Superior struggles with PLA mandate

Organized labor in Superior says project-labor agreements will open up more jobs for city residents, but opponents argue the PLAs will lead to higher spending.

Even if both sides are right, the question becomes whether city taxpayers want to pay more to give residents a better shot at working on city jobs, said Mayor Dave Ross. Whether it's a PLA or some other law forcing a local-hiring preference, Ross said the requirements would limit competition and drive up bid amounts.

"What more will we roll into this until we're down to a small set of local bidders who will just jack up the prices?" he said.

Dan Olson, city counselor and business manager for Laborers Local 1091, wants to require PLAs on city contracts worth more than $150,000. Olson said he wants to help local residents get jobs on city projects.

He said his proposal will not increase contract costs since PLAs set wages for jobs. He said the scarcity of public contracts, which is one of the things driving new contractors to bid on city jobs, means the PLA won't keep builders from bidding.

"I don't believe so, no," he said. "With the economy, there are people coming out of the woodwork to look for jobs."

The Associated Builders and Contractors of Wisconsin, which this month wrote city officials a letter (PDF) opposing the PLA ordinance, argues Olson is wrong, and the PLAs would drive up contract costs, said ABC Vice President John Mielke. A PLA would make nonunion builders contribute to union health and pension funds, which would double the benefits costs for merit shops if they already have in-house benefits, he said.

"If they have their own programs, they have to keep those going, they have to pay their private providers," Mielke said. "They're just at such a competitive disadvantage, nobody in their right mind would do that."

The Northern Wisconsin Building Trades Council is making a broad push for government PLAs in the area and earlier this year got Douglas County to adopt a PLA ordinance, said Norm Voorhees, council president. He said more of his members are heading west to Minnesota to find jobs because contractors there are heading into Wisconsin for work.

Olson said he hasn't looked into other ways to require contractors to hire from the local work force on city contracts. Even though the ordinance created what he called a lot of politics around the union and nonunion debates and raised potential conflicts of interest for him, Olson said a PLA is the best way to ensure local workers get work.

"What I proposed was from a city counselor's viewpoint," he said, "because I know a PLA would benefit working residents."

Olson's allegiance to both the union and the city led City Attorney Frog Prell to ask the state Attorney General's office to decide if Olson's job as a Laborers' business manager would create a conflict of interest in the PLA proposal. The Common Council on June 17 tabled the ordinance to await an opinion from the attorney general's office.

If there is a conflict, Prell said, the solution could be as simple as having another member of the council sponsor the proposal.

"Why ramp up the timing of all of this and press it through in a manner in which it could be voided?" he said.

Copyright 2008 Dolan Media Newswires
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