Workers prepare the site of future student housing on Hagar Drive at UC Santa Cruz for construction.  (Jesse Kathan — Santa Cruz Local)

SANTA CRUZ >> A carpenters union has sued the University of California for what union leaders called an unfair bidding process for the construction of a UC Santa Cruz student housing project. The legal challenge is the latest in a series of lawsuits related to the construction of the Student Housing West project. 

Leaders of Nor Cal Carpenters Local Union 505 argued that the university unfairly awarded the project to a contractor that didn’t disclose the 2021 death of a worker employed by an affiliated company.

“Allowing contractors to basically win out based on deceit is not really the right thing,” said Local 505 Senior Field Representative Doug Chesshire.

In 2023, the university solicited bids for the construction of 120 two-bedroom apartments for students with families on Hagar Drive, the first phase of Student Housing West.

Pleasanton-based W. E. O’Neil Construction Co. of Norcal, incorporated in 2022, submitted the lowest bid and won the contract. In a pre-application, the company cited the accomplishments of its more established affiliate, W. E. O’Neil Construction Co. of California. But the application omitted the 2021 electrocution of three workers on a project managed by that company.

The employees worked for a W. E. O’Neil of California subcontractor, Millennium Reinforcing Inc. One employee died, and two others were hospitalized. The U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration cited Millennium Reinforcing Inc. for willful disregard for safety rules and levied a $112,900 fine.

W. E. O’Neil of California is fighting a lawsuit related to the incident in Los Angeles County Superior Court.

UCSC spokesperson Marc DesJardins said the university followed its “standard process to identify and award this construction contract” and evaluated the safety record of W. E. O’Neil throughout the bidding process. 

“The campus was satisfied with the safety information that it received,” DesJardins said, including that OSHA hasn’t issued W. E. O’Neil a citation for intentional disregard of safety regulations for the past five years. (OSHA issued W.E. O’Neil Construction Co. of California a $1,000 citation for operating without a permit in 2020.)

W. E. O’Neil, a non-union company, underbid three union contractors for the UCSC project. But Chesshire said the lawsuit isn’t about securing a union contract.

“This is about maintaining a level of accountability in the bidding process,” he said. 

Chesshire said he’s also concerned about one of W. E. O’Neil’s proposed subcontractors, Gold River-based ADCO Drywall and Metal Framing, Inc. The company has faced at least one lawsuit for wage theft. 

After the union in March alerted the university to the omission of the 2021 death in W. E. O’Neil’s pre-application, the university conducted an investigation. University leaders then allowed W.E. O’Neil to amend its application to include the death, and upheld the bid award. 

In April, the carpenters union appealed the decision to the UC Construction Review Board and the board rejected their appeal. Then in July the union filed suit against the UC Regents in Santa Cruz County Superior Court. The lawsuit asks for a court order for the university to rescind its contract with W. E. O’Neil of Norcal and cover the union’s legal costs.

A case management conference for the lawsuit is scheduled for Nov. 8. 

The Hagar Drive development is expected to open in late 2025, said DesJardins, the UCSC spokesperson. “At this time, we do not have reason to believe the litigation will affect the project timeline,” he said.

W. E. O’Neil company leaders did not respond to repeated requests for comment.

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