“The core issue is how employers are deploying these new technologies in a way that explicitly weakens the union,” she said in an email. “All of the jobs in the supply chain, from lithium extraction and battery manufacturing all the way up to automotive assembly, could be union jobs.”—Jessie HF Hammerling, UC Berkeley Labor Center
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.
Sebolt cited a study from University of California Berkeley’s Labor Center, noting that 74% of workers were able to find new employment after being laid off, workers often made a median of $12 less hourly than in their prior position.
An April study from UC Berkeley titled “Fossil Fuel Layoff” found that unionized workers who lost their jobs when a California oil refinery closed mostly found new work, but it was often lower-paying with poorer working conditions. The researchers say potential solutions include cash payouts for transitioning workers and targeted training for new jobs in specific industries.
“We’ve seen the research on this, for example from the (UC Berkeley Labor Center), that when people lose their fossil fuel jobs if we’re not very intentional and don’t have a strategy they end up making less than they did before. We can’t let that happen.”
Carol Zabin, with the UC Berkeley Labor Center, doesn’t see too much of a problem recruiting construction workers right now because the IRA funding prioritizes trades with apprenticeships. “There’s language written into the bill that says if you pay prevailing wage, if you use apprentices, then you get larger subsidies and incentives from the government,” she said.
“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.
A 2020 report from the UC Berkeley Labor Center offers a breakdown of AB 398, stating, “California has emerged as a national and world leader in the fight to avoid climate disaster, passing a comprehensive and evolving suite of climate measures to accelerate the transition to a carbon-neutral economy.”
One study by researchers at the University of California, Berkeley, evaluated PLA and non-PLA projects at community colleges in California and found that PLA projects actually had a slightly higher number of bidders — and similar costs — compared to non-PLA projects.
Discussion of the Labor Center report “Fossil Fuel Layoff. ” As we make the necessary transition away from fossil fuels, Forum discusses what kind of jobs will be lost, and gained, in the green economy and what can be done to minimize harm to the workers whose jobs will be erased and to the communities who depend on their industries.
