Deal reached to end Jersey City teacher strike

A deal was reached Sunday night on a new contract for Jersey City's teachers, paving the way for them to return to classrooms Monday morning after striking on Friday.

The tentative contract agreement would end an eight-month dispute between the 29,000-student district and its 3,100 teachers. It must be approved by the nine-member school board and members of the teachers union.

Virtua averts nurses' strike with new contract, increased staffing

About 1,500 registered nurses have voted to accept a new contract with Virtua, calling off a threatened strike that would have affected the health system's locations in Voorhees, Marlton, Berlin and Camden, as well as its visiting home care nurses.

The new three-year agreement addresses many of the nurses' concerns about staffing, time off, wage increases and pension contributions, according to the union representing the nurses at the negotiating table.

A state mediator assisted during negotiations after the nurses' contract expired Feb. 28, but union members authorized a strike vote on March 6.

Both parties reached a tentative agreement at 4 a.m. Wednesday, and the nurses' bargaining unit voted to approve the contract late Thursday. 

The nurses' primary concern centered on staffing needs. Virtua recently hired 65 additional nurses and is actively recruiting to hire 100 more nurses, said Virginia Treacy, a registered nurse and lead negotiator for the union, JNESO District Council 1, IUOE-AFL-CIO.

Pitt to challenge grad student union election petition

Pitt administrators have told the Pennsylvania Labor Relations Board they plan challenge the graduate student petition to hold a union election, organizers said Wednesday.

Pitt will look to convince the board that graduate students aren’t employees. The labor board in February ruled that graduate students at Penn State were considered employees and could unionize.
In a post on Facebook, the Graduate Student Organizing Committee called the move an “attempt to drag out the process in hopes of busting our union.” 

New lawsuits could delay Mariner East 2 pipeline project

PHILADELPHIA >> On Wednesday, Clean Air Council, the Delaware Riverkeeper Network, and Mountain Watershed Association, Inc. filed two new lawsuits against the Department of Environmental Protection and Sunoco Pipeline L.P. for what these organizations say is unlawful conduct related to Sunoco’s Mariner East 2 pipelines.

On Feb. 8, DEP and Sunoco entered into a consent order and Agreement that allowed Sunoco to resume construction activities that had been shut down by DEP on Jan. 3 because of what these organizations say is a mounting list of Sunoco’s willful and egregious permit violations.

SEPTA approves final route for proposed King of Prussia extension: Extension of the Norristown High-Speed Line will include two stops at the mall

SEPTA's board on Thursday approved a final route for the Norristown High-Speed Line extension that will provide direct service to the King of Prussia Mall.

The 4.5-mile, elevated high-speed rail extension would give riders a faster connection among King of Prussia, Center City and University City, the region's three largest economic hubs. It is projected to cost between $1-1.2 billion and will include two stops at the mall among others in the King of Prussia vicinity.

Nurses move to kick out SEIU from UPMC McKeesport

This year, union nurses at UPMC McKeesport will begin negotiating a new three-year labor contract with the hospital.

But the Service Employees International Union that represents the nearly 200 nurses there faces a more immediate, existential challenge — one brought by some among its own ranks.

A group of union nurses is seeking to kick out the SEIU, which has represented employees at the hospital for decades. The nurses filed a petition in December with the National Labor Relations Board, asking for an election that would determine whether members still want to be part of the union. 

RACP AWARDS: Affordable developer's West Philly project is city's biggest recipient of state development grant

Pennsylvania officials have awarded affordable housing developer Mission First Housing Group a $5 million grant to help build a complex of apartments, shops, offices, and early-learning classrooms at 59th and Market Streets in West Philadelphia.

The New Market West project, slated to cover an entire block, was Philadelphia’s biggest recipient of funds from the most recent round of Redevelopment Assistance Capital Program awards, Gov. Wolf’s office said Friday. The release did not include an already announced award from the 2017 RACP round to develop Aramark’s new headquarters at 2400 Market St.

