“We don’t really have a great plan for building high-quality, unionized jobs in the clean economy in the industrial sector,” said Sam Appel, a researcher at UC Berkeley’s Labor Center who wrote a report finding that around $13 billion out of $32 billion in state climate investments isn’t connected to workforce standards.
A University of California, Berkeley, Labor Center report out Wednesday measures the state’s progress so far, finding California has put in high labor standards for large, publicly funded construction projects such as utility-scale solar and multifamily housing development.
“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.
Automation could replace up to 294,000 long-distance drivers and trade higher-paid jobs for more precarious work in an industry that has long grappled with misclassification.
Public-sector jobs didn’t reach 2008 levels until 2019, according to U.C. Berkeley’s Labor Center — which not only held back the broader recovery by limiting consumer spending, but also hindered economic opportunity.
Labor backers say such provisions ensure construction workers are paid fair wages and suppress an underground economy rife with exploitation. They point to a recent University of California, Berkeley study finding that many construction workers rely on welfare.
