Pittsburgh sets minority employment goal for city construction projects (PA)

Posted by National Alliance for Fair Contracting on

AARON AUPPERLEE
Tuesday, May 29, 2018, 2:06 p.m.

Pittsburgh will require contractors working on the city’s biggest projects to ensure at least 12 percent of on-site employees are minorities.

An executive order Mayor Bill Peduto signed Tuesday set the 12-percent goal.
Peduto said the city expects to spend $1.1 billion on construction projects in the next 10 years.

“We realize that we are at the cusp of a boom that is going to happen in the city,” Peduto said at a news conference. “We want to open up that opportunity to everyone because here’s the secret: We’re going to need a heck of a lot more workers.”

The executive order creates what’s known as a project labor agreement for city construction projects totaling more than $500,000.

Contractors must guarantee against strikes, lockouts or other job disruptions. The city’s minority- and women-owned business requirements still apply in addition to the new 12 percent on-site minority employment stipulation. The executive order allows the city to select the lowest responsible bidder on a project, regardless of whether it is union or non-union.

Project labor agreements used to be negotiated on a project-by-project basis, said Grant Gittlen, community and public affairs officer for the mayor. The goals for on-site minority employment varied for each project. Gittlen said the goals have been low in the past.

Peduto’s office worked on the agreement with labor leaders for a year and a half.

Peduto said city Councilmen Corey O’Connor of Squirrel Hill and Dan Lavelle of the Hill District will work to push legislation that will make his executive order part of the city code.

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White House Holds Meeting at Kilmer’s Request to Promote the Hiring of Local Workers on Federal Construction Projects

Posted by National Alliance for Fair Contracting on

April 12, 2016
by RealEstateRama

Washington, D.C. – (RealEstateRama) – Representative Derek Kilmer (D-WA) joined U.S. Secretary of Labor Thomas E. Perez and Director of the White House Domestic Policy Council Celia Munoz at the White House with a local labor leader, members of Congress, and other officials for a meeting on growing opportunities for local workers that can make it easier to complete large, complex construction projects on time and under budget.

The discussion focused on the benefits of increasing the number of Project Labor Agreements (PLAs) to put more skilled local workers on federal construction projects. Kilmer highlighted the future Bangor Explosive Handling Wharf, now under construction in Kitsap County under a PLA, as an example of how the agreements can work.

PLAs have proven to be successful management tools that provide cost effective and timely completion of high-quality federal projects. In 2009, President Obama issued Executive Order 13502 to promote the use of PLAs in federal projects.

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Wharf project shows off unique labor agreement

Posted by National Alliance for Fair Contracting on

BY: Ed Friedrich
POSTED: 5:25 PM, Nov 23, 2015
UPDATED: 9:43 AM, Nov 24, 2015

 

SILVERDALE – U.S. Labor Secretary Tom Perez toured Naval Base Kitsap’s nearly completed second explosives handling wharf and plans to tout it as a model for other military projects.

The wharf, where missiles are loaded onto Trident submarines, is near budget and on schedule to be finished in January. The Navy awarded a $331 million contract to EHW Constructors four years ago. Today’s cost is $345 million, said Navy Region Northwest spokeswoman Leslie Yuenger.

It is being built using a Project Labor Agreement – a pre-hire collective bargaining agreement negotiated between a project’s prime contractor and labor organizations that sets basic terms and work conditions. PLAs typically require that employees be referred through union halls, that nonunion workers pay union dues while on the project and that the contractor follow union rules on pensions, work conditions and resolving disputes.

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