Statewide, 399 projects sought over $1.7 billion in RACP funding in 2017; 149 received grants totaling $187.8 million. New Market West was one of only 17 to have its complete request satisfied.

Seaford passes its own right-to-work ordinance, adding traction to countywide proposal

Sussex County Council has officially set the date for a public hearing on the proposed ordinance for right-to-work, which is gaining traction fast as one town in the county has already instituted their own form of the proposal.

Luck Bros. loses PLA lawsuit

A court has ruled in favor of Clinton County in a dispute over a Project Labor Agreement for work at Plattsburgh International Airport.

In his ruling, New York State Supreme Court Judge Mark L. Powers said the PLA did not harm the local construction company that filed suit.

Luck Brothers Inc., a Plattsburgh construction company, sued the county for implementing a PLA for $42 million worth of work at the airport.

Lehigh Valley Hospital-Schuylkill workers seek to overturn alleged forced SEIU representation

Employees at Lehigh Valley Hospital-Schuylkill E. Norwegian Street in Pottsville, Pa., are asking the National Labor Relations Board to overturn a ruling they claim forced them into union representation.

The union dispute follows Allentown, Pa.-based Lehigh Valley Health Network's September 2016 merger with Pottsville-based Schuylkill Health. At the time of the merger, workers at the South campus were already unionized. The National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation claims workers at the East campus rejected unionization attempts, although the union disagrees, saying a number of workers from the previously unorganized East campus have voluntarily submitted union cards to join SEIU Healthcare Pennsylvania.

Brandywine, Drexel break ground on $3.5B Schuylkill Yards project

It's been called one of Philadelphia's most critical real estate developments.

Today, with Mayor Jim Kenney and other politicians on site, Drexel University and Brandywine Realty Trust broke ground on the modest first phase of what's officially called Schuylkill Yards Innovation Community — a $3.5 billion, 14-acre mixed-use project the developers hope will lure Amazon's vaunted second headquarters.

Penn announces plans for a new residential building at 40th and Walnut streets: New College House West will cost the University a record-breaking $163 million

The University Board of Trustees approved plans on Thursday to build New College House West — a residential building that will cost the University a record-breaking $163 million, Penn President Amy Gutmann said at the board meeting. The new building will be constructed on 40th and Walnut streets, where the high rise field is currently located.

New College House West will begin construction in the spring of 2018 and is expected to open in the fall of 2021, according to a press release.

How Right To Work Laws Are Making Inroads Even In Blue States

Earlier this year Missouri became the 28th state in the nation to enact a Right to Work law freeing workers from being forced to join a union as a condition of unemployment. Other states to enact Right to Work in recent years include union stronghold states like Michigan and Wisconsin, where the prospect of Right to Work legislation having a chance at passage seemed like a pipe dream only a few years ago.

Right-to-work laws give workers freedom from being forced to join a union and pay dues. Before the 1947 Taft-Hartley Act, which permitted states to enact Right to Work laws, all American workers could be forced to join a union as a condition of obtaining and maintaining employment.

Kentucky is another state to recently pass Right to Work, with Gov. Matt Bevin (R) signing it into law in January. Prior to statewide passage of Right to Work, 13 county governments across the Bluegrass State had already gone ahead and enacted local Right to Work laws in order to make those localities more attractive to employers, investment, and job creation. It’s a smart move for local governments that have state legislatures whose political composition precludes statewide passage of Right to Work.

Petitions turned in to repeal Michigan prevailing wage law

A group turned in more than 380,000 signatures Friday for veto-proof legislation to repeal Michigan's 52-year-old law that requires higher "prevailing" wages to be paid on state-financed construction work.

If state election officials certify that roughly 252,000 are valid, the bill will go to the Republican-controlled Legislature, whose leaders support it despite GOP Gov. Rick Snyder's backing of the existing law.

