CHICAGO—Contractors in northern Illinois and unions representing striking laborers and heavy equipment operators were scheduled to resume negotiations July 19 aimed at resolving a work stoppage that has halted construction on roads, bridges, and buildings throughout the region for nearly three weeks.

Hopes for a resolution were running high among contractors, represented by the Mid-America Regional Bargaining Association (MARBA), and the estimated 15,000 strikers, represented by the International Union of Operating Engineers Local 150 and the Laborers District Council of Chicago. At the same time, comments from the leaders of MARBA, which represents nearly 300 contractors, and from the unions suggested that the two sides remain far apart.

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Contract negotiations between the Chicago Regional Council of Carpenters Local 4 and the Associated General Contractors Quad Cities Chapter are expected to resume July 29, just days after the Carpenters ended a three-day strike.

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The Kansas City Star is reporting that with the St. Louis carpenters union’s expansion into Kansas City, local labor leaders will be sure to monitor the effect on the area’s union electrical work.

That’s because a battle over jurisdiction and work issues has erupted between the Carpenters’ District Council of St. Louis and the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 1 in St. Louis, the AFL-CIO’s longtime electricians union.

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According to the Construction Labor Report, a Congressional Research Service report released July 1 observes that much of the research on project labor agreements (PLAs) are inconclusive.

Despite widespread, long-term use of PLAs, studies can be difficult to conduct and have shown mixed results on the economic effects of PLAs.

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The Borough of Fanwood, NJ may enter into an experimental deal for temporary labor with one of the county’s unions next week, in a cost-saving measure that will serve as a test for other municipalities around the state.

The council will vote July 13 on the agreement with Building Laborers’ Local 394 enabling the borough to hire workers at an hourly wage to augment its shorthanded public works department.

“It’s all about smaller government working more efficiently, and I think this was an opportunity,” Mayor Colleen Mahr said, noting the agreement would save the borough in overtime costs and benefits in tight budgetary times.

The agreement would be a pilot program for all the state’s labor unions, said New Jersey Laborers’ Union spokesman Robert Lewandowski, noting other mayors have expressed interest.

“The construction industry is decimated, so these are really people who are looking for work as well,” he said, noting unemployment among the state’s labor unions ranges between 20 percent and 40 percent. “I think necessity truly is the mother of invention.”

The borough of 7,100 currently has six workers, one secretary and a director in the public works department. As a cost-saving measure, the borough has not replaced an employee who resigned in March.

If the council approves the agreement, the borough could ask the union for workers to perform specific tasks like emergency snow removal or small projects in the capital improvements budget like sidewalk replacements. Mahr said the laborers’ hourly rates would be similar to the salary range of its full-time workers but without health benefits or vacation time.

“These guys are trained to do it, and they’re the same people the contractors would be using, quite frankly,” Fanwood chief financial officer Fred Tomkins said at Tuesday’s borough council meeting. “You would eliminate the contractors’ profit, because there wouldn’t be a profit.”

Tomkins said he had worked out similar arrangements for capital projects in Jersey City years ago, but Mahr said Fanwood would be the first municipality in Union County to try it out.

Fanwood’s council members favored the proposal.

“As a union man, I applaud this terrifically, especially if we could somehow get our own local residents,” said councilman Michael Szuch, who works as an electrician, at Tuesday’s meeting.

Source: NJ.com