Tag: Project Labor Agreement

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Image credit: Metropolitan Transportation Authority of the State of New York, CC BY 2.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0, via Wikimedia Commons”

Funding from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law helped jumpstart two enormous projects on the East Coast in January, creating jobs for SMART sheet metal workers and bettering the working conditions of SMART Transportation Division members. In Baltimore, SMART TD Alt. National Legislative Director Jared Cassity joined Amtrak officials, President Biden and others to kick off the B&P Tunnel Replacement Program. The Civil War-era tunnel will be replaced by the brand-new Frederick Douglass Tunnel, increasing reliability, capacity and speed from 30 mph to a peak of 110 mph. Not only will this save commuters time on the largest rail bottleneck between Washington, DC and New Jersey; thanks to a new project labor agreement (PLA), both SMART sheet metal workers and SMART Transportation Division members working at Amtrak stand to benefit.

“The sorely needed replacement of the B&P Tunnel represents one of the largest infrastructure projects in the region,” SMART General President Joseph Sellers said at the time. “It will improve the lives of Amtrak riders and the SMART TD members who work those trains, and the PLA covering the project will ensure the job is completed by highly skilled workers — lifting local communities up in the process.”

The PLA, negotiated by Amtrak and the Baltimore-DC Building and Construction Trades Council, will cover the replacement of the Warwick Bridge and is the first of its kind under a 2021 Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between Amtrak and North America’s Building Trades Unions (NABTU). The MOU will pertain to Amtrak’s major civil engineering projects moving forward, including the remaining phases of the B&P Tunnel Replacement Program, and will help put SMART sheet metal members to work on critical infrastructure jobs across the country.

The project will also improve working conditions for SMART TD Amtrak employees. The B&P Tunnel is Amtrak’s oldest tunnel on the Northeast Corridor, and it has endured a range of age-related maladies, including excessive water infiltration, structural deterioration and delays that impact more than 10% of trains during the week. Now, thanks to the receipt of funding from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law — as well as a $450 million contribution from the state of Maryland, which will combine with Amtrak’s intended commitment of approximately $750 million — the SMART TD members on those trains can look forward to performing their duties with significantly less hassle.

“Our members are ready to take on this work, and we as an organization are ready to bring in new members and elevate the working class throughout this nation.”

Further north, $292 million in infrastructure funding is spurring the completion of the Hudson Tunnel modernization project, which will rehabilitate the old North River Tunnel connecting New York and New Jersey, build a new tunnel and improve reliability for the 200,000 passengers who traverse the tunnel each weekday. President Biden visited New York City to champion the project on January 31, 2023, where he noted that this phase of the project would create 72,000 jobs.

“Yesterday in Baltimore, I announced that we’re building [the B&P Tunnel project] under the new project labor agreement. And we’re making sure there is [a PLA] here as well,” Biden said.

Funding for the modernization project faltered under the previous president’s administration. But thanks to the passage of the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law in 2021, construction can resume in earnest for this crucial phase. This alone put tens of thousands of union members to work — and once the tunnel has been fully modernized, it will vastly improve working conditions for SMART Transportation Division members working at Amtrak and regional transit systems.

“Since the passage of the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, we’ve seen time and again how important critical infrastructure projects are for our members — both the sheet metal members who work on these projects, and the transit workers who keep our country moving every day,” said General President Sellers. “We applaud the pro-labor leadership of Congress and the Biden administration in putting these funds directly towards projects that benefit working people.”

In addition to New York and Baltimore, the AP reports, infrastructure law funding will spur work on the Brent Spence Bridge, which connects Kentucky and Ohio; the Calcasieu River Bridge in Louisiana; a commuter rail project in Illinois; the Alligator River Bridge in North Carolina; a transit and highway plan in California; and roadways in Oklahoma, Pennsylvania and Mississippi.

“Funding from this law — along with renewed investment from private companies — is creating a level of opportunity across our country that is almost unheard of,” SMART Assistant to the General President Darrell Roberts remarked. “Our members are ready to take on this work, and we as an organization are ready to bring in new members and elevate the working class throughout this nation.”

SMART members and fellow workers from the San Diego Building Trades.

