A labor agreement for the Champlain Bridge project that was actively opposed by the Douglas/Dubie administration has been put into affect by the principles anyway.
The PLA (Project Labor Agreement) between the general contaractor, sub-contractor and building trade unions spells out pre-hire terms and conditions of employment on the job. This framework standardizes wages, benefits, schedules, safety requirements and work rules and is said to speed completion of the initiative on time, on budget and without strikes or lockouts.
A press statement said: “The PLA will accomplish what Governor Douglas was sadly unwilling to do – guarantee local residents an opportunity to land a job on this $70 million project,” said Vermont Building and Construction Trades Council President Jeff Potvin. “Labor will not be imported from elsewhere to build one of the largest infrastructure projects in our region’s history. The general contractor stands to save up to $3 million because of a PLA – cost savings that could have been realized by taxpayers if our Governor had done the right thing.”
This past April as bids for the bridge project became available Vermont Agency of Transportation spokesperson John Zicconi claimed;
with the bid-opening happening tomorrow, it's far too late in the process to introduce a PLA now. Doing so, he said, would push back the project schedule and prolong the ferry service that costs Vermont about $30,000 a day to operate
At the time Vermont Secretary of Transportation David Dill carried Douglas’ Springtime fear mongering even farther saying Vermont contractors have told his agency that the requirements would either force higher bids or, more likely, keep them out of the bidding process altogether.
Yesterday the AOT spokesperson sang a much different song when reacting to the agreement. He softened his pitch, never mentioned, and apparently no reporter questioned him about the missed potential $3 million cost saving for the state taxpayers mentioned in the announcement.
Its all water under the bridge.
Zicconi said Monday: the state doesn't see the Project Labor Agreement as a problem; they just did not want to be a part of it. "We always knew it was a possibility that the contractor coming in may want to engage in a PLA and we were always fine with that," he said. "We just did not want you dictate to that contractor who is an employer how they should do business because every contractor handles these things differently." Zicconi said the labor unions will help Flatiron find the skilled workers they need, quickly.
Thanks for posting this, BP. It’s unfortunate your post has been up for six days without any comments. Hopefully, that doesn’t signal a disinterest in one of the most significant labor achievements in Vermont for some time – made even more monumental considering Flatiron Construction, the general contractor, is a NON-UNION shop. Flatiron obviously sees value in collaborating with area building trade unions to erect the bridge on time and on budget.
Gov. Douglas and the Vermont Agency of Transportation have indeed changed their tune. They did not support a public Project Labor Agreement between Flatiron and the States of VT and NY that could have saved taxpayers up to $3 million (the figure comes from a feasibility report commissioned by the NYS Department of Transportation), but they are miraculously all for a private PLA when the windfall could land in the pockets of the contractor. Does the non-union construction community donate a lot of money to the Douglas-Dubie ticket or something?! Funny how that flip-flopping works.
Furthermore, the Administration’s prior claim that a public PLA would dissuade local contractors from bidding was completely unfounded. In fact, out of the eight who responded to a general contracting Request for Proposals that had NO PLA attached to it at the time, none were even from Vermont. There are simply no local general contractors suited to tackle a job of this size – and the Douglas Administration knew that full well. The job, as expected, was ultimately awarded to a Colorado contractor (Flatiron), who will at least now hire the bulk of its workforce locally with the help of a PLA. Without one, Flatiron was under no such requirement.
The media coverage of the private PLA has been disappointing, especially on the television side. No reporter bothered to mention the potential $3 million savings that could now be realized by the contractor – not the public – and, above all, the Administration’s hypocrisy when it comes to PLAs. Were these questions even asked, or are journalists again being complacent and, frankly, ignorant to labor issues?