Legislators would have a 40-day window to vote or else the measure would receive a public vote in November 2018.

Snyder, who has opposed identical bills introduced in the Legislature, could not veto the initiated legislation.

Maglev developers ink deal to use union workers for project construction

Contractors seeking to work on a planned 300-mile-per-hour train from Washington, D.C., to New York will have to use union workers under a new agreement. 

The deal was signed by developers of the Northeast Maglev — Baltimore Washington Rapid Rail — and the North America's Building Trades Unions on Wednesday at the B&O Railroad Museum in Baltimore.

Under the memorandum of understanding, any contractor or subcontractor who will eventually work on construction of the $10 billion project will be required to use labor unions that fall under North America's Building Trades Unions' umbrella.

The organization has a number of affiliates across the country, such as the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, International Brotherhood of Teamsters and Laborers’ International Union of North America. There are 28 individual chapters in the greater Baltimore and D.C. regions alone that are represented by the Building Trades Union, according to the organization.

Stop, hammer time: Q&A with NYC construction boss Anthony Rinaldi: Rinaldi talks baseball, union labor and what it's like dealing with a death on a construction site

The world’s tallest modular hotel, according to its builder, is also the “worst nightmare” for union construction companies.

“Modular to the unions is hell on earth. It’s like their worst nightmare because everything’s being built in a factory faster, cheaper and without union labor,” said Anthony Rinaldi, head of his eponymous firm, the Rinaldi Group. “This project, CitizenM, is the epitome of everything they hate.”

Rinaldi, 52, who founded the Rinaldi Group in 2003, is a proponent of open-shop construction — meaning a labor force that includes both union and nonunion workers. Rinaldi recently became regional chairman of the open shop group, the Associated Builders and Contractors, which has been a vocal opponent of the construction safety bill passed by the City Council in September.

Apprentice deal with unions to require Columbus workers for city construction projects

Columbus Mayor Andrew J. Ginther’s administration is testing a new plan that it says will boost the number of people pursuing trade apprenticeships, while it also sets benchmarks for local workers on public construction projects.

The “community-benefits agreement” between the city and the Columbus Building & Construction Trades Council, AFL-CIO, will cover work done on the city’s planned new fire station No. 35, to be built at 711 N. Waggoner Road between Chapel Stone Road and Waggoner Grove Boulevard on the Far East Side.
Work on the $8 million project is scheduled to begin in May 2018. The 22,000-square-foot station will have room for medic vehicle, engine and ladder truck, plus living quarters, training rooms, and a workout area. The city has yet to select a contractor.

At HCR ManorCare in Salisbury, a two-year labor dispute continues to linger

Standing down the road from the Salisbury Township adult care facility where she has worked for the past four years, Ruth Santamaria donned a red union cap, clutched a megaphone and gripped a sign that read, “Every day is Halloween at ManorCare. They suck workers’ blood.”

Santamaria was among several employees who joined representatives from the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union — the union HCR ManorCare workers voted to join — at a rally Tuesday afternoon at the busy intersection of Cedar Crest Boulevard and Fish Hatchery Road, a football field from HCR ManorCare at 1265 S. Cedar Crest Blvd.

Builders Guild website emphasizes construction apprenticeships

A new website for the Builders Guild of Western Pennsylvania is hoping to encourage training in construction during a building boom in the region.

The website for the labor-management organization, comprised of commercial construction trade unions and contractors, focuses on recruiting apprentices into construction trades.

Apprenticeship training is led by each of the 12 trade union through joint apprenticeship training centers, where there is no cost to the student for the three- to five-year programs, during which they are paid on the job. Hourly rates increase after each year of training is completed. 

City Council mulls bills on demolition regulation

Philadelphia plans to tighten regulations on demolitions after a year of heightened fears of lead poisoning in construction-heavy residential neighborhoods.

At Thursday’s City Council session two bills were introduced, both drafted by the Department of Licenses and Inspections (L&I).