No matter where we live in this country, we all want safe, healthy, thriving communities and a voice in the decisions that shape our lives. New investments in our cities and towns can bring both threats and opportunities. Right now, the federal government is directing billions of dollars to rebuild our country’s aging infrastructure and move us closer to a clean energy future. As those dollars flow towards new infrastructure in their communities, people need a way to ensure that these projects deliver not just clean water and renewable energy, but also good jobs, affordable homes, and care for our kids and elders. For over two decades, Community Benefits Agreements (CBAs) have offered a powerful tool to do just that, creating legally-binding commitments to deliver real benefits that meet community needs.
What’s more, as corporations push autocracy and technocracy, Community Benefits campaigns help strengthen the muscles and institutions we need for healthy democracy. These campaigns bring together stakeholders from across the community, including (and especially) those who are most impacted but often least listened to, to build a shared platform and negotiate directly on behalf of the community with the real decision makers. They enable community members to practice democratic co-governance, as they oversee the delivery of community benefits and hold developers and other key actors accountable to their promises. They broaden the scope of who gets to be at the table when big decisions get made about our communities’ futures.
Community Benefits Agreements have proven to be a powerful tool for creating good jobs, homes we can afford, and vital services like childcare and job training programs.
On developments ranging from new stadiums to massive clean energy projects, communities have used CBAs to make developers contribute to local needs.
Oakland Army Base
In 2012, Oakland announced plans to redevelop an old army base into warehouses and logistics facilities on its industrial waterfront. The East Bay Alliance for a Sustainable Economy (EBASE) brought together the Revive Oakland coalition of community groups, labor unions, and environmental justice organizations to make sure the project created good jobs for local residents. They negotiated a landmark set of Community Benefits Agreements for both the construction and warehouse jobs, creating pathways to union construction careers and ensuring decent wages and stable work for people working in the new facilities.
"As a part of our CBA campaign, we established institutions so that the community implements and oversees the community benefits as the project moves forward. Our coalition sits on the oversight commission that makes sure good jobs are going to folks from Oakland and we work closely with the workforce organization that connects job seekers to good jobs and to support needed to be successful."
— Kate O’Hara, Executive Director, East Bay Alliance for a Sustainable Economy
To ensure those commitments are met, the agreements also established an oversight committee of community members. The latest construction jobs figures show that Oakland residents did nearly 50% of the work on one part of the project, and over 65% on another. (Look out for an updated report on this project early next year, from EBASE and the UC Berkeley Labor Center).
Nashville Soccer Stadium
In Nashville, developers proposed a massive development project around a new Major League Soccer stadium. Stand Up Nashville, a coalition of community, labor and faith-based groups, organized and won a Community Benefits Agreement so the project includes affordable housing (like 3-bedroom apartments for families), living wage jobs, spaces for childcare and local small businesses, and a pathway to safe construction jobs for community residents, all overseen by community representatives.
"Our CBA campaign changed the game in Nashville. Our communities' voices are under assault across Tennessee but now when development comes to town, everyone knows we have to be at the table."
— Odessa Kelly, Executive Director, Stand Up Nashville
Milwaukee Bucks Arena
When the Milwaukee Bucks wanted to build a new arena, a community-labor coalition made sure the project included key community benefits, including hiring and training people from surrounding neighborhoods with high unemployment to build and operate the arena, paying them living wages, and ensuring workers have the freedom to come together in unions. A report from the High Road Strategy Center describes how the CBA’s labor peace provision laid the pathway for workers to form a union, the Milwaukee Area Service and Hospitality Workers Organization (MASH), and negotiate industry-leading job quality standards.
Wind Energy Projects
In Massachusetts, developer Vineyard Wind and local non-profit Vineyard Power Cooperative signed a Community Benefits Agreement for the nation's first utility-scale offshore wind energy project. The agreement has created job training opportunities for local residents (like an offshore wind technician certificate program), a fund for energy efficiency improvements to multifamily and low-income housing, and a commitment to ensure the project’s operations staff will all be local residents within five years of the project coming on line.
And in California, the Center for Law, Energy and the Environment at UC Berkeley Law School recently published a report on ways CBAs can support offshore wind energy projects in the Golden State.
Community benefits campaigns grow the labor movement, build community power, and strengthen our democracy.
Successful campaigns for Community Benefits Agreements build transformational relationships between labor, community, and environmental partners that grow their collective and individual power.
CBAs often create union jobs for community members and strengthen the labor movement. A number of community benefits campaigns have resulted not just in community benefits agreements, but also in union organizing agreements with major project employers:
- In Oakland, unions that were part of the Revive Oakland coalition drew upon community support to win new agreements at neighboring facilities, including the Oakland Airport and nearby hotels. They built the local hiring and fair chance hiring tools from the army base agreements into their new agreements, bringing new members into their union and deepening community partnerships.
- In Minneapolis, where community-labor coalitions have thrived, unions negotiated a Project Labor Agreement for the construction of the Minnesota Vikings football stadium that delivered both good jobs and new construction careers for people of color, women, and veterans. The project exceeded all of its hiring goals.
The coalitions that form through community benefits campaigns also build the institutions and muscles we need for healthy democracy. Community benefits campaigns require community members to build and maintain broad, representative coalitions that can craft and negotiate important community demands. They must work with local officials and project developers to create an effective agreement, and continue doing so for years and sometimes decades to ensure the agreement delivers the promised benefits.
"As Ford makes an investment that will completely change an entire region of our state, our coalition is meeting the moment by bringing everyone together and making the demands that will ensure our communities can survive and thrive. From protecting our land and homes from speculation to protecting workers on the job, we are holding the line for our people."
— Vonda McDaniel, President, Central Labor Council of Nashville and Middle Tennessee
In Tennessee, for example, Ford Motor Company is building a massive electric vehicle assembly plant and battery factory known as “Blue Oval City” using billions of dollars in federal and state subsidies. Blue Oval Good Neighbors, a coalition of local residents and allied faith, labor, and community organizations, has come together to demand that Ford sign a legally binding community benefits agreement for the project.
The institutions that emerge from these campaigns include powerful community coalitions that bring new voices into local democracy, oversight bodies that ensure community involvement and grow civic leadership, and service organizations and programs that have high levels of accountability to the communities they serve. In Oakland, the Oakland United Coalition, the Oakland Army Based Jobs Oversight Commission and the West Oakland Jobs Resource Center exemplify each of these outcomes.
Community Benefits Agreements have broad support — but to have the greatest impact, they must be carefully crafted.
There is broad and bipartisan public support for Community Benefits Agreements across the country. A 2022 Data for Progress poll found that 59% of likely voters support the use of Community Benefits Agreements on development projects. This support holds across party lines, with 61% of Democrats, 53% of Independents, and 63% of Republicans in favor.
Community Benefits Agreements are now required on projects at every level of government. Detroit, New Jersey and the US Department of Energy all require community benefits agreements or plans on major projects in which they invest.
Of course, to meaningfully improve people’s lives, it’s not enough to simply require any CBA. Effective CBAs involve strong coalitions that can negotiate real benefits, deep community engagement to decide what benefits to prioritize, thoughtfully negotiated agreements, and ongoing oversight to make sure developers keep their promises. PowerSwitch has extensive resources and decades of experience helping communities win landmark CBAs — check them out, and please get in touch if we can help with a project in your community!