Branstad sued over ban on labor agreements

Labor has taken Gov. Terry Branstad and the state of Iowa to federal court in a dispute over project labor agreements on public works projects in Iowa.

Late Tuesday afternoon, the Central Iowa Building and Construction Trades Council and the Cedar Rapids/Iowa City Building Trades Council announced that they had filed the lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Des Moines.

The lawsuit's intent is to require Gov. Branstad to honor two project labor agreements in place prior to Branstad taking office in Janurary on two state building projects – the University of Iowa's new Iowa River Landing satellite medical facility in Coralville and the expansion of the Iowa Veterans  Home in Marshalltown.

The city of Cedar Rapids will have an interest in the lawsuit as it continues its standoff with the governor over a project labor agreement in place on the city's Convention Complex project.

Upon taking office, Branstad issued Executive Order 69 that declared that state funds could not be used on public projects with construction contracts yet to be bid and with project labor agreements in place.

As a result, both the state Department of Administrative Services and the Iowa Board of Regents, both named as defendants in the lawsuit, withdrew project labor agreements from the state's medical facility and veterans home projects.

The trades councils' lawsuit said that the governor and the state have breached their contract with the labor councils by eliminating project labor agreements in place before the governor took office. The lawsuit also states that the governor's action violates the Iowa Constitution regarding separation of powers, Iowa's Home Rule law and federal law.

Tim Albrecht, spokesman for the governor, early Tuesday evening needed few words to respond to the labor councils' lawsuit: ”We're confident we'll win,” he said.

Scott Smith, president off the Cedar Rapids/Iowa City Building Trades Council, said filing a lawsuit was “a last resort.”

“Who knows, maybe the governor always wanted this to end up in court,” Smith said. “But it's unfortunate that he's going to be using public tax dollars to try and ramrod the political agenda of his special interest supporters against PLAs.”

Smith said he understands that the governor doesn't want to allow project labor agreements on state-funded projects going forward, but he said the governor is wrong to break agreements that have been in place.

Smith said the of Cedar Rapids' contract with the trades council is not part of the lawsuit because the city of Cedar Rapids has not withdrawn its project labor agreement on the Convention Complex project. However, the governor has said he will not allow the city to use a much-needed, $15-million state I-JOBS grant on the project because of the project labor agreement.

In its lawsuit, the labor councils are asking the federal court to stop the governor and the state of Iowa from enforcing the governor's Executive Order 69 and to award nominal damages and/or actual damages plus attorneys fees and costs.