California
How California’s Solar Ironworkers Got Rid of Tiers
California’s solar power plants now rival the scale of any in the world. What stands out most is how they were built: under union contracts.
Across the United States, nearly 90 percent of solar workers had no union last year. In California, the situation was different — at least on paper. The vast majority of its solar power plants have been wrenched in place by unionized construction workers. But at first these were union jobs practically in name only, as thousands of unionized solar construction workers toiled on the underside of a two-tier system. Their wages, training, and job security lagged far behind their union siblings. Many questioned if they were members at all.
“As a probationary, pay was $15 an hour or a little less,” said Pablo Perez, a union member of the International Association of Bridge, Structural, Ornamental and Reinforcing Iron Worker (IW or Ironworkers) working on major solar plants near Fresno. “I was one of one hundred guys they brought in. When the job was over, you were done.”
Over the last few decades, many building trades leaders signed on to lower-tier contracts to get a foothold in residential and clean energy construction jobsites.
Around 2010, while other unions were still shut out of California’s growing solar power plants, the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW) began winning contracts — but at a cost. Temporary, lower-paid “construction wiremen” would fill about two-thirds of electrical jobs. Longer-term union members and apprentices split the rest. Officers argued the repetitive nature of solar construction — often repeating the same ten tasks of wiring and setting panels, for acres — didn’t require broadly trained, highly paid electricians.
Officials in the building trades often try direct outreach to persuade project developers to hire union, pitching them on safety, quality work, and fewer delays. But local Ironworker leader Don Savory in Fresno initially found it tough to convince solar developers to hire unionized contracting companies.
“When solar started coming, there were a few of them built nonunion, paying $12 to $14 an hour,” he said. “At our package, $60 an hour [for wages and benefits], we weren’t getting traction.”
So as solar construction picked up faster, Savory proposed labor agreements that matched the IBEW’s tier ratios: five probationary Ironworkers for each fully trained “journeyworker” and apprentice.
Even compared to apprentices only two years into working iron, “probies” would get one-third less pay and nearly none of the benefits. Instead of the union hiring hall that lined up a next job for apprentices, probationary workers finished their month or two of solar work with no guarantees to stay working union. The San Joaquin Valley, surrounding Fresno, is where Ironworker solar tiers started and ended. A few fields over is where the United Farm Workers struggled under vigilante gunfire.
In 2000, Fresno’s conservative city council passed the nation’s first ban on municipal Project Labor Agreements, a common deal used to unionize public work.
Meanwhile California’s state laws started pushing utility companies to shift to renewable energy: 20 percent clean by 2017, 50 percent by 2030, and 100 percent by 2045. Those mandates became a model for twenty-seven other states, though the targets are usually less ambitious.
But California’s renewable laws lacked any explicit labor standards, let alone guaranteed union contracts.
Building trades unions made a stick out of the state’s environmental permit law. Like they had recently done to win concessions from gas power plant owners, unions threatened solar developers with lawsuits and mobilization to block permits until they signed a deal to unionize. Just as important was a big carrot: unions could train thousands of new workers in the skills needed to build solar farms fast enough, even in remote corners of the state. Their apprenticeships, hiring halls, and mentorship gave them an edge over nonunion outfits, which struggled to keep up with the demand.
As Ironworkers lined up their first few years of solar contracts, some local leaders pushed to get other unions included. Instead of competing over turf on each site, five trades agreed that stable, inclusive terms would mean steadier work all around.
By 2015, IBEW, Ironworkers, the Laborers’ International Union of North America, Northern California Millwrights, and the International Union of Operating Engineers worked out a “five-craft agreement.” Their combined pressure made union labor the standard for all but one solar plant developer in California.
Ironworker officers pledged that the solar two-tier would be temporary. Still, “the guys were hissing and booing” when Savory introduced the tiers deal at a local meeting in 2013. “I said, ‘This’ll get a foot in the door, then it’s up to you guys to make it better.’”
Unlike some other trades with appointed officers, Ironworkers elect their local leaders from the ranks. In the “rodbusters” union, a culture of rowdy local meetings and contested elections often checks those who win. On the job, the new tier drew gripes. According to one local officer, probationary workers were largely “hired off the street, or somebody’s cousin,” without the selective interviews and job experience that picked apprentices. Probies only got brief training in the field.
Contractors “just kind of threw us out there, sink or swim,” said Darrell Lewis, a former probationary-tier Ironworker. “If it wasn’t for some of the older guys, it would’ve been hard to learn on the job like we had to. The older apprentices watched out for us.”
Longtime Ironworkers complained that worksites with a majority of quick, temporary hires were undercutting the union culture of quality and safety. Savory said solar foremen — union members who coordinate and train others on site — told him the new system was creating “organized chaos, basically. It was like herding cats.”
That chaos was especially risky for probationary workers, given their limited training, weak health coverage, and the scorching conditions.
“I wasn’t used to the heat,” Lewis said. “It was summertime when I started, and it was 107 degrees out there. A few guys actually dropped off the job.” In nearby Southern California, summers are getting so hot that a few solar contractors have recently shifted to building at night. Probies who stuck around wanted a full union apprenticeship, to get pay and security to match the tough work. They often found solidarity from older members on their solar sites. “All the guys who were already in were giving us as much advice as they could about how to get into the union,” said Perez. “It’s a real brotherhood, and that’s not a word I’d use lightly.”
