LIVING
WAGE COALITION OF SONOMA COUNTYPhone: 707-623-7395
Email: mml@ap.net
PO Box 427
Santa Rosa, CA 95402
LIVING WAGE COALITION IN THE NEWS
Santa Rosa Press Democrat
April 2, 2001
SMART GROWTH AND ECONOMIC EQUITY
Sonoma County has wrestled in recent years with both the promise and perils of
increased growth and its effect on the area's quality of life. The Rural
Heritage Initiative and transportation debates have focused on the environmental
impact of growth. But rarely is the issue of economic inequality addressed.
Silence on this issue was broken four months ago when the outgoing Petaluma City
Council voted to give financial assistance to developers seeking to build a
four-star Sheraton Hotel with conference facilities at the Petaluma Marina.
Discussions between the hotel developers, labor unions and city council members
took place over the course of a year and convinced all parties that a win-win
arrangement was possible.
The resulting agreement is an example of how local government can use public
subsidies to promote 'smart growth' and economic equity.
The planned four-story, 183-room hotel will conform to the city's general plan,
will utilize existing infrastructure, and will contribute to the revitalization
of a commercial zone in the marina district. The project, planned by local
hotelier Kirk Lok, will meet the community's needs for both reasonably priced
hotel rooms and meeting space.
From the beginning, the hotel developers stated that public subsidies were
needed to make a full-service hotel a reality. Given the questionable economic
benefits of previous large public-private partnerships such as the Auto Mall and
the Marina, the City Council was reluctant to provide subsidies with no strings
attached. The council eventually agreed to give the developers a $750,000
redevelopment loan and $2 million in tax breaks, after receiving the assurances
necessary to recoup the investment and minimize risk to the taxpayers.
Perhaps as important to the City Council was the concern about growing income
inequality in the region. Most council members agreed that taxpayer money should
not add to the problem by creating poverty-level jobs. As a consequence, the
council insisted, and the developers have agreed, to build the hotel primarily
with local union labor.
In addition, future hotel workers will decide on unionization free from
management interference through a 'card check/ neutrality' agreement, which
provides a quick and non-confrontational process for workers to decide on the
issue of unionization. As in other cities such as Oakland, San Jose, and San
Francisco where workers at new hotels were covered by card check/neutrality
agreements, it is probable that workers at the Petaluma Sheraton will choose to
join the Hotel Employees and Restaurant Employees Union (HERE).
During the 1990s income polarization increased dramatically throughout the
state, particularly in regions like the Silicon and Telecom valleys, where
high-tech investment has driven economic development. Tech jobs have not made up
for the loss of good-paying manufacturing jobs, and job growth in the low-wage
service sector has outpaced all other categories. In Sonoma County according to
the California Budget Project, 57% of all workers in 1999 made less than $12.50
an hour, and one in four families do not make enough to cover basic living
expenses.
Most disturbing, Employment Development Department occupational wage data
indicates that 45% of the new jobs in the county created between 1995-2002 will
pay less than $10 an hour. Many who hold these jobs, particularly in the service
sector, will join the ranks of the working poor
- unable to afford housing in the county and relying on public social services
like emergency-room health care.
It is this problem that the former Petaluma City Council addressed in mandating
'high road' labor standards for the project. U. S. Department of Labor data
demonstrate that unionized workers receive 20% higher wages than nonunion and
are more likely to receive health and pension benefits.
Living wage union jobs will enable workers to live near their place of
employment and to become self-sufficient taxpayers who will contribute to the
local economy.
The California Federation of Teachers and HERE will approach the new hotel
owner, the Petaluma School District, and Santa Rosa Junior College to propose
the development of school-to-work programs for high school students and
hospitality training for workers at the junior college. Such a collaborative
relationship between business and labor could provide career mobility for hotel
employees and yield a stable, trained and productive workforce.
The Petaluma Sheraton Hotel is an encouraging step in the fight to curb economic
inequality in Sonoma County. This project is the first time in recent history
that government, business and labor came together to deal with the questions of
economic growth and economic inequality. It should not be the last.
Marty Bennett teaches American history at Santa Rosa Junior College, serves on
the North Bay Labor Council Executive Board, and is Co-Chair of the Living Wage
Coalition.
Jim Dupont is President of Hotel Employees and Restaurant Employees Union Local
2850 that represents hospitality workers in the East and North Bay.
LIVING
WAGE COALITION OF SONOMA COUNTY
Phone: 707-623-7395
Email: mml@ap.net
PO Box 427
Santa Rosa, CA 95402