state is already behind in meeting its forest management goals, and rural advocates say that adding a prevailing wage requirement could reduce the number of acres treated annually by more than a third.
“We’re talking about a fuel break that could save a whole community in the event of a high-severity wildfire,” said Staci Heaton, a policy advocate for the Rural County Representatives of California, which opposes the bill.
Gov. Gavin Newsom vetoed a version of the proposal last year, saying he was concerned the change would delay essential fire preparedness work. It’s not clear what he thinks of this year’s bill, which is largely unchanged. Complicating the proposal this year is the late opposition by the state’s main electrical workers’ union, which represents workers thinning vegetation along utility lines and has been tussling with other industries over jobs it sees as its own.
Another spat is pitting the state’s main electrical workers’ union against solar contractors, who are resisting a proposal to tighten standards for who can install battery storage systems alongside solar panels — a key part of the state’s push to decarbonize its grid while maintaining enough round-the-clock supplies to prevent blackouts.
The International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, which represents utility-employed electricians, argues that contractors who don’t have broader training in electrical systems are doing a poor job of installing the batteries, creating a higher chance of fires.
“This issue is about an industry wanting to be unregulated and wanting to cut corners and not wanting to be as concerned about safety,” said Scott Wetch, IBEW’s main lobbyist. “Because the union is on the other side, people want to make it about a work issue, and it's not about a work issue, it’s about a safety issue.”
Solar industry representatives say that with the proposed restrictions, there won’t be enough qualified workers to meet the growing demand for storage systems, which are getting a boost from new state incentives as well as tax credits under the federal Inflation Reduction Act.
“It hurts our ability to hire people to do solar and storage,” said Bernadette Del Chiaro, executive director of the California Solar and Storage Association, which represents contractors employing the solar panel installers.
Both debates are heading toward compromise. Assemblymember Cecilia Aguiar-Curry (D-Winters), Newsom and the unions are nearing a deal on the forest worker pay raise, according to two people close to the discussions POLITICO agreed not to name because the talks are ongoing. The deal would require higher wages without the extra paperwork associated with a traditional “public works” designation, as well as delay implementation and carve out some exemptions for projects led by nonprofits.
And the Contractors State License Board is likely to settle on rules that limit non-certified panel installers to working on batteries below a certain size — a compromise that regulators expect will preserve work for both certified electricians and contractors as demand for batteries increases.
But lawmakers weren't able to resolve the conflict with IBEW over CA SB284 (23R), a bill to open utility work to the same labor standards as public works projects. It was intended to speed up the connection of new buildings to electrical lines — a process that in California can take months or years, delaying housing projects and other critical developments.
The bill would have prohibited utilities from requiring union contracts for projects over $10,000. IBEW called it an “anti-union right to work provision.” The bill was shelved for the year shortly thereafter.
Wiener said he hopes to bring the bill back next year. He said the building trades unions have backed wind energy and some other renewable projects, but that the state is “not where we need to be” to build at the pace required.
“We should never use lack of existing workforce as an excuse not to save the planet,” he said. “The solution is to save the planet and ramp up the workforce.”