San Joaquin-Calaveras Central Labor Council, AFL-CIO
Non Partisan Candidate Questionnaire
INTRODUCTION
The San Joaquin-Calaveras Central Labor Council, AFL-CIO represents nearly 60,000
AFL-CIO union members and their families throughout San Joaquin & Calaveras
Counties. We represent the interest of working families who strive for good jobs, good
health care, a secure pension, quality education & training and retirement security.
Each election cycle the San Joaquin-Calaveras Central Labor Council, AFL-CIO devotes
significant resources in support of candidates for public office who have demonstrated
that they share the goals and aspirations of working families. Your responses to the
questions here is a key part of our effort to educate our members on the positions
candidates like yourself are taking on issues vital to working families.
Please be candid, complete, and forthright in your responses, and prompt in returning
the completed questionnaire.
Return this questionnaire to Nichole Rice, c/o San Joaquin-Calaveras Central Labor
Council, AFL-CIO 115 N. Sutter Street, Stockton, CA 95202. You may also email your
completed questionnaire to [email protected] or call 916-903-4040 with questions.
CANDIDATE INFORMATION
Candidate
Name:_________________________________________________________
Address:_______________________________________________________________
Phone Home #:__________________________________________________________
Phone Cell #:___________________________________________________________
Phone Office #:__________________________________________________________
Phone
Campaign#:________________________________________________________
Fax #:_________________________________________________________________
FPPC ID#:______________________________________________________________
Occupation:_____________________________________________________________
Employers:_____________________________________________________________
Office you are seeking (specify seat/
district):___________________________________
Are you an incumbent?_________________
CAMPAIGN INFORMATION
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1. Who are the critically important partners in your coalition, for your race to be
successful?
2. Who is your campaign manager and other key campaign consultants and staff?
3. Please describe your community involvement. List specific organizations.
4. Have you, or anyone from your family, ever been a union member?
5. If so, what union? (Please state International and Local if possible)
6. As a candidate for public office will you pledge to use union services during your
campaign and for all political activities during your term in office?
7. Who has endorsed your candidacy? Be specific.
8. Who is your opposition?
9. How much do you expect to raise and spend in your campaign?
10. How much money did the winning and losing candidate in the last election for the
office for which you are a candidate spend?
Winning Dollar Amount:______ Losing Dollar Amount:_______
11. How much of your personal money are you planning to contribute to your campaign?
12. How many votes will it take to win this election?
13. How will you communicate with all these voters?
14. What are the most votes you have ever received?
15. Whom do you consider your constituent voters?
16. Describe your plans for a field campaign.
GENERAL QUESTIONS
1. Do you think your local government is run well or run badly? Please explain.
2. What areas need to be improved?
3. Do you believe in involving employees, through their union, in coming up with
creative ideas to improve the work place (employee empowerment)?
4. What do you think are the three most important issues for your local government?
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THE RIGHT TO ORGANIZE
The Quality of our life depends on the quality of our jobs. Union membership
gives employees a voice at work, improves productivity, and contributes to the
economic vitality of our communities. Workers prefer the dignity and respect on
the job that comes with union membership. Too often, their freedom to choose a
union is obstructed by the Law, and/or by management threats, coercion, and
fear. Any employer tactics designed to harass, threaten or fire employees for
trying to join, or form a union, or deliberately manipulate national, state or local
Labor relations systems to prevent workers from unionizing or winning a contract
is violating a fundamental right of working people.
1. Do you support the right of all workers to join a union without interference by
employers or their agents?
2. Would you support a local government policy which encourages Labor Peace
agreements and alternative means of allowing workers to have a “voice at work”
which minimizes illegal employer coercion which almost always results from the
current National Labor Relations Board Election procedures? Card check and
Neutrality is or alternative means of selecting collective bargaining representation
with minimal illegal interference with workers right to choose a union.
3. Would you support a local government policy that would require disclosure of past
labor violations by employers wishing to do business with the local government
before those decisions are made? Yes_____ No_____ Comments_______
4. Will you support a local government policy to prevent city contractors, recipients of
economic development incentives and city leaseholders from using taxpayer funds to
oppose unionization?
5. What actions would you personally take to support workers organizing or a collective
bargaining agreement? (circle each individually)
Attend a rally
Walk a picket line
Write a letter to workers encouraging them to form a union or to employers
and their management asking them not to interfere or threaten, by coercion,
workers in choosing their collective bargaining representation.
Financial Contribution to the workers’ struggle
Post a yard sign in support of workers
Participate in a boycott
Make a phone call
Meet with workers
Meet with employers
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LIVABLE WAGES FOR WORKERS
Wages for a large majority of working people are stagnating. The gap between the
rich and working people has become a chasm. The only significant wage gains
have been for those in the highest brackets. Stagnant wages force workers to take
multiple jobs and work longer hours. Family life is often neglected in the need to
make a living. Meanwhile, a gathering proportion of jobs are temporary, part time
or lack benefits. Workers need economic security in return for their labor, and a
buffer against cuts in their wages, benefits and economic security.