Perez, Lewis, and scores of other probies were accepted within a few years into the Ironworkers apprenticeship program. Nearly all have stuck with the trade, and a few have become foremen.
Member pushback and jobsite frustrations nudged union leaders to make good on their promise. In 2015, Savory proposed a new Project Labor Agreement that would replace all probationary solar Ironworkers with full members or apprentices.
Some contractors griped that they’d be on the hook for higher wages. Pointing to the chaos when untrained workers did the work, Savory’s response was simple: “‘You’ll get more done.’ And they do.”
The proposal to abolish tiers came right as other unions were locking in their sides of the five-craft agreement that would unionize the rest of solar construction work. Although the IBEW kept its lower solar tier, Ironworkers say the Laborers, Millwrights, and Operating Engineers never introduced one. Instead of a race to the bottom, the cross-trade push prodded contractors around Fresno to accept the Ironworkers’ landmark no-tiers deal: one apprentice to one journeyworker and no more probationary positions.
Major solar Ironworker locals in Southern California soon demanded the same, and contractors gave in fast. Ironworkers membership has grown 70 percent in the eight years since.
Last October, IBEW, Laborers, and Operating Engineers announced a national “three-craft agreement,” outlining the jobs each trade will claim in union solar contracts, for every state but California.
Whether and how that agreement becomes a contract — including if Ironworkers fit in — will depend first on forcing solar developers to unionize. In California, unionizing solar jobs took creative, cross-trade pressure on contractors.
But to make solar jobs as good as those before them, like Fresno’s rodbusters showed, it took solidarity on the job and democracy in the hall.
One of Santa Barbara’s most prolific hospitality groups makes its Los Angeles debut this week with Picala, a new restaurant in West Adams. Acme Hospitality — the group behind Central Coast restaurants including the Lark, Loquita, and Helena Avenue Bakery, led by founder and managing partner Sherry Villanueva — recruited former chef de cuisine at Lulu, Luis Sierra, to develop a menu that embodies California cooking through a Spanish lens. Picala opens Tuesday, April 28, on the bottom floor of Vox Residences on La Cienega and Jefferson Boulevards.
Sierra’s menu leads with the familiar, including olives, pan con tomate, and a tortilla Española for starters. A seasonal shaved asparagus salad is herby and light with Idiazabal cheese and a Spanish vinaigrette, while Picala’s aged prime rib-eye gets presented with a dollop of egg yolk, anchovy for added brine, and a pleasant bitter add of grilled chicory. Each dish is designed for sharing, including the paella served on a traditional pan bursting with Mary’s chicken, chorizo, peppers, and aioli.
Sierra and Villanueva cultivated relationships with Santa Barbara fishermen to source local catches for the menu, like the impeccable dayboat rockfish. Other seafood options include Pacific calamari squid with gigante (white runner) beans and salsa verde, and fideo noodles packed with Caledonian shrimp, venus clams, bay scallops, and topped with aioli. Sierra’s goal is to source ingredients within 200 miles.
Assistant general manager Joey Mar developed the cocktail menu, inspired by his travels through Spain. The menu spans sangria by the glass and a section featuring five gin and tonics, plus a dazzling La Mancha tequila cocktail with passionfruit, Manchego-washed tequila, lime, Orgeat, and pimenton.
Studio UNLTD transformed Picala’s high ceilings into an inviting space with curved custom banquettes, flowing textiles, and floor-to-ceiling windows designed to take advantage of the impressive sunset light on the 45-seat patio or in the 135-capacity dining room.
Though Villanueva resides in Santa Barbara, Picala has local roots. Villanueva is a Los Angeles native whose husband’s family has a deep connection to the now-defunct KMEX, which eventually became Univision. The owners of the Cumulus District are longtime friends of the Villanuevas, who invited Acme Hospitality to their West Adams space. Those visiting Picala will find Whole Foods in the same complex, the La Cienega/Jefferson Metro station within walking distance, and HBO and Amazon Studios just one mile away.
Villanueva says her longevity in the business is based on a personal philosophy that she returns to with each new opening. “We make the connections with people, and encourage them to do the same,” she says.
Picala is open at 3321 S. La Cienega Boulevard, Suite G, West Adams, CA, 90016. For now, hours are 5 p.m. to 9 p.m. Sunday through Thursday, and until 10 p.m. on Friday and Saturday. Secure reservations on OpenTable.
More rain could be in store for Los Angeles this week.
Skies will be partly cloudy Tuesday, with temperatures warming to the low to mid-70s, said Ryan Kittell, meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Oxnard.
But by Wednesday night, most parts of Los Angeles have a roughly 20% to 30% chance of getting a measurable amount of rain, he said. There’s also a slight chance of showers over the eastern San Gabriel Mountains on Thursday morning and afternoon, according to the forecast.
Winds are expected to pick up late Wednesday into Thursday, especially in mountain and desert areas, with gusts in the 25- to 35-mph range, Kittell said.
