CREATE
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2016 Grants Challenge

Electrify LA: the Campaign for Clean Buses and Good Jobs

Electrify LA will transform the county's polluting buses into zero emission vehicles and create good manufacturing jobs for low-income communities historically excluded from middle skilled tech jobs

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Are any other organizations collaborating on this proposal?

6 unions that represent workers in the various industrial sectors in LA will collaborate with JMA and our coalition on creating a new pipeline and training program for EV bus workers once our advocacy is successful. Also, the LA County Federation of Labor will collaborate to support the advocacy with LA Metro & other local transit agencies. Environmental partners will include the Blue-Green Alliance and most likely the Natural Resources Defense Council, and the Greenlining Institute.

Please describe your project proposal.

LA has a sky high working poverty rate and aging fossil fuel burning buses that are destructive to communities and the environment. JMA wants LA to become a leader in the emergence of a clean tech manufacturing sector by investing in a high quality, clean public transit system and creating good jobs for our communities. Because of California's environmental regulation and strong policy leadership in the city and county, LA has the potential to create 1,000s of good jobs building new EV buses.

Which of the CREATE metrics will your proposal impact?​

Manufacturing activity

Jobs per capita

Minority- and women-owned firms

Unemployment (and opportunities) for the formerly incarcerated

In what areas of Los Angeles will you be directly working?

Central LA

East LA

San Fernando Valley

South LA

Antelope Valley

County of Los Angeles

City of Los Angeles

Describe in greater detail how your proposal will make LA the best place to CREATE?

Two of the great challenges LA faces are the rapid pace of climate change & the lack of quality jobs for working families. JMA addresses climate change caused by the county's fleet of fossil fuel-burning buses and the need for high quality jobs in manufacturing at a time when a disproportionate number of workers in our region are unemployed, under employed or working at jobs that do not support a family. JMA aims to make LA a better place to create manufacturing jobs & a clean public transit system. JMA plans to launch a new campaign for a speedier and more equitable transition to zero emission bus fleets that will replace polluting buses. Momentum for the transition to clean technology is growing. The JMA plan will also stimulate creation of thousands of manufacturing jobs in Southern California.

The proposed electric bus campaign will build on JMA’s success in linking transportation spending to economic development and good jobs, and focus on the intersection between climate change and poverty.

Our plan will benefit from Measure R, which established a half cent sales tax for LA County to finance transportation projects. It may be supplemented by Measure M on the Nov ballot, which calls for a $120 billion investment in transit. The region already has 3 bus factories & the region's largest transit agency--LA Metro--recently issued an RFP for purchase of 200 EV buses. These factors make LA perfect to create sustainable transportation and good local manufacturing jobs.

As we launch Electrify LA, JMA will use a tested policy called the US Employment Plan (USEP), which is a contractual provision between transit agencies buying equipment and manufacturers that offers incentives to create good jobs for disadvantaged workers through recruitment and training programs. We will advocate for evaluating manufacturers’ proposals based on the USEP & the use of zero emission technology.

We will involve a broad based coalition in policy campaigns with local & regional transit agencies so that public buses and component parts are made in our region and that pipelines are created to allow people of color, women, the formerly incarcerated & other disadvantaged LA workers get the jobs. We will urge investors and manufacturers to make EV bus equipment in the LA region and to hire and train a more diverse workforce.

Our long term strategy is to permanently transform the way local transit agency procurement functions in order to spur a new green jobs movement that will reduce fossil fuel emissions as well as create major investment in workforce training and the development of career paths into manufacturing jobs for low income workers and communities of color.

Our strategy will empower LA communities to transform their neighborhoods by promoting a healthier environment and local manufacture and enforceable community benefits agreements for taxpayer-funded equipment purchases.

Please explain how you will define and measure success for your project.​

• Completion of extensive research leading to release in 2017 of a white paper on EV buses, the bus procurement process & making LA a hub for new manufacturing jobs.

* Evaluation of the number of workers employed in good career jobs in EV bus manufacturing, the quality of worker training and terms of employment, and provision of ongoing support to ensure retention.

* Evaluation of the number of workers employed who do not presently have access to quality employment, including targeted workers such as women, the formerly incarcerated, and people of color.

* Evaluation of the number of electric powered buses manufactured in California and in the pipeline.

* Achievement of community benefits agreements in connection with contracts for EV bus manufacture that include commitments to quality jobs, training and apprenticeship programs, career ladder development, outreach to non-traditional workers; bilingual human resources capacity and workplace ESL; a plan to address barriers for workers (including the need for childcare & local transportation), and recruitment targeted to disadvantaged workers.

* Winning strong policies for clean buses that require the creation of good jobs and equity for all purchases above $10 million with transit agencies throughout Southern California .

* Building a coalition that includes environmental, labor and civil rights movements that can create momentum to Electrify LA.

How can the LA2050 community and other stakeholders help your proposal succeed?

Money

Volunteers

Publicity/awareness

Education/training

Community outreach

Network/relationship support