The SM Local 206 (San Diego, Calif.) SMART Army helped secure the future for themselves and their fellow workers in La Mesa, Calif. on March 14 — making their voices heard, loud and clear, as the city council voted in favor of a project labor agreement (PLA) in La Mesa.

“The City of La Mesa’s 5–0 Council vote to negotiate a citywide PLA was a huge success for our SMART Army and members of all trades in La Mesa and San Diego County,” said Local 206 Financial Secretary-Treasurer and Business Manager Dave Gauthier.

The citywide PLA legislation, introduced by La Mesa City Councilmembers Colin Parent and Patricia Dillard, will help ensure city construction projects are performed by local union members, with strong wage guarantees, local hire provisions and other stipulations that will lift up working families across the community. By showing up and fighting for themselves and their fellow workers, the members of Local 206 helped guarantee that public projects in La Mesa will benefit local residents — and provided an example of how SMART members across North America can collectively influence their working conditions.

“Congrats to the city of La Mesa for voting unanimously to enter into a Project Labor Agreement,” the San Diego Building Trades wrote on Twitter. “PLAs are good for workers, good for taxpayers, and good for the local economy.”

Thanks to the efforts of SMART Local 104 and other union members across Northern California, workers in cities like Vallejo stand to benefit from the better wages, local hire provisions and strong apprenticeship standards guaranteed by a project labor agreement. These victories, part of Local 104’s ongoing Campaign for Jobs, demonstrate the power unions have to effect real change for working families when rank-and-file members stand together.

A citywide project labor agreement (PLA) is a pre-hire collective bargaining agreement between a city and a local building and construction trades council that governs the terms and conditions of public works projects, protecting taxpayer money by providing projects that are built on-budget and on-time with the use of local and skilled workers. In other words, PLAs help put union members to work, provide greater apprenticeship opportunities for the union members of the future, and keep local jobs in local communities.

“We often refer to PLAs as “Prevailing wages, Local hire and Apprenticeship,” Local 104 wrote in its recent members’ journal. “They promote apprentice opportunities and ensure that workers’ wages and benefits are protected.”

SMART Local 104 members rally at the Vallejo City Council for a PLA and to create union jobs in Northern California
Local 104 members pose for a picture at the Vallejo City Council meeting after rallying for a citywide project labor agreement and union jobs in Northern California.

On January 17th, 2023, the city of Vallejo, Calif. brought forward a workshop for residents and city officials to discuss PLAs and the possibility of a future citywide project labor agreement. Local 104 Vallejo residents showed up in force with their fellow workers, where they spoke to the benefits of PLAs on local communities, workers, families and economies. The end result: The Vallejo City Council voted to begin PLA negotiations with the Napa/Solano Counties Building Trades Council.

“PLAs will create more local apprenticeship opportunities in the city of Vallejo, and Vallejo is well-deserving of a PLA because we have a lot of union members who live here and raise their families here,” said Local 104 Business Representative Alicia Mijares. “Because of members turning out, we were able to sway the council and deliver this to a formal negotiation. Thank you to the members of Local 104 who came out and made a difference!”

The Vallejo victory is only the latest in an ongoing string of labor agreements for Local 104 members. In October 2022, more than 30 Local 104 members joined the Sacramento Building Trades to support a citywide Community Workforce and Training Agreement (CWTA) for the city of Elk Grove. The Sacramento Building Trades had previously tried to secure an agreement with the city without success – but when a CWTA on the Sky River Casino project in Elk Grove delivered a finished project earlier than projected and under budget, the city realized the effectiveness and efficiency of trained, skilled, union labor. As SMART members and union workers looked on, the Elk Grove City Council voted 4-1 in favor of a citywide CWTA.

One month earlier, Local 104 members gathered with San Joaquin Building Trades workers to pack the Lathrop City Council meeting and call for a CWTA on an upcoming city of Lathrop corporation yard. And once again, the solidarity of organized labor proved decisive: The Lathrop City Council voted unanimously to approve the CWTA, which will cover new construction of a maintenance facility, evidence storage facility and a new office building for the city, creating more union jobs in northern California.

“While Local 104 continues to fight for labor agreements across the map, we’d like to thank every member and ally that showed up in support of the efforts mentioned, as well as any and all Campaign for Jobs actions to secure hours of work for our members,” the local concluded.

