Maine labor coalition scores major legislative win creating renewable energy jobs

Posted by National Alliance for Fair Contracting on

April 29, 2022
Dan Neumann

The Maine Labor Climate Council, a new coalition made up of a dozen unions from across the state representing a variety of different industries, won its first major victory in the Maine Legislature this week.

The top priority bill for the council this session, LD 1969, introduced by Rep. Scott Cuddy (D-Winterport), went into law without Gov. Janet Mills’ signature on April 25. The law will require prevailing wages and equity standards on all large, utility-scale renewable energy projects including solar, wind, tidal, geothermal and hydropower. …

The new law mandates that contractors pay the prevailing wages customary for each occupation in an industry. The new law will also build a career path for Mainers wanting to get into the clean energy sector by developing pre-apprenticeship programs that will help them access union-registered apprenticeship programs.

LD 1969 also incentivizes employee ownership of renewable energy construction projects as well as the use of Projects Labor Agreements — pre-hire negotiated agreements that require strong labor standards regarding wages, hours, working conditions and dispute resolution methods. The law directs the Maine Public Utilities Commission to consider these factors when acquiring energy under Maine’s renewable portfolio standard, a law that establishes the portion of electricity sold in the state that must be supplied by renewable energy resources.

Maine’s renewable portfolio standard (RPS) establishes the portion of electricity sold in the state that must be supplied by renewable energy resources.

With the passage of the new law, Maine joins other states like Connecticut, Illinois, New York and New Jersey that have recently passed strong labor and equity standards in the renewable energy sector.

(Read More)

SunCal Signs Project Labor Agreement with Building and Construction Trades For ‘6AM’ Development in Los Angeles Arts District (CA)

Posted by National Alliance for Fair Contracting on

by SunCal
Posted on Aug. 13, 2019
Construction Law Wage and Hour Law

LOS ANGELES, Aug. 13, 2019 /PRNewswire/ — SunCal, the developer of 6AM, planned to be a world-class, mixed-use development at 6th & Alameda in the heart of the Downtown Los Angeles Arts District, has entered into a Project Labor Agreement (PLA) with the Los Angeles/Orange Counties Building and Construction Trades Council and the unions they represent, it was announced today by SunCal and labor officials.

As envisioned, 6AM will be a mixed-use complex featuring live/work residences, creative offices, hotel and retail uses, and public gathering spaces on a 14.5-acre site. The project is currently proceeding through the entitlement process with the City of Los Angeles.

“We are very pleased to enter into this agreement with the Building and Construction Trades Council,” said David Soyka, Senior Vice President, SunCal. “This partnership between the developer and local, skilled construction workers will help ensure the project brings increased job opportunities and economic development to this area of Southern California.”

“The Building Trades are enthusiastic about contributing to the growth of the Arts District,” said Ron Miller, Executive Secretary, Los Angeles/Orange Counties Building and Construction Trades Council. “Together with SunCal, we’re bringing top-quality skills to this world-class project and enriching the LA economy by hiring union members who are LA residents.”

The 6AM development features a contemporary design by Herzog & de Meuron, one of the most acclaimed architects in the world and a winner of the coveted Pritzker Prize.

Inspired by the stark contrast between the vertical and horizontal in Los Angeles, the building design will be characteristic of the neighborhood which includes low and mid-rise warehouse buildings and narrow “in-between” passageways. The project will be located at the virtual center of the Arts District, and with the completion of the new 6th Street Viaduct, will become a gateway to the East; the Viaduct is also being constructed by the Building Trades.

The 6AM development program proposes: 1,305 rental apartments; 431 condominiums; 510 guest rooms in two hotels; 128,000 square feet of retail uses; 254,000 square feet of creative office space; a 29,000 square-foot school; and a 23,000 square-foot opportunity space. It is also planned to include two large open spaces; extensive integration of terraces and roof decks; and pedestrian-only open spaces, incorporating two major urban parks. Visually prominent at the complex will be two 58-story residential towers that respond to the shapes and scale of the Downtown skyline.

(Read More)

County Supervisors Direct Staff to Develop Community Workforce Agreement for Construction Projects (CA)

Posted by National Alliance for Fair Contracting on

By Giana Magnoli
April 10, 2019 | 9:54 p.m.

Contractors from all over Santa Barbara County commented during Tuesday’s Board of Supervisors meeting on a proposal to develop a community workforce agreement ordinance, which would affect contracts for some government projects.

A community workforce agreement, also called a project labor agreement, is negotiated between public agencies and construction trade unions “with the goal of providing a stable, skilled workforce and high quality standards on publicly funded projects,” said county supervisors Joan Hartmann and Das Williams, who pitched the idea to their colleagues.

