Souza Misleads on Labor Agreement at September Meeting

Yesterday we reported on what we are calling the “November Surprise”–a supposed announcement that there is a labor agreement on Target. Claire St. John in her defense claims that she is initiated the calls to Souza and Saylor rather than the other way around.

The newspaper article in Thursday’s Davis Enterprise, has prompted me to go back to see exactly what Souza said on that September meeting. I have clipped together about a minute of Heystek’s discussion of his living wage ordinance with Souza’s comments, so that the readers can see the context in which Souza made these comments.

From a listen to the video, the opening line of St. John’s newspaper article is:

At a September Davis City Council meeting, Councilman Stephen Souza said he and Councilman Don Saylor were in negotiations with Target Corp. to use union labor in the construction of a Davis Target and surrounding stores.

Watching the meeting on September 18, 2006, Souza never even mentioned construction of a Target, he only mentioned that he and Saylor were working on a PLA (project labor agreement). A PLA is a collective bargaining agreement between organized labor and contractors and/or owners that applies to a specific project site. However, Souza spun this into something a lot bigger than just a construction agreement–his statement that the discussions about a living wage ordinance gave the impression that such an ordinance would conflict with the PLA, when in fact, it appears that there is little to no crossover between the two.

There are two main things that Souza told us on September 18, 2006.

We were hoping that we’d be able to bring that to you as an announcement, but we have not got it completed but we are very close to having it completed.

That was 45 days ago, and it is still not completed.

However Saylor assures us in the November 2, 2006 article:

“We expect a final agreement in a matter of weeks”

Further the delay was explained:

Negotiations between Target and the construction union have been ongoing since late August, said Jay Ziegler, one of Target’s representatives in talks, but have stalled recently after Matt Kelly, a representative for the Sacramento-Sierra Building Trades Council, was called away for a family emergency.

Family emergencies happen, so we don’t want to belabor this point any further, just demonstrate that a deal was expected in mid-September and now it’s early November and the election is on top of us, but there is still no agreement.

The larger point is the ongoing deception by Stephen Souza on what this agreement entailed and why it was relevent to bring up at all at the September 18, 2006 meeting.

“We have been working on that and we’ve almost completed it, we’re hoping that these actions won’t jeopardize it, because all parties have been in agreement so far to date…”

By “these actions” he is speaking specifically to Heystek’s living wage proposal. However, Heystek’s proposal mainly affected Target workers who would be employed by a Target store that was open for business. The labor agreement that Souza and Saylor have been working on has nothing to do with employees of a Target store, it is only about the construction of the building. That Souza would use this as an excuse to attempt to kill any discussion of a living wage ordinance was dishonest.

And his dishonesty does not end at this point.

In Souza’s opinion, a project labor agreement is more effective than imposing a living wage ordinance on Target alone, he said.

Let’s be very clear once again–the PLA (project labor agreement) that Souza is speaking of deals only with the construction workers. The end of the article makes this point crystal clear.

Current negotiations do not focus on future Target employees, [Jay] Ziegler [one of Target’s representatives in talks] said.

Souza at the September 18, 2006 meeting creates the impression that they are working on something that they are not working on. His suggestion that the discussion and reading of a living wage ordinance might have jeopardized the PLA is utterly irresponsible. There would have been absolutely no impact. His statement gave us the impression that there might be some sort of labor agreement in the works for future Target employees–which would have been news given Target’s anti-union policies. But that is utterly untrue. Souza’s continuing assertion that this is better than a living wage is also misleading because this is such a limited agreement. Finally, as we reported yesterday, Souza continues to repeat the deception that a living wage ordinance might be unconstitutional when in fact the city attorney made it clear to him that they had a similar case in Emeryville and expected the city to prevail.

—Doug Paul Davis reporting

About The Author

David Greenwald is the founder, editor, and executive director of the Davis Vanguard. He founded the Vanguard in 2006. David Greenwald moved to Davis in 1996 to attend Graduate School at UC Davis in Political Science. He lives in South Davis with his wife Cecilia Escamilla Greenwald and three children.

