A study committee, convened to consider use of a project labor agreement on the proposed $53 million Kent County, R.I., courthouse project in West Warwick, is expected to announce its decision on or about Oct. 1, according to area sources.

The seven-member committee heard testimony Sept. 5 on the feasibility of the state requiring use of a project labor agreement on the new courthouse project, Gregory Mancini, executive director of the Rhode Island 21st Century Labor-Management Partnership, said. State officials are required by a state supreme court decision to exercise due diligence in evaluating whether applying a project agreement to a particular project is in the public interest, but no definition of due diligence has been established, he said.

The committee should issue its decision around Oct. 1, Mancini said, adding that "it's a moving deadline."

The Rhode Island Supreme Court ruled on Jan. 4, 2002, that a state contracting agency must demonstrate the need for a PLA on a state-funded construction project before such an agreement could be included in project bid specifications. Given the presumptively anticompetitive nature of such agreement, the court said, the state must demonstrate that the size and complexity of the project are such that a PLA supports state objectives and that the purchasing agency has performed an objective, reasoned evaluation demonstrating that a PLA would further statutory goals (47 CLR 1239, 1/9/02).

Study committee attorney Girard Visconti of Visconti and Boren in Providence notified potential witnesses by letter, dated Aug. 14, that the committee would consider the purported advantages and disadvantages of PLA use on the courthouse project. Among the listed advantages were reduced delays, strike and work stoppage avoidance, adequate labor supply, time and cost effective completion, stabilized wage and benefits, and "harmony with labor." Listed disadvantages were reduced number of bidders, increased construction costs, and many contractors being discouraged from bidding.

Construction of the courthouse is expected to be bid on or before Oct. 1, according to a copy of the letter obtained by BNA. Visconti could not be reached for further comment on the study committee's deliberations or its impending decision.

ABC Stressed Increased Costs.

Robert Boisselle, executive director of Associated Builders and Contractors' Rhode Island Chapter, Sept. 22 said he testified before the study committee Sept. 5. Boisselle said he stressed that many open-shop contractors would be dissuaded from bidding on the project and the limited number of bids would drive up the cost of the project. Taxpayers would be straddled with higher costs because of the lack of competition that the PLA would create, he said.

Boisselle said he told the study committee that the concept of strikes and delays being eliminated by a project agreement should not be determinative. He said that without a PLA the open shop contractors who would be operating on the project would not have those type of labor problems because they are open shop. "If you don't want labor unrest it makes no sense to eliminate the companies that would not have any," he said.

Open shop contractors who be at a competitive disadvantage in bidding on a project where a project agreement is required, Boisselle said he told the committee, because they would be obligated to lay off their own workers and rehire workers through union hiring halls. Open shop contractors could rehire their own workers, but would have to do so through union hiring halls and would be obligated to contribute to the union benefit funds for those workers in addition to continuing to make payments into the funds the contractors have already established for their workers, he said. This situation is exacerbated because the project wont last long enough for anyone to become vested and the contractors will not get back the money that they paid into the union funds, he said.

Boisselle said he told the study committee that open shop contractors cannot stop payment to their own 401(k) plans and other benefit funds because they become obligated to pay into union benefit funds for the same workers under a project agreement. This situation puts the open shop contractor in a position of paying double benefits and places the open shop contractor at a competitive disadvantage in bidding on the projects, he said. A limited number of bidders results in lack of competition and that drive up project costs, he said.

ABC's testimony concerned projects in New York and elsewhere, but those projects are not relevant to any analysis in Rhode Island, Mancini said Sept. 23. Local building trades have a proven track record of success and the manpower capabilities of union contractors in Rhode Island are superior, he said. Since 1998 there have been 11 construction deaths in Rhode Island and not one occurred on a union project, he said. In addition, union contractors in the state spend a total of approximately $1.5 million to $2 million per year on training, he said.

"Our record is unmatched in terms of projects completed, safety, and investment in training," Mancini said.

Ronald Coia, president of the Rhode Island Building and Construction Trades Council, AFL-CIO, who testified before the study committee Sept. 5 in support of PLA use, could not be reached for comment.

Besides Visconti, study committee members include Chair Francis O'Brien of Providence College, William Marchetti, who is the project manager for the state supreme court, Marlene McCarthy Tuohy and Stephen Vieira of the state administration department, and Paul Petit and Gail Valuk of the state supreme court staff.

The Rhode Island 21st Century Labor-Management Partnership, which supports applying a PLA on the courthouse project, includes the Rhode Island Building and Construction Trades Council, AFL-CIO, the Associated General Contractors' Rhode Island Chapter, and regional affiliates of the Mechanical Contractors Association and the National Electrical Contractors Association.

By James Skovron