The supervisors voted 3-2 to direct staff to develop a community workforce agreement ordinance and come back with details at a later date….

The project labor agreement would have a “targeted hire provision” aimed at getting people from “disadvantaged communities” – low-income workers, veterans and others – into construction through apprenticeship training programs, according to the board letter from Hartmann and Williams.

Michael Lopez, of the Santa Barbara Plumbers and Pipefitters Local 114, said the Community Workforce Agreement would boost the efforts of apprenticeships and trained workers.

“This is how we want to take care of our local people,” Lopez said.

(Read More)

unnamed

Your Turn: Project labor agreement needed in Worcester Red Sox deal (MA)

Posted by National Alliance for Fair Contracting on

By Frank Callahan
March 14, 2019

The city of Worcester, the Worcester Red Sox and Madison Downtown Holdings, a private developer, are building a $240-million downtown project that includes a new, $90-million, 10,000-seat stadium for the Boston Red Sox Triple-A Minor League affiliate team. Most see this as good news for the community. And it can be if the stakeholders embrace the use of a project labor agreement to ensure safety, equity and fairness for the workers who build the stadium.

Unfortunately, some contractor lobbying groups who advocate to pay workers lower wages are engaged in a cynical campaign aimed at ensuring the prosperity generated by this large proposal isn’t shared with the actual workers doing the work. They also don’t care if the project is done in the safest way possible, or with the best-trained workers possible.

Every fan sitting in that stadium over the decades that will follow its opening deserves to know that Worcester built its stadium in the safest way possible with the best-trained workforce. That’s just one reason why the union building trades are speaking up for a project labor agreement to ensure the safety of workers and the public in Worcester.

Project labor agreements, also called community workforce agreements or project stabilization agreements, emerged in the early 20th century as basic pre-hire agreements between the owner or contractor and the local building trades unions.

By the 1980s, these agreements were common in both the public and private sectors. Modern PLAs are negotiated on a case-by-case basis, and include sophisticated provisions that keep jobs running smoothly, promote efficiencies, and nurture the development of a skilled workforce. Most importantly, they prevent worker exploitation, wage theft and other illegal or unsafe acts that can harm local workers on a non-PLA job site.

For years, wealthy special interests have tried to undermine workers’ rights and advance narratives around the concepts of unions being outdated and unneeded. Despite the anti-worker spin promoted by organizations like the Merit Construction Alliance, public support for unions is growing. Meanwhile, union membership and the need for PLAs are also both on the rise in Massachusetts.

The building trade unions have been creating economic prosperity and a pathway to the middle class for workers throughout Central Massachusetts for generations. Right now, many Worcester area families could benefit from a good, union job in the construction industry.

Sadly, efforts are afoot in Worcester to lower safety, wage and training standards for working people on the new stadium project, putting Worcester workers at risk of losing life or limb, and in the position of earning less for the same work that is done elsewhere in the state. That simply would not be fair.

(Read More)

San Jose: Public projects valued at $6 million will require project labor agreements

Posted by National Alliance for Fair Contracting on

By RAMONA GIWARGIS
PUBLISHED: October 24, 2017 at 1:09 pm | UPDATED: October 25, 2017 at 4:54 am
SAN JOSE — City lawmakers on Tuesday adopted a policy that requires contractors to hire at least some union workers on public projects valued at $6 million or more, including new libraries, fire stations and airport improvements.

The City Council adopted “project labor agreements” requirement on a 6-5 vote. The agreements require a contractor to hire some workers from a local union hall and pay state-mandated prevailing wages — what a majority of workers in a county’s largest city earn. Contractors also must provide fringe benefits and hire a number of apprentices from disadvantaged groups. Contractors will be allowed to hire 35 “core” workers from their own workforce with the rest hired through a union hall.

Private construction projects, those funded by federal dollars and city-funded affordable housing projects will be excluded. Santa Clara County, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Oakland, Cleveland and New York have all passed similar labor agreements.

Backers said the agreements will help ensure every worker has a fair chance of getting work and support families struggling to survive in Silicon Valley’s technology-driven economy. Critics said the move will stifle competition and inflate construction costs, meaning taxpayers get fewer public improvements for their tax dollars.

(Read More)

bill-would-allow-cities-counties-to-opt-out-of-prevailing-wage

Prevailing wage, project labor agreements protect living standards for construction workers

Posted by National Alliance for Fair Contracting on

By ROBBIE HUNTER
July 6, 2017 at 12:01 am

In an era of political hyperventilation, it might be a good idea for some critics to take a deep breath before they launch into their attacks on the prevailing wage laws and project labor agreements that protect the living standards of construction workers in California and across the nation.

