Win or lose, construction unions will have spent millions training voters to think data centers and pipelines are dangerous, which probably suits Schmidt and company just fine. But someday the unions will want to build something again, and they’ll wonder why their projects poll somewhere between oral surgery and taxes.
Construction unions formed an unholy alliance with their longtime enemy, environmentalists, to defeat a ballot measure and, apparently, winning requires burning down their own village. Their coalition recently launched an ad demonizing “dangerous” gas pipelines, industrial warehouses and data centers.
You know, the kinds of things that keep the construction union members employed and that they’ve championed for years.
It was only in May, in fact, when the State Building & Construction Trades Council Of California President Chris Hannan was calling for a data center in Kern County because it “exemplifies the kind of responsible investment California should encourage: one that supports critical infrastructure, creates good-paying jobs, strengthens workforce training, and delivers long-term economic benefits to the region.”
Jon Preciado, who leads the Southern California District Council of Laborers, was just a few years ago “excited to see the development of these industrial warehouses because it is bringing jobs into the Inland Empire that has been so desperately needed.” Now his group is spending $1 million dollars against them.
Pick a lane, guys!
Construction unions have put more than $10 million into the effort to defeat Proposition 45, a ballot measure seeking to streamline the California Environmental Quality Act, which is widely considered one of the top regulatory causes of the state’s housing crisis.
Nothing contained in this blog is to be construed as necessarily reflecting the views of the Pacific Research Institute or as an attempt to thwart or aid the passage of any legislation.
California’s construction unions are running ads against their own jobs
Matthew Fleming
Win or lose, construction unions will have spent millions training voters to think data centers and pipelines are dangerous, which probably suits Schmidt and company just fine. But someday the unions will want to build something again, and they’ll wonder why their projects poll somewhere between oral surgery and taxes.
Construction unions formed an unholy alliance with their longtime enemy, environmentalists, to defeat a ballot measure and, apparently, winning requires burning down their own village. Their coalition recently launched an ad demonizing “dangerous” gas pipelines, industrial warehouses and data centers.
You know, the kinds of things that keep the construction union members employed and that they’ve championed for years.
It was only in May, in fact, when the State Building & Construction Trades Council Of California President Chris Hannan was calling for a data center in Kern County because it “exemplifies the kind of responsible investment California should encourage: one that supports critical infrastructure, creates good-paying jobs, strengthens workforce training, and delivers long-term economic benefits to the region.”
Jon Preciado, who leads the Southern California District Council of Laborers, was just a few years ago “excited to see the development of these industrial warehouses because it is bringing jobs into the Inland Empire that has been so desperately needed.” Now his group is spending $1 million dollars against them.
Pick a lane, guys!
Construction unions have put more than $10 million into the effort to defeat Proposition 45, a ballot measure seeking to streamline the California Environmental Quality Act, which is widely considered one of the top regulatory causes of the state’s housing crisis.
Read the entire op-ed here.
Nothing contained in this blog is to be construed as necessarily reflecting the views of the Pacific Research Institute or as an attempt to thwart or aid the passage of any legislation.