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12 Comments

  1. davisite

    Target Corp has been adept at concealing the fact that they are essentially Wal-Mart Lite as their anti-labor practices( wage caps, part-time employment, inadequate benefits, exploitative working conditions), anti-environmental policies ( Measure K opposed by our local Sierra Club) and social agenda( Target allows its pharmacists to refuse to fill valid prescriptions for Plan B emergency contraception medication) are almost identical to the notorious Wal-Mart model.
    It is said that a measure of how one values something is the sacrifice that one is willing to make for it. Target Corp does not represent the Davis values that make us proud of our city. It seems a small sacrifice indeed to say No to a Target in Davis with a No on Measure K vote.

  2. davisite

    Target Corp has been adept at concealing the fact that they are essentially Wal-Mart Lite as their anti-labor practices( wage caps, part-time employment, inadequate benefits, exploitative working conditions), anti-environmental policies ( Measure K opposed by our local Sierra Club) and social agenda( Target allows its pharmacists to refuse to fill valid prescriptions for Plan B emergency contraception medication) are almost identical to the notorious Wal-Mart model.
    It is said that a measure of how one values something is the sacrifice that one is willing to make for it. Target Corp does not represent the Davis values that make us proud of our city. It seems a small sacrifice indeed to say No to a Target in Davis with a No on Measure K vote.

  3. davisite

    Target Corp has been adept at concealing the fact that they are essentially Wal-Mart Lite as their anti-labor practices( wage caps, part-time employment, inadequate benefits, exploitative working conditions), anti-environmental policies ( Measure K opposed by our local Sierra Club) and social agenda( Target allows its pharmacists to refuse to fill valid prescriptions for Plan B emergency contraception medication) are almost identical to the notorious Wal-Mart model.
    It is said that a measure of how one values something is the sacrifice that one is willing to make for it. Target Corp does not represent the Davis values that make us proud of our city. It seems a small sacrifice indeed to say No to a Target in Davis with a No on Measure K vote.

  4. davisite

    Target Corp has been adept at concealing the fact that they are essentially Wal-Mart Lite as their anti-labor practices( wage caps, part-time employment, inadequate benefits, exploitative working conditions), anti-environmental policies ( Measure K opposed by our local Sierra Club) and social agenda( Target allows its pharmacists to refuse to fill valid prescriptions for Plan B emergency contraception medication) are almost identical to the notorious Wal-Mart model.
    It is said that a measure of how one values something is the sacrifice that one is willing to make for it. Target Corp does not represent the Davis values that make us proud of our city. It seems a small sacrifice indeed to say No to a Target in Davis with a No on Measure K vote.

  5. Anonymous

    I am really confused as to why Saylor and Souza are the ones negotiating anything on behalf of the citizens of Davis with a corporation. Isn’t their role supposed to be representing Davis citizens? How is negotiating a construction labor contract going to benefit the eventual employees of Target? A living wage would give direct benefit to Davis in the form of more money that employees would have to pay to reside, eat, & play in Davis. This would benefit the employees, but would also contribute to the overall economic health of the other businesses in town (downtown). I am certain that Steve and Don stated that they were negotiating an agreement with Target that would make the living wage requirement that Lamar was proposing unnecessary. I do not understand why these two would engage in such misleading behaviour. I just don’t see the perceived or real gain in such behavior.

  6. Anonymous

    I am really confused as to why Saylor and Souza are the ones negotiating anything on behalf of the citizens of Davis with a corporation. Isn’t their role supposed to be representing Davis citizens? How is negotiating a construction labor contract going to benefit the eventual employees of Target? A living wage would give direct benefit to Davis in the form of more money that employees would have to pay to reside, eat, & play in Davis. This would benefit the employees, but would also contribute to the overall economic health of the other businesses in town (downtown). I am certain that Steve and Don stated that they were negotiating an agreement with Target that would make the living wage requirement that Lamar was proposing unnecessary. I do not understand why these two would engage in such misleading behaviour. I just don’t see the perceived or real gain in such behavior.

