Learn about CBAs
What is a CBA?
Community benefits agreements are legally enforceable agreements between private companies and coalitions of community and labor groups. CBAs are used to ensure a wide range of high-road job standards, community benefits, environmental mitigations, and measures that advance equity in the workplace.
Genuine CBAs are a win-win for communities and manufacturers. Manufacturers doing business in the U.S. are facing a shortage of skilled and middle-skilled workers to fill the demand for machinists, welders, computer-controlled machine operators, and other key positions. CBAs help manufacturers develop and train a skilled workforce while creating good jobs with benefits for working families.
The Benefits of CBAs:
- Promote sustainability and help maximize the benefits to the community, workers, and their families and companies.
- Create recruitment, training, and pathways for a highly skilled and diverse workforce representative of the community.
- Reduce the likelihood of turnover and promote retention of a skilled workforce.
- Foster collaboration between the project developer, operator, community, and labor.
- Monitor, measure, report, and evaluate the project benefits to the community, such as tracking metrics that address local community needs.
- CBAs are the preferred method of the Department of Energy to demonstrate project benefits and community support.
How We Develop CBAs
Each project and production facility is unique, and our approach is specific to the unique circumstances of the community and the company. CBARC engages directly with companies and industry stakeholders seeking to develop and commit to community benefits plans and agreements by:
- Developing a framework for engagement and collective parameters that may include the development of a memorandum of understanding or other benefits-sharing agreement.
- Organizing community-labor coalitions to discuss and negotiate community benefits agreements with companies that prioritize coalition interests and mitigate environmental harms of the project.
- Facilitating direct conversations between community organizations, labor unions, and companies.
- Advancing direct CBA negotiations between community-labor coalitions and companies.
For Communities, Organizations, and Policymakers
CBARC will:
- Initiate consultation meetings in order to provide resources and guidance on CBA best practices and share opportunities for collaboration
- Provide organizing assistance to community leaders seeking to develop a CBA coalition or negotiate a CBA
- Help organizations facilitate direct conversations with clean technology manufacturers and other business and industry stakeholders in order to negotiate a strong, enforceable CBA
For Companies and Employers
CBARC will:
- Engage directly with companies and industry stakeholders that are seeking to develop a community benefits plan or agreement
- Develop a framework for engagement and parameters that may include the development of a memorandum of understanding
- Organize community coalitions to collectively negotiate high-road agreements with companies
- Facilitate direct CBA negotiations