Input on project labor agreements sought

CEDAR RAPIDS - The Cedar Rapids/Iowa City Building & Construction Trades Council wants the Iowa Attorney General's Office to weigh in on a dispute between the mayor and the governor overCedar Rapids' use of a project labor agreement in its Convention Complex project.

In a letter dated Thursday, Scott Smith, the council's president, asked Sen. Rob Hogg, D-Cedar Rapids, to seek the opinion from Attorney General Tom Miller.

Miller, a Democrat, and the legal counsel for Gov. Terry Branstad, a Republican, won't necessarily see the issue in similar fashion.

In his letter to Hogg, Smith notes that the Iowa Supreme Court found, on a 6-1 vote in 2002, that project labor agreements do not violate Iowa's competitive bidding law or Iowa's right-to-work statute.

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Upon taking office in January, Branstad issued an executive order banning the use of state funds on public works projects using project labor agreements, agreements which Branstad's predecessor, Gov. Chet Culver, had encouraged.

The Cedar Rapids City Council adopted such a project labor agreement on the Convention Complex project with the Cedar Rapids/Iowa City Building & Construction Trades Council on Dec. 14.

Corbett emphasized this week that Cedar Rapids' agreement was in place before Branstad's executive order. He also has noted that the city has drawn down half of its $15-million state I-JOBS grant on the project.

Branstad, meanwhile, said this week that he intended to enforce the executive order.

The city of Cedar Rapids has yet to accept bids on portions of the Convention Complex project to which the project labor agreement applies.

The Cedar Rapids City Council majority that approved the project labor agreement saw it as a way to guarantee that local workers did much of the work on the Convention Complex project. Agreement or not, contractors will have to pay union wages on the project because of rules that come with the use of federal funds on the project.

Opponents of project labor agreements say they drive up the cost of projects and prevent many contractors from bidding on projects.

Corbett has said he intends to honor Branstad's order banning project labor agreements on city building projects that are not as far along as the Convention Complex. It's too late on the latter project, he said.