County Supervisors Hold Up Metro Extension Over PLA

Wednesday, May 16, 2012

County Supervisors Hold Up Metro Extension Over PLA(Metropolitan Washington Council, AFL-CIO)“A perfect example of why government has become dysfunctional.” That's how Washington Post columnist Steven Pearlstein described Republican county supervisors in Loudoun County, VA who are holding up a $5-billion extension of the metro system because of a requirement that the contractor negotiate a project labor agreement (PLA) with local unions. PLAs are agreements that assure that workers on federally-assisted construction projects like this one are paid prevailing wages. “The general contractor for the first phase of the Silver Line [metro extension] project voluntarily entered into such an agreement to get access to a sufficient number of skilled workers, a no-strike pledge from unions and considerable flexibility on work rules” Pearlstein reported. The project, already well underway, could be halted by the supervisors' anti-union sentiment. “What’s truly astonishing is that Republican politicians would even consider killing a project of such overriding importance to their county, their state and the Washington region just to stick it to labor unions and their Democratic allies.” Click here to read Pearlstein’s full article. - photo of Silver Line construction by Nikki Kahn/The Washington Post

 

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