Union Support for SB 423 Grows as Operating Engineers and Laborers Endorse Critical Affordable Housing Legislation

SACRAMENTO – Two major California unions, the California-Nevada Conference of Operating Engineers and the Southern California District Council of Laborers, released letters this week endorsing SB 423, Sen. Wiener’s legislation to extend SB 35 (2017), one of the state’s most successful tools for accelerating development of affordable housing. Together, the two unions represent hundreds of thousands of skilled construction workers. 

SB 35’s streamlined approvals have proved to be enormously successful at increasing affordable housing production in communities failing to keep pace with their housing goals—helping develop over 13,000 units of affordable housing and tens of thousands of high-wage jobs in the four years since it went into effect. With the law sunsetting at the end of 2025, Sen. Wiener’s new bill, SB 423, would extend its provisions—and add strong new labor standards signed into law last year by Governor Newsom that will ensure it continues to produce both affordable housing and stable, high-wage jobs for California workers.

“I’m thrilled to see momentum continue to grow in the labor community for this bold step to tackle our housing crisis,” said Senator Wiener. “The only way to dig out of our crushing housing shortage is by partnering with workers, and that’s why SB 423’s labor protections were written by and for workers, just as SB 35’s were. By expanding wage and healthcare protections to hundreds of thousands of construction workers that currently lack them, SB 423 will uplift the workers tackling our housing crisis.”

SB 423 is sponsored by the California Housing Consortium, California Conference of Carpenters, the Inner City Law Center, the Local Initiative Support Corporation, and California YIMBY.

The new support letters from Operating Engineers and Laborers are attached:

California-Nevada Conference of Operating Engineers

Southern California District Council of Laborers

More information on SB 423 is here:

Editorial: California cities want to stop fast-tracking affordable housing construction. Bad idea. (Los Angeles Times, April 11, 2023)

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