No impacts are expected as far as flooding or downed trees, he said.
Many areas will probably remain dry, and those that do receive rain will see less than a quarter of an inch, Kittell said. The chance of rain increases farther south, in Orange and San Diego counties, he said.
Forecasters are then predicting a warming trend, with high temperatures in most places expected to be in the mid-70s to upper 80s on Friday and Saturday.
There’s an additional chance of very light rain early next week, probably on Monday, Kittell said.
These storms may represent the last gasp of Southern California’s rainy season, which typically ends in April. So far, downtown L.A. has received roughly 18.98 inches of rain since Oct. 1, the start of the water year. That’s more than the 13.65 inches that is normal at this point in the year.
Still, California is enduring its second-worst snow drought in 50 years, which experts say is a sign of how rising temperatures from climate change are worsening the West’s long-term water supply problems.
Credit: Marcus Queiroga Silva / Pexels
Student journalists at the Redwood Bark at Redwood High School in Marin County aren’t alone in facing recent attempts to control student journalism.
Despite protections in a 1977 landmark state law, the Student Free Expression Act, which prohibits administrators from interfering with the gathering and publication of news, student reporters and their journalism advisers have encountered censorship attempts in recent years, including efforts to punish advisers for students’ stories and to remove content. In one case, a principal told them that their job was to paint the high school in a good light.
Examples include:
San Francisco Unified School District
A Superior Court judge in January ordered the district to reinstate the journalism adviser at Lowell High School, Eric Gustafson, to his job after he was removed last year. San Francisco Unified School District officials argued they transferred Gustafson because they wanted someone in his post with more experience and more education.
Gustafson claimed it was because of his students’ aggressive reporting and stories on topics such as student drug use and teachers’ use of AI in grading, and because he refused to let school officials see stories before they were published, court records show.
Judge Christine Van Aken called the district’s claims “not credible.” The court concluded that the “motivation for the district’s reassignment decision was to impact the editorial content of The Lowell in a way that they could not accomplish directly,” she wrote in her decision.
Mountain View Los Altos High School District
In Silicon Valley, a trial is scheduled for November over a lawsuit brought in 2024 by a journalism adviser and former students against the Mountain View Los Altos High School District. It alleges a principal, Kip Glazer, “improperly pressured and intimidated” student reporters working on a story about student-on-student sexual harassment.
Glazer sought to “avoid embarrassment rather than uphold the constitutional and statutory right of her students and faculty,” the suit charges. Glazer allegedly told student journalists on Mountain View High School’s Oracle newspaper staff that their purpose was to be “uplifting” for the school and to portray it “in a positive light,” records show.
“The power dynamic was pretty clear,” one of the students’ lawyers, Jordyn Ostroff, told EdSource. “I think anyone would understand that a student, generally speaking, would probably feel obligated to do what a principal is demanding they do.”
The suit also alleges that Glazer illegally removed Oracle’s adviser, Carla Gomez, from her post, replacing her with the school’s drama teacher. Gomez is suing to get her job back.
The former students are seeking an order from a judge that would “prevent future censorship of the paper. They also want to ensure journalism is still taught at Mountain View High, where the district has cut an introduction to journalism class.
The lawyer defending the district, Eric Bengston, declined to comment.
Sacramento City Unified School District
In 2024, the district placed Samantha Archuleta, the journalism adviser to The Prospector newspaper at C.K. McClatchy High School, named for the long-time editor of the Sacramento Bee, on administrative leave after a reporter quoted a fellow student saying that Adolph “Hitler had some good ideas.”
The comment was reportedly made in a government class and printed in a column entitled “What did you say?” about remarks overheard at school.
Student journalists at The Prospector — where the writer Joan Didion was once on staff — wrote on Instagram that the quote had not reflected their beliefs but “was included to spark a conversation on how students here choose to use their words.”
In a June 2024 guest piece in The Sacramento Bee, Archuleta wrote that “students have rights that give them the first and last say in what is written, how it is edited and what gets published without prior restraint, censorship or punishment from me or any other adult so long as it is protected speech.”
Numerous free press and student press groups pushed for her reinstatement. However, she left her position at McClatchy High.
Los Angeles Unified School District
In 2021, Los Angeles Unified brought a disciplinary case against Adriana Chavira, the journalism adviser at Daniel Pearl Magnet High School, after she refused to censor students reporting on the Covid-19 pandemic’s effect on the school. The school is named for the late Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl, who was murdered by jihadist militants in Pakistan in 2002.
The school newspaper, The Pearl Post, had reported that the school librarian had refused to receive the Covid vaccine, and the library had been closed as a result. The librarian, citing privacy, demanded that The Post remove her name from a story published online. Student journalists refused. The school principal gave Chavira a day to remove the name. It stayed up. The district then suspended her.
In an essay published on the website of her union, the United Teachers Los Angeles, Chavira wrote: “Removing the information would mean that I was censoring my journalism students. And that is something I would never do since that goes against everything I’ve taught my student journalists.”
The disciplinary case was withdrawn in 2022. Chavira continues to advise the Pearl Post, and is on the board of the Student Press Law Center.
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