Community Workforce
Agreement (CWA)
Study Session
City Council – November 17, 2025
Christina Horrisberger - Assistant City Manager
Matt Fabry - Public Works Director
Agenda
• Background
• Overview and Local History of CWAs
• Peer Agency Research
• Bid History
• Key Issues
• Local Hire and Apprenticeships
• Case Studies
• CWA Approaches
• Guiding Principles
2 Questions for City Council
1. Should staff attempt to negotiate a CWA with the SMCBCTC? If the answer to Question 1 is yes:
1. Does Council concur with the recommended guiding principles for attempting to negotiate a CWA?
2. Should the City pursue a project specific approach based on a number of projects or a dollar threshold approach? If a project specific approach, should it start with 5 projects? If a dollar threshold approach, should the threshold begin at $5 million, $3 million, or $2 million? 3 Background
18 Aug. 2025
San Mateo County Central Labor Council
(SMCBCTC) made public comment to City
Council
18 Aug. 2025
During Reports and Announcements City
Council directed staff to explore CWAs
17 Nov. 2025
Present findings to City Council and gather
input on potential CWA adoption
4 What is a CWA/PLA?
• Project Labor Agreements (PLAs) and CWAs are similar, but CWAs are broader in scope and apply to more projects meeting certain criteria • Agreements between labor organizations and a public agency • Establishes terms for construction projects meeting certain criteria • Typically crafted to achieve some form of social policy goals through criteria for local hiring and/or access to apprenticeships 5 Typical CWA Elements
• Standards for wages and benefits
• Provisions that prohibit workers from engaging in strikes, work stoppages, slowdowns, and other dispute mechanisms
• Requirements that contractors hire workers who are referred from union hiring halls except for minor exceptions for “core workers” • Requirements that nonunion workers pay dues or fees to the applicable union while employed on the project
• Dispute and grievance resolution procedures.
6 Differences from Collective Bargaining
• Collective bargaining: between individual unions and contractors • CWA/PLA: between public agency and a consortium of different craft unions
• Included in the bid documents to apply to all bidders and subcontractors on covered projects
• CWA/PLAs supplement or supersede existing collective bargaining agreements, but require compliance with the master labor agreements of all craft unions
7 Evolution of CWAs/PLAs
• Initially for mega-projects (e.g., San Francisco International Airport - 1995, Port of Oakland - 1999) that exceeded $1 billion
• Now often applied to projects as small as $500K–$1M
• Increasingly used to achieve local hiring and social equity goals 8 Peer Agency
Reviewed
*Watsonville not pictured not map
9 Project Thresholds (Examples)
• Berkeley: $500,000
• Daly City: $1,000,000
• Mountain View: Project Specific Approach with five Learning Projects • San Mateo County: $3M (2026) → $1M (2029)
• San Mateo County Community College District:
Project Specific Approach with Nine Learning Projects
• San Jose: $1,050,000 + CPI
• Santa Clara Valley Water District: $2,000,000
• Watsonville: $600,000 (rescinded 11/5/2025)
10 Common Exclusions
• Work performed by agency staff
• Maintenance and small projects
• Specialized work (utilities, paving, complex water/wastewater) • Projects with Federal, State, or other agency grant funding that prohibit CWA provisions
• Projects with only one responsive bid, rebid without CWA/PLA Provisions
• Time-limited (3–5 years) agreements
• Termination Clause
11 Importance of Thresholds
• Ensures smaller local contractors/subcontractors have opportunities to bid on City projects that otherwise wouldn't due to CWA/PLA Provisions
• Affects existing workforces that are nonunion, which is significant for specialized and nonunion contractors
• Small businesses are inexperienced with compliance requirements, and administrative documentation can be significant for smaller staffs • Ensures the City’s projects are not delayed or become too expensive due to a lack of bids from responsive responsible contractors 12 Project Bid History Summary (2019–2025)*
*Some Clean Water Program
projects have been excluded
from this data set because
they did not follow the City’s
standard bidding process. Bid
openings for 2025 are to
current date.
