Proposition A, the County wide ban on Project Labor Agreements (PLAs) is the most brilliant proposition I’ve seen on a ballot in a long time. The reason I love this Prop is not just because it bans union blackmail of merit shops by requiring they hire union labor and pay into union pension and health care plans in order to work on projects. The simple genius of this proposition is that even if somehow it fails at the polls, a policy against PLAs is already in place at the County.
Prop A protects against any future labor dominated County Supervisors from unilaterally overturning the current policy against PLAs. By codifying the ban in the County Charter, Lorena Gonzalez (or more likely her successors based on backroom scuttlebutt), would need to go to the voters and convince them to accept an unfair, anti-taxpayer policy. Lorena and the Laborites may eventually be able to pick off three supervisor seats, but they’re not going to be able to fool voters to support PLAs. Good luck with that one.
The odds are stacked against Labor on Prop A to the point that there isn’t even an organized campaign by against it. For organizations that can basically print money for campaigns by tithing their own members, it’s noteworthy that they aren’t spending any money to oppose A. I’m happy to say it’s likely we’ll never see PLAs on San Diego County contracts.