  7. Anonymous

    I am really confused as to why Saylor and Souza are the ones negotiating anything on behalf of the citizens of Davis with a corporation. Isn’t their role supposed to be representing Davis citizens? How is negotiating a construction labor contract going to benefit the eventual employees of Target? A living wage would give direct benefit to Davis in the form of more money that employees would have to pay to reside, eat, & play in Davis. This would benefit the employees, but would also contribute to the overall economic health of the other businesses in town (downtown). I am certain that Steve and Don stated that they were negotiating an agreement with Target that would make the living wage requirement that Lamar was proposing unnecessary. I do not understand why these two would engage in such misleading behaviour. I just don’t see the perceived or real gain in such behavior.

  8. Anonymous

    I am really confused as to why Saylor and Souza are the ones negotiating anything on behalf of the citizens of Davis with a corporation. Isn’t their role supposed to be representing Davis citizens? How is negotiating a construction labor contract going to benefit the eventual employees of Target? A living wage would give direct benefit to Davis in the form of more money that employees would have to pay to reside, eat, & play in Davis. This would benefit the employees, but would also contribute to the overall economic health of the other businesses in town (downtown). I am certain that Steve and Don stated that they were negotiating an agreement with Target that would make the living wage requirement that Lamar was proposing unnecessary. I do not understand why these two would engage in such misleading behaviour. I just don’t see the perceived or real gain in such behavior.

  9. davisite

    anonymous… Councilman Heystek threw a political bombshell in their laps and Souza and Saylor were desparately trying to defuse it by suggesting that they were already in labor negotiations with Target Corp. Saylor and Souza are both politically ambitious. Our Council is only a stepping stone to higher office and they need the support of organized labor. They attempted to fudge their bystander participation in the labor negotiations between Target Corp. and the construction unions to give them some political cover for abandoning future Target employees to the anti-union/labor practices of Target Corp . It didn’t work and they were caught in their deception…. perceived gain for their “misleading behavoir”?…. saving their political behinds.

  10. davisite

    anonymous… Councilman Heystek threw a political bombshell in their laps and Souza and Saylor were desparately trying to defuse it by suggesting that they were already in labor negotiations with Target Corp. Saylor and Souza are both politically ambitious. Our Council is only a stepping stone to higher office and they need the support of organized labor. They attempted to fudge their bystander participation in the labor negotiations between Target Corp. and the construction unions to give them some political cover for abandoning future Target employees to the anti-union/labor practices of Target Corp . It didn’t work and they were caught in their deception…. perceived gain for their “misleading behavoir”?…. saving their political behinds.

  11. davisite

    anonymous… Councilman Heystek threw a political bombshell in their laps and Souza and Saylor were desparately trying to defuse it by suggesting that they were already in labor negotiations with Target Corp. Saylor and Souza are both politically ambitious. Our Council is only a stepping stone to higher office and they need the support of organized labor. They attempted to fudge their bystander participation in the labor negotiations between Target Corp. and the construction unions to give them some political cover for abandoning future Target employees to the anti-union/labor practices of Target Corp . It didn’t work and they were caught in their deception…. perceived gain for their “misleading behavoir”?…. saving their political behinds.

  12. davisite

    anonymous… Councilman Heystek threw a political bombshell in their laps and Souza and Saylor were desparately trying to defuse it by suggesting that they were already in labor negotiations with Target Corp. Saylor and Souza are both politically ambitious. Our Council is only a stepping stone to higher office and they need the support of organized labor. They attempted to fudge their bystander participation in the labor negotiations between Target Corp. and the construction unions to give them some political cover for abandoning future Target employees to the anti-union/labor practices of Target Corp . It didn’t work and they were caught in their deception…. perceived gain for their “misleading behavoir”?…. saving their political behinds.

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