13 Key Bid Findings
• 109 total bids since 2019; 34 >$2M
• In recent years, street and transportation projects have attracted a strong level of contractor interest, with as many as ten or more firms submitting bids on some projects.
• Overall, the City’s engineering cost estimates have been closely aligned with actual construction bids, averaging within a few percent across all projects. Some larger variation occurs within individual projects, but that is expected given differences in scope, site conditions, and complexity of the projects.
14 Double Benefits Issue
• Nonunion contractors may pay duplicative benefit
contributions costs whether workers are union or nonunion • Creates financial disadvantage and potential bid deterrent • Prevailing wages already cover most wage standards, which are required for all projects
15 Core Worker Provisions
• Often require the use of union job referral systems for much of the labor, rather than a standing (core) workforce employed by the contractor • Typically limits core employees to five per contractor, or one hiring hall worker required for each core worker
• May discourage participation from small or minority-owned firms 16 Local Hire and Apprenticeships
• Agencies can set local hire goals and/or apprenticeship programs to give preference to local residents or focus on "Targeted workers" who are disadvantaged, for example:
• veterans, public assistance recipients, at-risk youth, formerly incarcerated
• Peer agencies have identified this is challenging to meet • Typical to have one required apprentice with additional after certain thresholds, and a minimum % of required apprentice work hours 17 Case Studies
San Mateo County
• Applies to all public works
projects >$3M (2026), declining
annually to $1M (2029)
• Includes annual CPI adjustment
• 5-year duration; applies across
departments
City of Mountain View
• CWA applies to 5 pilot projects:
• Shoreline Bus Lane
• Boathouse Café Expansion
• Public Safety Building
• Plymouth/Space Park
Realignment
• Charleston Transit Corridor
City of Watsonville
• Recently rescinded PLA from 2014 to renegotiate terms • Focusing on raising project threshold >$1.5M and limiting applicable projects 118
Wastewater
Treatment Plant PLA • Clarify reimbursements (parking,
tolls)
• Ensure PLA supersedes other union
agreements
• Allow flexibility to source skilled
labor regionally
• Require union data reporting
(availability, certifications, safety)
• Consider limited nonunion carveouts
(e.g., 80/20 rule)
19 Specified Projects vs. $ Threshold Approach
• Specified Projects = controlled rollout to determine effects on local contractors, project costs, and how it supports apprenticeship programs
• Threshold model = applicable to more projects, likely requiring more City support staff
• A focus on a smaller number of projects gives a data-driven evaluation to better understand benefits and challenges
20 Administrative Impacts
• CWAs require dedicated staff and third-party administration for meetings, compliance tracking, reporting
• A Joint Administration Committee comprised of City staff would need to regularly monitor projects under construction
• A focus on a smaller number of projects would allow for gradual implementation with tracking of staff resources 21 Recommended
Guiding Principles
• Regardless of project specific or dollar
threshold approach, prioritize on data-
driven analysis of community benefits
• Maintain flexibility for workforce
sourcing
• Prioritize efficient use of staff resources
for administration
• Ensure project delivery remains timely
and cost-effective
• Ensure disputes between labor groups
addressed directly by those parties
• Protect grant funding eligibility
• Include a termination clause
• Provide staff authority to negotiate to
ensure the guiding principles are
represented
22 Questions for City Council
1. Should staff attempt to negotiate a CWA with the SMCBCTC? If the answer to Question 1 is yes:
1. Should staff attempt to negotiate a CWA with the SMCBCTC?
2. Should the City pursue a project specific approach based on a number of projects or a dollar threshold approach? If a project specific approach, should it start with 5 projects? If a dollar threshold approach, should the threshold begin at $5 million, $3 million, or $2 million? 23 Thank You
Christina Horrisberger - Assistant City Manager
Matt Fabry - Public Works Director
24 Bid History Summary (2019–2025)*
*Some Clean Water
Program projects have been
excluded from this data set
because they did not follow
the City’s standard bidding
process. Bid openings
for 2025 are to current date.
25 Bid History Summary (2019–2025)*
*Some Clean Water
Program projects have been
excluded from this data set
because they did not follow
the City’s standard bidding
process. Bid openings
for 2025 are to current date.
26