Another strong year on the horizon

By Kevin Ferreira
Executive Director, Sacramento-Sierra’s BCTC

Happy Holidays. As 2024 draws to a close, I am pleased to tell you that this Council is closing out on a stellar year, with an even better year on the horizon.

We currently have 18 active Project Labor Agreements in the Sacramento region. That is a huge number of projects, with thousands of our members on the job daily. It totals more than $7 billion in construction projects.

We also have more projects coming online in 2025. These include the California Northstate University campus in Natomas next year, and an expansion of the Sky River Casino in Elk Grove with a new hotel and parking garage.

We are also hard at work to procure a Project Labor Agreement for the planned soccer stadium downtown for the Sacramento Republic.

One of the most exciting parts of all this work is that our ranks are growing. These Project Labor Agreements include provisions for local hires, which means we must continue to grow our numbers to keep up with the high demand for our skills. It’s imperative that we keep bringing in high-quality people into our apprenticeship programs, and we are hard at work making sure that happens. One of the best ways we do this is through the Multi-Craft Core Curriculum, commonly called the MC3, which is taught in high schools and vocational programs.

The Multi-Craft Core Curriculum is a comprehensive pre-apprenticeship training curriculum that takes young people in their teenage years and introduces them to the Trades. It was developed by the Building Trades National Apprenticeship and Training Committee in 2008 and for years has helped bring “the other four-year degree” to thousands of young workers across America. In 2012, the U.S. Department of Labor awarded the Building Trades and the MC3 the Department’s Registered Apprenticeship Innovator and Trailblazer Award at its 75th Anniversary celebration.

Our MC3 program in the Sacramento region is one of the most comprehensive in the country, lasting nine weeks. It gives young people an orientation to the construction industry, then gives in-depth training on tools and materials; construction health and safety; blueprint reading; basic math for construction; heritage of the American worker; diversity in the construction industry; green construction; and financial literacy.

This program is free to anyone and is a gateway into the careers of the Building Trades—the PLA’s negotiated by this Council help to fund the program, ensuring that we are growing not just in numbers, but in our financial strength.

So as we look forward into 2025, I see another strong and busy year coming our way.

May the holidays be filled with joy and happiness for you and your families. Happy New Year from all of us here at the Sacramento-Sierra’s Building and Construction Trades Council.