EVERETT — After some unions called the process flawed, Mayor Cassie Franklin pulled an ordinance off the agenda that would have set framework rules for project labor agreements (PLAs) back to the drawing board.
Franklin withdrew it “after hearing additional feedback from stakeholders,” she said, and will continue to develop it “until we get it right.”
A taskforce worked on the issue that included Council members Don Schwab and Judy Tuohy. They pushed to see an ordinance written.
Schwab said that the taskforce identified several items for what should be in the ordinance, but the end result didn’t reflect the needs of the labor force “and quite frankly needed a lot more work.”
Missing from the table were labor groups such as the Snohomish and Island County Labor Council and the Northwest Washington Building and Construction Trades Council, according to the sheetmetal workers’ union. Omitting labor groups like these while crafting a labor law would be a disservice, that union wrote.
The mayor’s office has set up meetings with more labor unions to discuss the topic with a wider range of union organizations.
A PLA sets guidelines, such as setting laborer wages, before sending a public works project to bid. Any company that bids would have to abide by the PLA regarding how workers are paid and treated. Unions generally favor PLAs.
The proposed rules that got yanked would have set a $7 million minimum threshold to make a project eligible to add in a PLA. The rules would mandate a PLA for large city projects worth more than $35 million.
The city currently has a rule that requires it to evaluate and consider implementing a PLA on big projects of more than $5 million, and
Franklin pointed out that it plans to use a PLA for a reservoir fix.
