Little, Bulman, Medeiros
& Whitney.
While the University of Rhode Island hopes its Convocation Center will help it become more competitive on the basketball court, the real competition now is between union and non-union workers over whether a Project Labor Agreement is valid.
The controversy at URI has brought focus to the broader issue of the use of Project Labor Agreements. These agreements ensure that a union workforce is working on a construction project. While proponents believe this makes a project safer and more efficient, detractors say the quality of worker is at least the same, but the cost is higher, with safety a non-issue. PLA opponents also say that a PLA limits competition.
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The $54 million Convocation Center is the biggest construction project in the history of URI. The state Department of Administration stepped in to negotiate a PLA last October, when the project had been under way for three months. The Rhode Island Chapter of Associated Builders and Contractors (ABC) and various non-union construction companies took the state to court. The Rhode Island Superior Court ruled last month that the PLA was not legal. The state is seeking an expedited appeal.
Christopher C. Whitney of the Providence law firm Little, Bulman, Medeiros & Whitney, is the lawyer for the ABC and non-union construction companies.
“Project Labor Agreements have been around for decades but only used in public projects for the past seven years,” he said. “People always assumed they weren’t legal on the public projects.”
In 1993 the United States Supreme Court issued the Boston Harbor decision, which said PLAs are legal under the National Labor Relations Act. But for each state, and each project, circumstances vary.
“The courts are split on this issue,” Whitney said, “and what is particularly compelling is that our courts are going to announce the standard for the first time on whether PLAs are legal and if so, under what circumstances.”
Whitney said PLAs come down to politicians owing unions favors, and they drive up the cost of a project 10 to 20 percent.
In the instance of the URI Convocation Center, Whitney said Gov. Lincoln Almond said he was committed to assuring labor unions that they would get as much of this work as possible.
“This one could drive it up $5 million to $10 million, just to repay political favors,” he said. “The governor should not have any interest in whether this goes to union or non-union bidders.”
Supporters of PLAs say most cost overruns are caused by factors that don’t necessarily have to do with PLAs, including design changes, engineering problems, inadequate supervision, and poor scheduling of crafts.
Greg Mancini, a Providence lawyer and executive director of RI 21st Century Labor Management Partnership, supports PLAs.
“They’re very useful,” he said. “We believe (they) help identify the exact cost of a project, minimize cost overruns, and make the project go along safer.”
Mancini said the union workers’ skills are tested and therefore dependable.
“Workers join unions because they have confidence they’re being trained correctly,” he said.
“The construction industry has the largest number of fatalities of any industry,” Mancini said. “Twenty percent of on-job deaths are in construction, and when projects expand, less skilled workers get on the job.”
Mancini said that while a PLA might seem to cost more, there are cost-efficient benefits as well. Because large construction projects sometimes run for a number of years, a PLA will often involve a wage freeze, where the workers agree to a flat rate, independent of any activity in the economy.
Whitney disagreed about any advantages.
“It benefits nobody but unions,” he said. “It’s a favoritism measure and nothing more.”
“There are no positive aspects of the PLA,” said Whitney. They reward “the 20 percent of the industry that’s unionized at the expense of the other 80 percent that’s not unionized.”
The Bureau of Labor Statistics said only 19 percent of the construction workers in the United States are unionized.
Mancini broke things down differently.
“One hundred percent of the qualified workforce is union,” he said, “and that is because the union contractors are the only contractors with a qualified workforce that would be able to meet the specifications of the job in a timely and safe manor.”
“Unfettered competition is not what you want,” he said. “You want competition of qualified applicants.”
Robert Boisselle, executive director of the Associated Builders and Contractors Rhode Island Chapter cited recent work on the Tappan Zee Bridge, which was done with a PLA, where there were 32 safety violations.
“There’s a lot of projects that have been done across the country that fly in the face of some of the myths as to why the government would want to have a PLA,” he said.
“But just as importantly, ABC believes that all Rhode Island workers should have an equal chance at the jobs these projects bring.”