Prince George’s (PG) County in Maryland is currently considering a project labor agreement (PLA) for the county’s blueprint schools program, which will use a public-private partnership model for more than $1 billion in school construction in the county. The PLA, which has faced opposition from entities like the Association of Builders and Contractors, would be crucial for local SMART members and working families, particularly those from historically underserved communities.   

SMART News was on the scene as SMART members, local building trades workers and allies rallied in Greenbelt, Maryland on February 15th for a town hall hosted by PG County At-Large Councilmember Mel Franklin, Jr. on the school construction project. Brandishing signs that read “Local Jobs for Local Residents,” “Union Jobs = Quality Jobs” and more, workers from SMART, IUPAT DC 51, Plumbers Local 5, Mid-Atlantic Carpenters union, Steamfitters Local 602, Iron Workers Local 5 and pro-labor advocates made their voices heard on the need for a PLA.

Watch coverage of the rally for a project labor agreement in Prince George’s County on SMART News

“I’m a Prince George’s resident, and I may have done one job in Prince George’s County in over a decade,” SMART Local 100 (Washington, DC-area) member and PG County resident Antonio Palmer explained to SMART News. “We want to be able to have an equal opportunity, as Prince George’s County union members, to be able to work within the county.”

“Everyone deserves a wage that can sustain a family here in Prince George’s County,” Progressive Maryland Executive Director Larry Stafford, Jr. told the crowd ahead of the town hall. “And that applies to our school construction!”

“One of the greatest ways we can protect Prince George’s County residents is through a Project Labor Agreement,” added PG County Councilmember Edward P. Burroughs III.

During the town hall, multiple union workers conveyed the importance of PLAs to Councilmember Franklin and Jason Washington, director of the PG County Public Schools Office of Alternative Infrastructure Planning and Development. Workers stressed that merely having prevailing wage on public school construction isn’t enough – by using a project labor agreement, the county can better ensure fair pay, local hiring provisions and fight back against worker misclassification. Additionally, some added, putting local union members to work on local schools sends a strong message to PG County students who are interested in the trades.

“It’s really huge that we have this, because it helps bring the work and the money right back into Prince George’s County,” said SMART Local 100 member and PG County resident Victor Champion.

“I’ve been travelling to Virginia for over 17 years to work,” added Local 100 member and PG County resident Warren Hackley. “I think we should have a fair opportunity to work within the Prince George’s County area.”

Unprecedented infrastructure investment continues to create jobs for SMART sheet metal workers across the country. That includes Connecticut, where a project labor agreement is putting SMART Local 40 sheet metal members to work at Bradley International Airport.

“It’s a fantastic thing. We have a bunch of different people, not only from my local but overall in the Connecticut building trades, doing the background work, talking to the right folks so that we can go in there and make good, living wages” said Local 40 journeyperson Manny Heredia in an interview with SMART News.

Watch Nimmons and Heredia discuss new work for members on SMART News.

The jobs Local 40 members will perform are part of approximately $230 million of work on the airport, which will see a total overhaul of the airport’s baggage handling area. Approximately $20 million of that amount is from federal infrastructure legislation, which included strong hiring incentives that benefit union members.

“We’re going to do energy efficient upgrades to the terminal, HVAC improvements which will include indoor air quality, MERV 13 or better air filters because it is an airport where everyone’s coming in, with all the airborne illnesses we’ve had,” Local 40 Regional Manager John Nimmons told SMART News.

“We are becoming a go-to trade, because people are realizing these buildings do need to have great ventilation systems,” Heredia added.

In the past, Nimmons explained, any renovations on Bradley International Airport would likely have been performed by nonunion workers. However, current Governor Ned Lamont sought the support of the Connecticut Building Trades during both of his election campaigns, and in return, he has acted in support of union workers.

“We now get to reap the benefits of jobs going our way with just the stroke of the governor’s pen,” Nimmons added. “All four years of our apprenticeship classes are full – we’re actively recruiting journeypersons and apprentices. The workload we have under project labor agreements, public and private in the state of Connecticut, looks very good over the next two-and-a-half to three years.”