More green jobs = more labor fights

By BLANCA BEGERT, WES VENTEICHER and CAMILLE VON KAENEL

08/28/2023 09:00 PM EDT

As green jobs ramp up in California, unions are fighting for their cut. | Matt York/AP Photo

THREE LABOR SHOWDOWNS — There’s a growing sub-genre of the hot labor summer: fights between unions, clean energy companies and state officials tasked with climate planning.

Across California, government officials, developers and a chorus of environmentalists are pushing to build, build, build. Greens jobs are proliferating in wind, solar, batteries, transmission, electric vehicles and more, but as organized labor has pushed for its cut in new and evolving industries, it’s been met with resistance.

Fierce debates over union provisions are threatening to slow climate action here in California, and it’s not only on the housing front.

“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.

Today we have an update from Camille von Kaenel and Wes Venteicher, who have been covering three of the state’s latest labor clashes:

— A fight between the state’s main electrical workers’ union and solar contractors, who are resisting a proposal to tighten standards for who can install battery storage systems alongside solar panels.

The International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers argues that contractors who don’t have broader training in electrical systems are doing a poor job of installing the batteries, creating a higher chance of fires.

“This issue is about an industry wanting to be unregulated and wanting to cut corners and not wanting to be as concerned about safety,” said Scott Wetch, IBEW’s main lobbyist.

But solar industry representatives say that with the proposed restrictions, there won’t be enough qualified workers to meet the growing demand for storage systems.

— A fight pitting wildfire workers against rural counties that need prescribed burns and forest thinning treatments done fast.

The International Union of Operating Engineers is sponsoring a bill in the legislature that would increase pay for workers who trim roadside brush and create fuel breaks in wildfire-prone areas. They say better pay will help attract a stable workforce.

“We all want more forest mitigation done,” said Tim Cremins, political director for the Western region of the IUOE. “We want it done with a more skilled and better paid workforce.”

But rural advocates, like the Rural County Representatives of California, say that adding a prevailing wage requirement could reduce the number of acres treated annually by more than a third — and the state is already behind on its forest management goals.

The IBEW has also jumped in on this one — in opposition to the bill. As it represents workers thinning vegetation along utility lines, it’s been tussling with over jobs it sees as its own.

— The wildfire pay debate and the fight over battery installation seem to be headed toward compromise. But a third conflict is stuck in a deadlock: A bill by state Sen. Scott Wiener (D-San Francisco) was supposed to speed up the connection of new buildings to electrical lines by prohibiting utilities from requiring union contracts for projects over $10,000.

IBEW called it an “anti-union right to work provision” and the bill was shelved for the year shortly thereafter.

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Insurance Commissioner Ricardo Lara finally dished on his plan to bring fire insurers back to California. | David McNew/Getty Images

LARA SPEAKS — We’ve been working to beat out the competition to give you the latest insight into negotiations over the spiraling wildfire insurance problems. Turns out our competition was in the Capitol.

In a conversation with Sen. Steve Glazer (D-Orinda) for the podcast “Table Talk With Senator Steve Glazer,” Insurance Commissioner Ricardo Lara spoke openly about his plan to bring insurers back to the regulated market so policyholders throughout the state have more options. (He hasn’t yet granted us an interview.)

“I hope you give it consideration because it’s going to be hopefully, I think, the most significant insurance reform that we’ve had since Prop 103,” Lara told Glazer in the interview, which was taped last week and released Friday.

As part of the ongoing talks with lawmakers and the Newsom administration, Lara said he’s seeking guarantees from insurers that they will continue to write policies in California and even increase their market share. In exchange, Lara’s plan would allow them to write the predicted costs of climate change-fueled disasters into their rates.

“I have to make sure that they’re at least breaking even, especially as we’re going into our own fire season,” said Lara. — Camille von Kaenel

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CLIMATE PEACERS — A California climate delegation is visiting China this week for the first time in four years.

Gov. Gavin Newsom’s climate adviser Lauren Sanchez, Natural Resources Secretary Wade Crowfoot and Air Resources Board chair Liane Randolph will meet with state- and national-level officials to advance yearslong cooperative efforts that went virtual during the pandemic.

The group isn’t pursuing new agreements — like the one the administration recently announced with the province of Hainan — but shoring up relationships that are key to existing MOUs, said Sanchez, who touched down in Beijing last night.

“We’re really excited to use this as an opportunity to build relationships directly with our partners on the ground,” she said. — Wes Venteicher

BIG SENATE DAY — We’ve got our eyes on a few hearings tomorrow:

The Senate Energy, Utilities and Communications Committee, headed by Sen. Steven Bradford (D-Gardena), will discuss electricity reliability as California transitions to a zero-carbon future. Seems timely, especially with the upcoming Thursday vote on whether or not the state will expand the Aliso Canyon Gas Storage Facility, which Gov. Gavin Newsom promised to shut down in 2019.

There’s also a Joint Legislative Committee meeting on Climate Change Policies where lawmakers will discuss implementing the Inflation Reduction Act, “California’s $180 Billion Dollar Climate Funding Challenge.”

The Senate Agriculture committee is also meeting about threats to California agriculture. There aren’t any details on the agenda yet but chair Melissa Hurtado (D-Bakersfield) indicated that foreign investment could be on the docket.

Assemblymember Luz Rivas honored former Assemblymember and TreePeople CEO Cindy Montañez. | Debra Kahn/POLITICO

CINDY MONTAÑEZ DAY — The Assembly today honored former Assemblymember Cindy Montañez, a San Fernando City Council member and CEO of the Los Angeles environmental group TreePeople who is suffering from terminal cancer.

She served in the Assembly from 2002-06 and was the first Latina chair of the Assembly Rules Committee. ACR 114, by Assemblymember Luz Rivas (D-North Hollywood), establishes her birthday, Jan. 19, as Cindy Montañez Day.

Assemblymember Wendy Carrillo (D-Los Angeles) recounted how Montañez gave her milk of magnesium to wash tear gas from her eyes at the protests against the Dakota Access Pipeline at Standing Rock Indian Reservation in 2016.

“Cindy, your courage, your commitment, your friendship and your willingness to share knowledge got me through that night, and it inspired me to run for office,” she said.

— Protestors from Extinction Rebellion and Rave Revolution blocked the road into Burning Man, calling attention to how the festival has strayed from its counter-culture values.

— More on climate and labor: The United Auto Workers authorized a mid-September strike against Ford, General Motors and Stellantis, while its Ultium Cells workers reached a tentative agreement with the battery manufacturer.

— California waves are getting bigger due to storms fueled by climate change.

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