Unions about to win one in Linn County

Trade unions are about to score a victory in Linn County.

The supervisors moved closer Tuesday to adopting an agreement that will require the contractor who builds a new county building to pay union wages and hire a certain number of the project's workers through local unions.

Supervisors want to try a project labor agreement on a $12.5 million community services building in southwest Cedar Rapids that will house Linn County Community Services and Options of Linn County. The county hopes to let out bids for the project in March and break ground in April.

“We're only going to do this one right now,” Supervisor Linda Langston said.

Union officials have lobbied for project labor agreements, and contractor associations have lobbied against them for months. Gov. Chet Culver signed an executive order Feb. 3 telling state agencies to consider using project labor agreements.

The debate matters because so much construction work is at stake, particularly in uncertain times for contractors when most major, upcoming building projects in the area are government-funded.

One provision of the proposed Linn County agreement, which is modeled on the document that governed construction of the Wells Fargo Arena in Des Moines, is that contractors who bid on the project must hire up to half their workers through the union hall.

Non-union contractors like Jeremy Price, owner of Price Industrial Electric in Hiawatha, say the agreements limit competition and unfairly favor unions. “I lose my advantage of being a good manager,” Price said.

Unions, who have had a direct hand in shaping the project labor agreement the supervisors are considering, say the agreements ensure projects come in on budget and on time, and that Iowans get good-paying work on local government projects. Scott Smith, president of the Cedar Rapids/Iowa City Building Trades Council, AFL-CIO, discussed the agreement with supervisors Tuesday.

The supervisors won't vote on the matter until next week, but none of them has raised significant objections.

They will go into closed session Thursday to discuss the possibility of a lawsuit. The Wells Fargo Arena agreement withstood a legal challenge, which is why it was appealing to the Board of Supervisors.