Labor code thwarts restoration projects / Volunteers must earn prevailing wage Patrick Hoge, Chronicle Staff Writer
Gary Sharette of the Laborers Union Local 185 in Redding did not realize what a hornet's nest he was stirring up when he complained to state officials after seeing people using heavy equipment on a creek restoration project run by the Sacramento Watersheds Action Group of Redding.
'They had a lot of heavy equipment out there,' he said. 'That's construction work.''
Not all labor unions agree. On Friday, Danny Curtin, director of the California Conference of Carpenters, delivered a letter signed by Sierra Club California director Bill Allayud to Schwarzenegger, asking the governor to exempt watershed restoration programs from the law.