In a 9-1 vote, the Pr. George's County Council launched a pilot program that would require a county department to use project labor agreements in contracting.
would require curb and rehabilitation projects to have contractors and subcontractors become part of a project labor agreement with guarantees against strikes and standards for resolving labor disputes.
The agreements also come with parameters for productivity and safety.With or without PLAs, minority-run businesses have not received the level of investment from the county they deserve, said council member Edward Burroughs III , reminding the council that the bill doesn’t place project labor agreements across the county — just through the pilot. Divisions were on display Tuesday at a public hearing that saw the bill in turns lauded and derided by labor and business representatives, with a union leader celebrating and firms raising concerns about unintended consequences. “Logistically, it affects everything from crew chemistry to production to safety, the quality of work and to the cost of performing the work,” said Nelson Nazario of Beltsville-based NZI Construction, a certified minority business. “The purpose of the bill is essentially to get road contractors to hire residents of Prince George’s County to work on county projects. [At] NZI, currently 90 percent of our workforce are residents of Prince George’s County.”Council member Krystal Oriadha said she doesn’t believe that residents and businesses have to be pitted against one another for good policy. “I think that as a council, we can understand and strike a balance to be able to stand boldly and loudly and clearly represent and push the interests of our residents that don’t have the opportunity to own a business,” she said. “Anyone that thinks that they’re less important than someone has an opportunity to own a business, I don’t think should be in power to sit in these seats.” John Erzen, chief of staff for County Executive Angela D. Alsobrooks, said her administration supports the legislation and will continue to scrutinize county spending for its impacts on small businesses in Prince George’s, minority business participation and fiscal responsibility.Franklin pointed to the county’s use of PLAs on the constriction of the Laurel Library and the Brandywine fire station as evidence that project labor agreements end up costing taxpayers more while furthering delays before completion. Franklin said he will be “watching closely” for the percentage of county residents hired under the project while being on the lookout for any workarounds for code passed by the previous council intent to boost minority business participation in county projects. “This new PLA for curb and road projects is going to have to meet those higher requirements,” Franklin said.“What I can assure you is if Prince George’s County residents are not benefiting from this, I will repeal my own bill,” Burroughs said. “I’m confident that they will [work] because these agreements have strong track records of being very successful.”
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