Labor Unions Fighting Affordable Housing Project for UC-Berkeley Students

“The unions argue in an appeal that the developer should be required to follow an ordinance that includes higher wages and safety and apprenticeship standards.”

Posted by Mike LaChance Monday, December 15, 2025 at 02:36pm 2 Comments

The unions are issuing demands, just like student groups often do. How ironic.

The College Fix reports:

Labor unions fight against housing for UC Berkeley students

Two labor unions are trying to slow down an affordable housing project aimed at University of California Berkeley students until their demands are met.

The Building and Construction Trades Council of Alameda County and the Northern California Carpenters Regional Council are asking the city to intervene against a developer’s plan to build 169 apartment units.

The developer’s primary focus is to provide housing to UC Berkeley students, who face a tight rental market.

The unions argue in an appeal that the developer should be required to follow an ordinance that includes higher wages and safety and apprenticeship standards. A follow-up hearing will be held next year in February to consider the permit approval.

The university has long been beset by housing issues, commissioning a task force in 2017 to look into the issue. Most students, around 75 percent, do not live in campus housing, according to U.S. News and World Report.

An attorney representing the unions told The College Fix that the developer should be held to the labor standards passed by the city council. She also commented on a Fix question about higher wages leading to more expensive housing.

“When drafting, considering, and ultimately passing the labor standards in the HARD HATS Ordinance and Southside Plan, the City Council and City staff were trying to strike this very balance,” Jolene Kramer told The Fix via email. “That is why, for example, the requirements only apply to larger projects.”

“The HARD HATS Ordinance does not require workers to be members of a union; rather, it requires all contractors to compensate their employees fairly, provide good quality health care, and invest in apprenticeship training,” Kramer told The Fix.

The exemptions “would have a specific, adverse impact upon public health and safety,” according to a letter sent to the city by Kramer.

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2 Comments

California, College Insurrection, Unions

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California, College Insurrection, Unions

Comments

PostLiberal | December 15, 2025 at 6:09 pm

The developer’s primary focus is to provide housing to UC Berkeley students, who face a tight rental market.

One reason for the tight market is that many Berkeley rental units are off the market, because owners have decided to rent to family members instead of students.

The rental market is not as tight as it used to be. Berkeley’s rental prices have declined about 25% since 2018 in constant dollars, largely due to rental unit construction during that time.

Many Berkeley rents are back to 2018 prices. Is new housing the reason?

Look back further, and you’ll see median rents for those apartments in the summer of 2024 were just $100 more expensive than they’d been during the same months of 2018.

And the summer wasn’t a fluke. According to data collected by the city and analyzed by Berkeleyside, new leases in Berkeley’s stock of older apartments throughout 2024 had rent levels that were roughly in line with what tenants were paying for those apartments six years prior.

That’s before adjusting for inflation. Factor in rising costs elsewhere — the Consumer Price Index grew by more than 25% from 2018 to the end of 2024 — and rents were in effect far cheaper.

The trend marks a big change compared with the years leading up to 2018, when rent prices soared as a worsening housing crisis squeezed Berkeley tenants.

The “Yes-In-My-Backyard” movement, and the politicians aligned with it on the Berkeley City Council and in Sacramento, have long argued that building substantially more housing is one of the most important steps communities can take to address that crisis. Now, advocates contend credit for the easing rent prices in Berkeley should go to the surge of new housing the city has approved over the past decade.

henrybowman | December 15, 2025 at 7:46 pm

“The unions argue in an appeal that the developer should be required to follow an ordinance that includes higher wages and safety and apprenticeship standards.”

Well, if you do THAT, then what is the whole point of being a sanctuary state for illegal laborers??!!

Labor Unions Fighting Affordable Housing Project for UC-Berkeley Students