It did not receive any news coverage – another important, more popular item, a potential partnership with defense contractor Lockheed Martin, took center stage – but five Democrats on the Burlington City Council joined their Republican colleagues in flicking the bird to working people last evening.  The bloc defeated by a 9-5 margin a resolution introduced by Emma Mulvaney-Stanak (P-Ward 3) regarding community workforce standards for the Moran Plant Redevelopment project. The resolution encouraged all contractors and subcontractors on the job to:

– Hire locally (Vermonters or those who live within 50 miles of Burlington);

– Obey the law (the city’s existing livable wage ordinance, properly classifying workers, etc.);

– Be held accountable if laws are broken;

– Give workers access to certified apprenticeships and leverage partnership with community organizations to get women and minorities into the building trades;

– And provide quality health insurance and pension benefits to employees on the job;

What’s not to like about that, especially if you call yourself a Democrat?

Sadly, the following Dems successfully torpedoed the resolution by voting NO: Bram Kranichfeld (Ward 2), Nancy Kaplan (Ward 4), Bill Keogh (Ward 5; also a former lobbyist for the Associated General Contractors of Vermont), Joan Shannon (Ward 5), and Mary Kehoe (Ward 6).  Kurt Wright (R-Ward 4), Karen Paul (I-Ward 6), Paul Decelles (R-Ward 7), and Vince Dober (R-Ward 7) joined them.

In fairness, Ed Adrian (D-Ward 1) and David Berezniak (D-Ward 2) courageously saw through the scare tactics and lies from the general contracting community and voted YES, along with Mulvaney-Stanak, Vince Brennan (P-Ward 3), and Sharon Bushor (I-Ward 1).

The resolution came on the heels of a proposed Project Labor Agreement (PLA) for Moran, where essentially the same pack of interest groups and councilors killed that movement, too.  As a sensible follow-up, Mulvaney-Stanak drafted the resolution in hopes of at least encouraging some bare-bones standards on this project.  To this legal novice, a resolution is simply a formal statement of opinion or intent that provides guidance, and is not an ordinance and is not a legally binding contract like a PLA.  Yet, the anti-worker lobbyists, owners and certain councilors did a bang-up job of painting the resolution as “PLA Lite,” an effort that they claimed would discourage “open shops” from bidding, force them to change their business practices, drive up costs, and put Vermonters out of  jobs.  Of course, those of us who carefully read the resolution, recognize the all-too-common “low road” approach to business in the construction industry, and genuinely care about workers know none of this is true.

It is enormously disappointing when the City of Burlington – a so-called “Fair Trade” community that is perennially lauded as one of the healthiest, most livable places in the country – cannot muster the votes on a council with seven Democrats to pass a measly community workforce standards resolution.  Have we become so disconnected from the labor movement that we walk lock step with anti-responsible contracting bosses over workers?  Are we more concerned about the workers abroad who are harvesting our chocolate and coffee – don’t get me wrong: many of these folks are blatantly exploited and certainly deserve our solidarity  – than we are about our own neighbors who work in the trades?  For how long will we allow the “turn the other way/business as usual” mentality that drove this economy into the ditch to begin with prevent us from proudly doing the right thing?

Get with it, B-Town Democrats.

LINK TO FULL RESOLUTION:

http://www.ci.burlington.vt.us…