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

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

SIMA Sponsored Misinformation on SR 241 is Killing Jobs/Harming
Regional Economic Growth, According to LA/OC Construction Trades
Council
LOS ANGELES--(Business Wire)--
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.

To protect the integrity of the public debate, SIMA should take
immediate action to publicly address the ongoing misinformation about
the road's alleged impacts on the surfing resources of San Onofre
State Beach and the Trestles surf break; and take immediate action to
disqualify both of these organizations from receiving new grants in
2008 if they cannot pledge to tell the truth.

Please let us know ASAP if SIMA intends to continue to raise and
provide funds to misinform the public about Trestles.

Sincerely,

Jim Adams,

Council Representative

For The Los Angeles/Orange Counties Building
and Construction Trades Council
Richard Slawson, 213-483-4222

Copyright Business Wire 2008