Three bills backed by the Associated Builders and Contractors, and which were specifically designed to weaken Building Trades-backed requirements on design-build contracts were killed in a policy committee this week after Building Trades representatives exposed them for what they were: anti-worker measures crafted to maintain a “race to the bottom” low-wage, low-skill, indigent worker business model that continues to extract heavy social and economic costs on communities all over California and the nation.

Assembly Bills 1062, 1063, 1064, all authored by Assembly member Martin Garrick, a San Diego area Republican, would have gutted apprenticeship graduation requirements, weakened safety rating requirements, and scrapped labor compliance requirement exemptions when project labor agreements are in place for contractors on state design-build contracts.

California State Building and Construction Trades Council Legislative Advocates testified before the Assembly Building and Professions Committee, demonstrating that the current requirements provide California workers with better apprenticeship opportunities, stronger safety standards, and labor compliance requirements through project labor agreements.

The Committee then voted down all three bills.