1. Would you support increases to the minimum wage, that includes an annual cost of
living increase to keep up with inflation and help workers provide for their families?
2. Low-wage workers in this region continue to earn incomes below the Federal poverty
level and lack access to affordable health care. Would you support requirements that
contractors providing services to local government and recipients of economic
development incentives pay employees a livable wage?
3. Would you support requirements that contractors providing services to local
government and recipients of economic development incentives, provide affordable
health benefits to its employees?
4. Would you support requirements that contractors providing services to local
government offer priority employment to workers displaced by a change in
contractors?
PREVAILING WAGE/PROJECT LABOR AGREEMENTS
Project Labor Agreements (PLA’s) are a bright, new concept emerging for public
and private construction projects. PLA’s obligate contractors and their
subcontractors to agree to the terms of a pre-negotiated agreement between the
builder and the developer and the building trade unions that are needed for the
project. Wage rates, work rules, and working conditions are specified as part of a
PLA. PLA’s bring labor peace, ensure skilled, local workers on the project, and
ensure quality construction for public works.
1. Do you support the concept of using prevailing wage calculations on projects using
public funding? If yes, why? If not, why not?
2. What steps would you take to bring contracted out or privatized services back into
public administration?
3. Would you support the use of Project Labor Agreements on projects funded by a
local government agency?
4. Many Project Labor Agreements cover, not only the initial construction, but also the
ongoing maintenance and operations of the completed facility. Such long-term
agreements create labor stability for the project long after its construction is
completed. Would you actively support such long-term Project Labor Agreements? If
not, why?
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5. Would you support the creation of a Labor Compliance Program for jobs with State
and Federal money to insure compliance with state labor laws regarding public works
construction?
PRE-QUALIFICATION OF BIDDERS
1. Would you support pre-qualifications of bidders on public works projects? If not,
why?
2. Do you support as a pre-qualification requirement for bidders on construction
projects, that an employer must provide employer paid health care for the
children of the construction workers who perform the construction work? If not,
why?
3. Do you support as a pre-qualification requirement for bidders on construction
projects, that an employer must use an apprenticeship program that continuously
graduates successful trainees at a rate at least as good as the state average for
that trade as measured by the California Division of Apprenticeship Standards” If
not, why?
PUBLIC SECTOR PRIVATIZATION/CONTRACTING OUT
Some elected officials, operating under the guise of market efficiency, are
pursuing ill-conceived efforts to privatize services. A growing body of research
shows that essential public services are almost always done more cheaply,
reliable, and more efficiently with higher quality when experienced public workers
do them. This is especially true when confidentiality, unbiased information, and
public accountability are vital concerns. Privatization or contracting out of public
services must never be used as a mean of undercutting fair wages and benefits of
workers providing those services.
1. Do you support the concept of privatization? Why or why not?
2. Under what circumstances, if any, would you approve a private contract for work
currently performed by public employees?
3. If a local agency workforce can provide the same service at the same cost, who
should provide the service? Why?
4. Do you support Agency Shop for public workers?
5. Do you support “Responsible Contractor” policies that require that goods and
services (such as power, telecommunications, etc.) purchased by public agencies be
purchased from employers that pay decent wages and benefits and recognize
employee’s right to organize unions free from employer intimidation?
6. Would you support requiring a Cost Accounting Analysis of contracts (including the
cost of the Request for Proposals, change orders, and other hidden costs of
contracting out) and comparison of wages and benefits to city workers vs. private
contractors as part of decision-making process for contracting?
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ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT
Strong, well directed, broadly inclusive economic growth is vital to the health of
the local economy. In California, as in the rest of the nation, the income gap
between the rich and the poor is continually widening. Economic development
programs must be structured to ensure equal job access and create a wage
structure that does not result in a wider economic gap. Public investment policy
must focus on restoring California’s crumbling, antiquated infrastructure
including schools, transportation systems, parks telecommunications, drinking
water systems, public buildings, and on creating new public resources.
1. Do you support requiring companies to make commitments to provide good jobs
(jobs that pay a living wage, provide healthcare benefits, and pensions plans), and
commitments to stay in the community for a certain period of time as a condition of
receiving economic development assistance?
2. Do you agree that creation of community and regional economic development
strategies must include significant input from labor, community interests, and
academics? Please explain why or why not?
Currently, policymakers are not required to evaluate job quality or community benefit
outcomes of public decisions and projects. While Environmental Impact Reports require
that decision makers consider certain environmental impacts of development, no such
“Community Benefits Impact Report” provides policymakers with the tools to evaluate job
quality and community benefit outcomes of these same projects utilizing the criteria
outlined above.
