Local union representatives and workers attended the Reading City Council meeting on Monday night to show their support for a public labor agreement (PLA).
Their comments come in opposition to those made by numerous representatives from local construction and development companies against a PLA at the last meeting on October 27.
Reading City Council will be voting on whether to adopt a PLA in the coming weeks.
If passed, the ordinance would require a public labor agreement for any project over $5 million receiving city aid, and one requirement of the agreement is that contracted workers be unionized.
At the October 27 meeting council added an additional ordinance to be voted upon that would guarantee fair and open competition for construction projects.
This agreement would open contracts for any business to bid on regardless of workers' union status.
Those who opposed a public labor agreement argued that nearly 85% of the workers in Berks County are non-unionized and would be disqualified from working.
Another opponent held that open competition could only reduce costs to the city.
Ryan Helmes, Business Manager of the local electricians’ union and member of the Construction and BuildingTrades Commission for the City of Reading explained the purpose of a project labor agreement.
“The reason we brought the PLA legislation that was introduced was to help promote the best opportunities for the city, basically to get the best bang for their buck for their construction projects, and it’s also about promoting current and future local trades people on our projects. It’s about keeping local people on local projects.”
Abraham Amoros, Pennsylvania Legislative Director for the Laborers’ International Union, held that, “training requirements coupled with fair compensation save tax payers money by ensuring on-time and on-budget project completion.”
Brian McMahon from the Steamfitters Local Union 420 held that the argument that 85% of local workers are non-unionized and so a PLA would discriminate against the majority of the city's local work force is not true.
He argued instead that mandatory government surveys prove that union workers are the majority in this community.
"PLAs are not discriminatory. They have been held up in court as they only way to assure work goes to local people," he said.
Bill Dorward, representative of the sheet metal workers in the county, responded to the arguments that open competition would reduce costs to the city.
He held that prevailing wage laws and union wage requirements are in place to compensate workers for their intense training and for the risks they take each day.
"I will not apologize for unionized construction workers' wages." He continued, "PLAs are a community plus. They make sure the money spent on these projects stays in the community. When workers are paid good wages for the work they do, they put it back into the community."
Finally, Brian Waller, a county resident and union worker, explained why the PLA was so important to him.
“I’m just a guy who goes to work and does my job and goes home. But I am a member of this community and there’s a lot of guys like me. And I don’t want to see any of those guys not working, including supposedly the 85% that are going to get eliminated by this PLA, which I don’t believe to be true. I think it’s just an opportunity for you guys to raise the standard in this area for people in the rank and file to make a better living and return that living to the community.”
At the conclusion of the meeting council member Jeffrey Waldman hoped, “There’s got to be some middle ground that makes sense.”
The ordinances regarding a new labor agreement are currently being drafted and will be voted on in the coming weeks.
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