Labor Fight Embroils New Champlain Bridge Construction
Vermont Business Magazine › Vol. 38 Nbr. 4, April 2010
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Summary
According to Fred B Kotler, associate director of the Construction Industry Program at Cornell University's School of Industrial and Labor Relations, the all-union provision hasn't been that strictly interpreted in practice.\n The only such source was someone connected with Senator Bernard Sanders, but he does not go on record to make statements, and in any case he was out of the office and unavailable. According to the VTrans 2009 annual report on structures, of 2,688 bridges in the state, 464 are "functionally absolete," 494 are "structurally deficient," and 139 have posted restrictions due to structural problems.
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Labor Fight Embroils New Champlain Bridge Construction
With the construction industry hit harder than most by the Great Recession and its "jobless recovery," issues surrounding the anticipated $75 million reconstruction of the Champlain Bridge have had interested parties scrapping like drought-stricken animals at a waterhole.
To some degree this might have happened simply because New York will manage the project, as it has managed maintenance, even though Vermont and New York will share the non-federal part of the cost (80-10-10). A similar but opposite situation applies to the Rouse's Point Bridge to the north: both sides pay, but Vermont manages.The furor has arisen over whether non-union contractors, which prevail in Vermont, will be on the same footing as union contractors, which pre-dominate in many parts of New York. Specifically, the controversy has focused on the likely use of a "Project Labor Agreement", or PLA for short, to govern hiring, pay, conflict resolution and other matters during the construction of a new bridge.PLAs have been around for about 60 years in...See the full content of this document
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