LA/OC Construction Trades Council Calls on the Surf Manufacturing Industry to Stop the Lies

Business Wire, August 27, 2008

SIMA Sponsored Misinformation on SR 241 is Killing Jobs/Harming Regional Economic Growth, According to LA/OC Construction Trades Council

LOS ANGELES -- The Los Angeles/Orange Counties Building and Construction Trades Council (LA/OC CBCTC) this week sent a letter to the Surf Industry Manufacturers Association (SIMA) demanding that the organization stop funding a dishonest campaign aimed at stopping the construction of the State Route 241 toll road in Orange County. According to the LA/OC CBCTC, the lies being perpetrated by the opponents to this project are costing the region hundreds of jobs at a time when the economy is already in peril.

"SR 241 opponents, specifically the Surfrider Foundation and the Sierra Club's Friends of the Foothills, are using SIMA resources to repeatedly assert false claims that the toll road will cause the closure of the San Mateo campground and damage the surf break at Trestles," said Trades Council Executive Secretary Richard Slawson. "Their assertions are nonsense. Even a noted researcher at Scripps Institution of Oceanography has studied the project and determined that it will have no impact on surfing or wave formation."

The foremost authority on State Parks in California, Secretary of Resources Mike Chrisman, wrote a letter to the California Coastal Commission last February making it clear that the San Mateo Campground will not close as a result of the completion of SR 241:

"Recreational opportunities in the park (San Onofre State Beach) include the ocean, the beach, the trails and camping. There is no reason to believe San Mateo campground will be negatively impacted by the SR 241 project any more than passing trains or the movements of tens of thousands of cars and trucks on Interstate-5 have impacted the popularity of the Bluff Campgrounds."

The recipients of the 2008 SIMA Environmental Fund Grants were honored Friday evening at the annual Waterman's Ball at the St. Regis Hotel in Monarch Bay. Among the SIMA featured grant recipients were the Friends of the Foothills and the Surfrider Foundation for battling the expansion of the 241 toll road and the fight to save Trestles.

The goal of the Trades Council is to bring to the attention of SIMA the disingenuous activities of the very organizations they fund. According to the LA/OC CBCTC, rather than helping the environment and protecting surfing locations, they are engaged in a smear campaign that manipulates and distorts the facts in an effort to stop a project that has been studied for more than 20 years, will bring much needed traffic relief to the region and provide hundreds of jobs for the local workforce.

The Los Angeles/Orange Counties Building & Construction Trades Council is a representative association of Craft Local Unions and Councils representing 140,000 craftsmen and their families living and working throughout Los Angeles and Orange counties.

The letter is as follows:

August 19, 2008

Surf Industry Manufacturers Association

8 Argonaut, Suite 170

Aliso Viejo, CA 92656

Re: SIMA Sponsored Misinformation on SR 241 - Consumer Retail Purchases of Surf Apparel Eliminating Jobs and Harming Regional Economic Growth

Dear Surf Industry Manufacturers Association:

The Los Angeles/Orange Counties Building and Construction Trades Council represents affiliated construction Unions whose membership exceeds 130,000 Craftsmen and Women in the Construction Industry.

On behalf of all affiliated Craft Unions/Councils of the Los Angeles/Orange Counties Building and Constructions Trades, we request that SIMA correct the public record and halt its sponsorship of groups such as Sierra Club's Friends of the Foothills and the Surfrider Foundation, who are actively engaged in a misinformation campaign against the completion of State Route (SR) 241.

According to your web site, a SIMA fundraiser is currently scheduled for August 21st-22nd at the St. Regis Resort in Monarch Bay to raise hundreds of thousands of dollars for a variety of environmental causes. A significant portion of these proceeds will be used by two recipient organizations "exclusively for litigation and legal activities battling the expansion of the 241-toll road" and "dedicated to the fight to save Trestles."

Money and support provided by SIMA members like Billabong, Hurley, Nixon, O'Neill, Quiksilver, VANS and VOLCOM is being utilized by activists to continually mislead the public about the SR 241 project and the impact on surfing resources at San Onofre State Beach and Trestles. We value integrity in public debate and recognize differences of opinion. However, our members will not continue to support companies who knowingly sponsor groups who seek to lie or misinform the public.

Profits from your member companies are being used in a misinformation campaign to eliminate our members' jobs, harm our region's economic growth and reduce coastal access for our working families.

The fundraiser you are holding this week to benefit anti-toll road activists on August 21st-22nd causes us great concern. It raises a serious question whether or not the hundreds of thousands of labor families in southern California should continue to enrich SIMA member companies with retail purchases of surf apparel that is in-turn being used to harm our future.