3. Would you support a requirement that the local governments establish a “Community
Benefits Impact Report” which specifically explains the number of jobs created, wage
levels, and overall impact for major development and economic development
projects? Please explain why or why not?
BIG BOX
“Big Box” supercenter developments (like Wal-Mart) across the country are
affecting wages of workers, and altering local economies as a result.
Economic development policies can prevent these problems – but we need to
know what we are up against. Such “Big Box” developments pay their
workers $6.50-$8.00/hour with no health care, while union grocery stores pay
up to $22.00 per hour with benefits. Wal-Mart intends to convert the majority
of its stores into “Supercenters” which would sell grocery items found in
union grocery stores.
1.
What do you believe the economic impact Wal-Mart will have on the food
industry if its plans are successful in the San Joaquin County region?
2.
Are you aware of the impact health care costs will have on surrounding Counties
if Wal-Mart or Target captures 15% to 20% of the market?
3.
Would you support a policy that creates a level playing field so food stores can
compete on equal terms?
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CREATING GOOD JOBS
1. Briefly describe your vision for improving the economic conditions and job security of
the people who work in your area.
2. Do you support requirements of equal pay and pro-rated benefits for part-time and
temporary employees?
3. Would you support a provision that requires temporary agencies to disclose to a
temporary worker, the amount of money the agency receives from the company
enlisting the temporary agency per worker, versus the compensation the worker
receives for his/her work?
HEALTH CARE FOR WORKING FAMILIES
California is facing a health care crisis. Health insurance costs are mounting and
workers are taking on a greater burden for the cost of their health care. Union
members are facing tradeoffs at the bargaining table – maintain their health care
coverage or get a raise – a choice that must be avoided. We cannot solve this
health care crisis without expanding access to health care. Nearly seven million
Californians lack health insurance, and their health suffers because they have
little access to adequate, preventive care. When the uninsured end up in the
emergency room, those with health insurance end up paying the bills.
1. Do you believe that all employers should be responsible for providing health insurance
to their workers and their families? Why or why not?
2. As an elected official , what would you do to assist residents in gaining access to
affordable, quality healthcare?
IN-HOME SUPPORTIVE SERVICES
1. Paying homecare providers livable wages stimulates local economies and saves
the state money by insuring a stable workforce that provides community-based
care. Homecare services like those provided in the IHSS program are six to eight
times cheaper than nursing home costs. Fiscally it makes sense for the state to
promote the expansion of IHSS programs. What will you do to ensure the
expansion of home and community based care like IHSS?
TRANSPORTATION
Population growth puts increasing pressures on our roads and transportation
system.
1. How do you envision expanding our mass transit system to meet the needs of
workers?
2. Where will you find the resources to accomplish this?
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LABOR APPOINTMENTS
1. Would you, as an elected official, agree to have your prospective appointees to
Planning/Land-Use Commissions/Committees meet jointly with the leaders of the
San Joaquin-Calaveras County Building & Construction Trades Council and San
Joaquin-Valaveras Central Labor Council before you make a commitment to
appoint them?
LABOR VOTES
1. If you are an incumbent or have been an elected official in any previous office,
please list any specific issues you have voted on that may be related to any of
the issues described in this questionnaire. Please list the issue and how you
voted.
HUMAN RIGHTS, EQUALITY AND DIVERSITY IN THE WORKPLACE
1. Do you support or oppose the use of programs to insure equal opportunities for
women and minorities?
2. Would you support enacting policies, laws, or ordinances that protect lesbian,
gay, bisexual and transgender individuals from discrimination in the workplace?
3. Do you support granting domestic partner benefits to same sex and non married
individuals who work in your jurisdiction?
The undersigned stipulates that the information provided above is their own true and
accurate statement and represents the position of their candidacy.
_________________________
SIGNATURE
_______________
DATE
I agree to use union services as defined under the Labor Council's Union Services Policy
during my election campaign and for all personal political activities during my term of
office. I further understand I may call upon the Labor Council for information and
assistance on this subject during my term of office.
_________________________
SIGNATURE
_______________
DATE
POLICY FOR USE OF VENDORS
1. Union Venders: All affiliated AFL-CIO unions, friends of labor, and endorsed
candidates/office holders will be expected to use union vendors when any services
are paid and not donated, when union venders are available as determined by the
Central Labor Council.
2. Boycotted Vendors:
No AFL-CIO union, friend of labor, or C.O.P.E. endorsed
candidates/office holders will be given authorization to use a vendor which appears
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on any authorized AFL-CIO “Do Not Patronize” list. Said boycott listing is to be
considered as a perpetual picket of a vendor.
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