An agreement to have union workers construct the new $100
million Thomas Jefferson High School was approved with the best interest of
taxpayers in mind, the school board president said.
Yet, the project labor agreement — which outlines rules
for no work stoppage, uniform starting times, prevailing wage pay and mandatory
drug testing — approved by the West Jefferson Hills School Board five months
ago, has been met with dismay from a national builders organization in recent
months.
Associated Builders and Contractors Inc. launched a
Facebook campaign in October, blasting images of the seven school board members
faces who approved the pact on people's newsfeeds, and accusing them of
scheming with construction union lobbyists to steer taxpayer-funded dollars
toward union construction work, something the board members adamantly deny.
“At the end of the day, I make a decision based on what's
best for the taxpayers of this community,” West Jefferson Hills School Board
President Anthony Angotti said.
Nearly 150 people attended the Oct. 27 meeting of the
school board where board members invited representatives from both Associated
Builders and Contractors Inc. and Pittsburgh Regional Building Trades Council,
which represents 20,000 craft construction workers in western Pennsylvania, to
weigh in on the topic.
“We want all sides to be heard on this matter,” Angotti
said.
District leaders held numerous meetings on the topic
before board members voted in May to approve the project labor agreement,
Angotti said. Board member Marianne Neel dissented. Board member Shauna
D'Alessandro was absent.
The community construction committee for the new high
school project also weighed in on the issue.
The adoption of a project labor agreement was recommended
by solicitor Ira Weiss, in an effort to create efficiency and consistency of
work on the construction project, superintendent Michael Panza said.
Board members plan to vote to seek bids for phase II, or
the construction of the new $100 million Thomas Jefferson High School, at a
meeting planned for Nov. 17.
Bids likely will be awarded in early 2016, with
construction scheduled start by March.
The school, being constructed on 151 acres on Old
Clairton Road across from the West Jefferson Hills administration offices, is
planned to open at the start of the 2018-19 school year.
Phase I, or site work, of the project already is under
way, with a $1.8 million contract being awarded to West Mifflin-based R&B
Construction and Excavation.
Board members said it wasn't until after they agreed to
the project labor agreement in May, which had been discussed for months prior,
that they heard opposition to the idea.
R. Pete Gum, president of Gibsonia-based Associated Builders
and Contractors Inc. Western Pennsylvania Chapter, raised objections that the
agreement requires non-union employees must pay non-refundable union dues and
fees and join a union within eight days of starting to work on the project.
It also requires workers to follow union work rules,
which changes the way they otherwise would assign workers, Gum said.
The agreement, Gum said, likely will keep non-union
contractors from bidding on the project, which he said could increase costs
because there would be less competition.
Labor costs will increase due to “inefficient work
rules,” Gum said.
Joshua Bloom, an attorney representing Pittsburgh
Regional Building Trades Council countered those claims, stating the board
members who supported the agreement made the right call.
State law requires construction projects greater than
$25,000 to pay employees minimum prevailing wages, meaning a project labor
agreement is cost-neutral for the district, Bloom said.
“So, the wage total package is the same,” Bloom said.
“The question is: which workers are you going to get?”
The agreement, too, comes with a mandatory drug and
alcohol test for everyone working on site.
Jefferson Hills resident Ken Eber encouraged the board to
use union labor for the project.
“There's a big difference,” Eber said. “I believe you get
a much better product using union labor.”
After hearing from both sides and nearing end of a more
than three-hour meeting, Neel made a motion that was not on the agenda, to
eliminate the use of project labor agreements.
Board members voted 7-2 to table the motion with
D'Alessandro and Neel dissenting.
Angotti said district leaders just received information
on project labor agreements that evening and needed time to weigh what they
heard.
Source: Tribune Live
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