Prince George’s County Council members are considering legislation that would require collective bargaining agreements be written for all county contracts that exceed $1 million in an effort to drum up more work for residents but which critics say wouldn’t help. A project labor agreement, essentially a collective bargaining agreement made before a contractor is hired for a job, would allow the county to stipulate that a percentage of employees hired for the job are Prince George’s County residents.
Councilwoman Karen Toles, D-Capitol Heights, said her bill would let workers at any one of the Prince George’s 12 training facilities, such as Sheet Metal Workers Local 100, directly benefit
from future development in the county.
“When we get work and we get opportunities, we need to make sure we’re utilizing our own resources and assets,” Toles said.
But the bill wouldn’t succeed in employing more county workers, said Shirley Thompson, executive director of the Maryland Minority Contractors Association. Project labor agreements are typically reached with union contractors, she said, which have employment rules that won’t help a new crop of local contractors trained in Prince George’s County.
“Yes, you’re going to have some local workers,” Thompson said. “But one of the rules unions have is work goes by seniority. New employees from Prince George’s County who join these unions will be sitting around, waiting for their turn, all the while paying their dues.”
But Toles said her bill would promote business for all contractors, union and nonunion. And the old method of hiring contractors isn’t cutting it, Toles said.
“We’ve been doing business like this for years,” she said. “So why are so many of our residents out of work? We haven’t fixed the issue, so we need to set a policy to make sure our folks are getting work and getting paid good wages, benefits, and health care.”
Unemployment in Prince George’s County was at 6.5 percent in April, the lowest point its reached this year. The jobless rate in neighboring Montgomery County was 4.8 percent.
Toles said she hopes to have the public safety and financial management committee approve the bill when it meets on June 15.