From Washington, D.C., to Los Angeles, anti-union writers in recent weeks have incorrectly branded the 1931 Davis-Bacon Act that wrote the prevailing wage into the law on taxpayer-funded construction projects as born of racism and a rip-off of public funds. The same critics also have falsely characterized project labor agreements as costly to taxpayers and unfair to nonunion construction companies.

Now, for the facts.

Two Republican congressmen, Sen. James Davis of Pennsylvania and U.S. Rep. Roger Bacon of New York, sponsored their legislation 86 years ago to establish a minimum wage on taxpayer-funded construction projects, based on local measures of central tendency in any of the covered construction trades.

The idea behind the prevailing wage is to keep unscrupulous operators from low-bidding the legitimate competition to the detriment of the local workforce. The effect has been to allow blue-collar workers – 400,000 of whom are represented by the State Building and Construction Trades Council of California – to maintain their place in the American middle class.

Of the false charges that have been lodged of late about Davis-Bacon, perhaps the most repugnant is the smear that recirculates every so often that the act originated as an outgrowth of racism. The critics troll through the historic record to quote some congressmen in the debate over Davis-Bacon who supported the law based on their own warped view that it was designed to protect higher-paid white workers in the northeast represented by the authors of the law from “cheap colored labor” that would be imported to their districts from the South. The critics fail, however, to report Congressman Bacon’s reply that imported workers came in white skin as well as black.

(Read More)

Mortenson Construction enters into PLA for $524M Milwaukee Bucks arena project

Posted by National Alliance for Fair Contracting on

by Kim Slowey
July 26, 2016

 

Dive Brief:

  • General contractor Mortenson Construction has entered into a project labor agreement (PLA) with local trade unions and workers on the new $524 million Milwaukee Bucks arena, according to the Milwaukee Business Journal.
  • The agreement establishes a prevailing wage guarantee, sets up a dispute resolution process prohibiting any activity – strikes or lockouts – that could hold up construction and requires a veteran employment program through the organization Helmets to Hardhats.

…

 

Dive Insight:

Bucks President Peter Feigen praised the deal and said the team was proud to “enlist local labor” in the safe and efficient construction of the arena. Local trade union representatives also hailed Mortenson’s willingness to use union labor and its understanding of “the role of the PLA from the quality, productivity and the safety it provides.”

(Read More)

Project labor agreements make sense for everyone: David Wondolowski and Matthew A. Szollosi (Opinion)

Posted by National Alliance for Fair Contracting on

By Guest Columnist
on September 09, 2015 at 3:29 PM

 

Recently, Baylor Myers, director of the ultra-conservative Americans for Prosperity group, in an op-ed for the Cleveland-area Sun newspapers, called for passage in Ohio of legislation that would effectively prohibit public-sector project labor agreements. His proposal, and the reasoning for it, demonstrates a clear lack of understanding of the construction industry.

In the course of governmental efficiency arguments at all levels, we often hear “government needs to operate more like a business!” Project labor agreements have been commonly used in the private sector as a means of project delivery for decades.

Yet, in this instance, proponents in Ohio — who earlier this year were unsuccessful in prohibiting PLAs but added a provision to the state budget, House Bill 64, that requires a public hearing by state agencies whenever PLAs are contemplated — seek to take a proven, successful tool off the table for all public authorities and all state agencies.

(Read More)

California Colleges Reaping the Local Hiring Benefits of Hard-Fought Project Labor Agreement

Posted by National Alliance for Fair Contracting on

A Project Labor Agreement (PLA) covering up to $500 million of construction at Riverside City, Moreno Valley and Norco colleges has surpassed its local hiring goals. The projects are partially funded through California’s Measure C bonds with the state and federal government providing matching funding.

The use of a PLA was heavily contested, but building trades union advocates and their mission of ensuring local hire ultimately prevailed:

Since the agreement was adopted in 2010 on a 3-2 vote, 65 percent of workers have come from Riverside and San Bernardino counties and 54 percent of participating businesses have been local, according to a presentation prepared by Padilla & Associates, which administers the agreement for $1.6 million.

The five-year agreement requires contractors to pay union-level wages and benefits, sets a local hiring goal of 50 percent and requires apprenticeship programs. Workers from Riverside County get first priority followed by workers from San Bernardino County.

(Read More)

Benefits of Lorain High School PLA start with bids 6% lower than estimates

Posted by National Alliance for Fair Contracting on

You may recall last month’s ACT Ohio progress report where I detailed how the North Central Building Trades Council (“NCBT”), working in partnership with ACT Ohio, initiated suit to enforce the Project Labor Agreement on the $62 million Lorain High School project.

A favorable ruling by the judge overseeing the case on our request for injunctive relief led to positive negotiations with the Attorney General’s Office and significant discussion with the Kasich Administration. The result was a settlement agreement that allowed the PLA to stand for the project.

(Read More)