The Pennsylvania Department of General Services (DGS) Aug. 21 announced that the 2,000-bed State Correctional Institution at Benner Township prison project in Rockview, Pa., will be opened for a second round of bids without a project labor agreement (PLA) because the first round of bids came in too high.
DGS opened the project to bidders in June with expectations of a $200 million budget and a requirement that bidders sign a PLA. When the first round of bidding closed in July, bids were tens of millions of dollars over budget and the decision was made to reopen the bidding process without the PLA.
“We would like to see the job awarded to the lowest qualified contractor who is able to build the best project at the lowest cost for the state of Pennsylvania,” said Dave Remick, president of ABC’s Central Pennsylvania Chapter.
Government-mandated PLAs are contracts that discourage open shop contractors and their employees – comprising more than 80.2 percent of the construction workforce in Pennsylvania – from bidding and working on construction projects. In addition, government-mandated PLAs unnecessarily increase the costs of construction projects paid for by taxpayers, as well as discriminate against women and minorities who have traditionally been underrepresented in construction trade unions.
For more information about PLAs, visit
www.thetruthaboutplas.com. For more information about the State Correctional Institution at Benner Township project, visit
http://www.thetruthaboutplas.com/tag/benner-township/.