2023 California Code › Public Contract Code - PCC › DIVISION 2 - GENERAL PROVISIONS › PART 1 - ADMINISTRATIVE PROVISIONS › CHAPTER 6.8 - High Road Jobs in Transportation-Related Public Contracts and Grants Pilot Program › Section 6985.

6985. (a) The Legislature declares all of the following:
(1) California will experience an increased prevalence of severe wildfires, heat, drought, and rising sea levels in the coming years as a result of climate change.
(2) The effects of climate change have already cost the state billions of dollars and will only continue to increase if we do not take immediate and decisive action to cut emissions. To name a few, these costs include all of the following:
(A) In 2018, California wildfire damages were estimated to total one hundred forty-eight billion five hundred million dollars ($148,500,000,000).
(B) The 2021 drought directly cost the California agriculture sector about one billion one hundred million dollars ($1,100,000,000) and nearly 8,750 full- and part-time jobs.
(C) The sea level along California's coasts is projected to rise by as much as 20 to 55 inches by the end of the century. A 55-inch sea level rise could put nearly half a million people at risk of flooding by 2100, and threaten one hundred billion dollars ($100,000,000,000) in costs to property and infrastructure, including roadways, buildings, hazardous waste sites, power plants, parks, and tourist destinations.
(3) The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has found global emissions must be reduced by 43 percent by 2030 in order to limit global warming to around 1.5 degrees Celsius.
(4) The transportation sector in California accounts for 41 percent of the state’s total carbon emissions.
(5) Recognizing the extreme financial threat climate change poses to the economy of California, the state has a financial interest in rolling out zero-emission transit vehicles as quickly and expeditiously as possible.
(b) To protect the state’s proprietary and economic interests in performing the covered public contract without interruption due to the economic effects of a labor dispute, the contractor and any subcontractors performing work to fulfill the covered public contract, shall enter into a labor peace agreement with any organization of any kind in which its employees participate and which exists for the purpose, in whole or in part, of dealing with employers concerning grievances, labor disputes, wages, rates of pay, hours of employment, or conditions of work and which requests a labor peace agreement.
(1) The labor peace agreement shall include a binding and enforceable provision prohibiting the organization and its members from engaging in picketing, work stoppages, boycotts, or any other economic interference for the duration of the labor peace agreement, which shall include the entire term of the covered public contract.
(2) This subdivision shall not be construed as requiring a contractor or any subcontractor to change terms and conditions of employment for its employees, recognize a labor organization as the bargaining representative for its employees, adopt any particular recognition process, or enter into a collective bargaining agreement with a labor organization.
(3) This subdivision does not abridge the rights, privileges, and benefits afforded by federal law, as applicable, including, but not limited to, Section 5333 of Title 49 of the United States Code.
(Added by Stats. 2022, Ch. 875, Sec. 1. (SB 674) Effective January 1, 2023. Repealed as of January 1, 2028, pursuant to Section 6986.)