Press Room - Op-Ed

A survey without redeeming merit

Four points say a lot about a just-released survey by organized labor of supposed Chula Vistan attitudes toward bayfront development:

1) The researcher asked Chula Vistans about Gaylord Entertainment plans to build TWO 30-story buildings on the Chula Vista bayfront. We've got news for the researcher: The correct number is ONE. So how much research did the researcher do? And how does one concoct a fictitious 30-story building?

2) The International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers is making a big to-do about keeping bayfront construction jobs for local workers. Yet, whoever hired a research firm for this survey chose a San Francisco company.

3) No labor organization is willing to step forward and say exactly who arranged and paid for the survey. Lorena Gonzalez of the San Diego-Imperial Counties Labor Council said she is not sure. That's odd – she was one of the speakers at a press conference to announce the alleged findings. Neither Tom Lemmon of the San Diego County Building and Construction Trades Council nor Jennifer Badgley of the IBEW, both speakers, responded to requests about sponsorship. Humberto Peraza of Rep. Bob Filner's office, also a speaker, said he did not know who arranged for the survey.

4) The out-of-town research firm, David Binder Research of San Francisco, did not respond to a request to provide the full study or to discuss methodology.

Anyone can conduct a survey nowadays, it seems, and apparently anyone does.

Surveys where even the basic facts are wrong and the sponsor and researcher are afraid of public disclosure are not worth paying attention to.

Surely there must be better ways for labor organizations to spend their members' money

http://www.signonsandiego.com/uniontrib/20071213/news_lz6ed13bottom.html