BRICK – All future public construction projects undertaken by the township and exceeding $5 million will go to Brick residents since the governing body passed a Project Labor Agreement (PLA) during a recent Township Council Meeting.
“This chapter also creates opportunities to employ a substantial number of apprentices, thus ensuring that these projects will expand access to living wage careers in the construction trades for a new generation of workers,” said Mayor Lisa Crate.
She said the ordinance is a bipartisan effort that ensures good paying jobs for people who live in Brick Township.
“This Project Labor Agreement puts Brick residents first,” she said. “That’s something to be proud of, because as I said before, what’s best for Brick Township is not about Republicans or Democrats, it’s about what’s good and right for our entire community.”
The ordinance requires that 20 percent of all labor hours and 100 percent of apprenticeship programs are Brick residents.
“What we’re really talking about is knowing that these projects will be done by skilled laborers who will do quality work and take pride in their work because this is their township,” the mayor said.
Township Attorney Kevin Starkey said the ordinance would apply to public projects undertaken by the township exceeding $5 million and would be publicly bid.
Township Attorney Kevin Starkey and Mayor Lisa Crate explained the details of the new agreement. (Screenshot by Judy Smestad-Nunn)
The council meeting audience was filled with trade union members, many who spoke in support of the ordinance during public comment.
Rocco Lepore said he is a 35-year long resident of the township, and said he has been a member and regional council representative of the Carpenter’s Union.
“It’s because of fair wages, state-of-the-art training, and health benefits for union carpenters that we receive, that we are able to buy homes, support local business and raise our families in towns like Brick,” he said.
“We are the safest, most professional and productive workers in New Jersey,” Lepore added. “We can only support our union families if there is an opportunity presented to us, that’s why the PLA in Brick Township is so important. Local projects should be built by local workers.”
The ordinance had its detractors. Resident Vic Finelli said project costs are higher when the township hires union workers.
Finelli also asked who would be bidding on jobs that have burdensome requirements, including many of the compliance mandates.
“Based on all that is in [the ordinance], who in their right mind is going to bid on a contract in Brick?” he asked. “The amount that you’re requesting or demanding is so unreal, it’s almost like why are you doing this?”
Samantha DeAlmeida, CEO of Associated Builders and Contractors (ABC) of New Jersey, whose chapter has 1,300 members, said she was strongly opposed to the ordinance.
“Anyone who works on a public works site has to be paid prevailing wage, that’s not where the issue comes in with cost,” she said. “A study performed by the NJ Department of Labor…shows the PLAs increased the cost of construction by 33 percent and led to significant delays in the completion of projects.”
She said she didn’t know if the 2002 study has been updated or if it is still true.
Labor compliance analyst Paul Prendergast with the Eastern Atlantic State Regional Council of Carpenters said that ABC frames their opposition to the ordinance as a defense of taxpayers.
“Yet they do not represent the taxpayers,” he said. “You all do, as members of this council.”
Prendergast said “ABC is a special interest group that seeks to suppress hard-working people in order to increase the profits for their member-owners,” is opposed to worker protections and has called for a national repeal of the prevailing wage.
All six Democratic council members voted in favor of the ordinance. The lone Republican, Perry Albanese, abstained without an explanation.
After the meeting Township Business Administrator Joanne Bergin said there are no public projects planned for the township that exceed $5 million.
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