Report: Silver Line Phase Two Includes Partial Project Labor Agreement

By Alex McVeigh

Last summer, the idea of a Project Labor Agreement became a hot button issue during planning for Phase Two of the Metro Silver Line. Its proponents said the agreement, which would have given an incentive to companies that used unionized labor, would protect workers. 

Opponents of the agreement felt that it would put companies based in Virginia, which is a Right To Work state, at a disadvantage, and would result in the contract being given to an out-of-state company. 

The Project Labor Agreement was eventually removed. 

A year and a half later, the Washington Post reports that there is a PLA in place for some work on Phase Two. 

Per the Post: 

"It turns out that a PLA is being used for some work on the second phase of the rail project, which will bring Metro service to Washington Dulles International Airport and into Loudoun County.

“Clark Foundations, LLC, a subsidiary of Clark Construction Group, LLC, and a partner of Capital Rail Constructors, LLC, has executed a project specific agreement with Laborers’ International Union of North America (LiUNA) to help supply labor to the project,” according to an e-mailed statement to the Post from Keith Couch, project director for Capital Rail Constructors. 

Couch added that: “The use of both union and non-union labor has worked successfully for us on many other major projects in this area.”

Virginia Secretary of Transportation Sean Connaughton said the PLA would be acceptable as long as it is voluntary. 

“It has been the Commonwealth’s position all along that PLAs or other labor arrangements are acceptable if such agreements are entered into voluntarily between the employer and the labor union,” he said in an e-mailed response to the Washington Post. “Our concern with the pending procurement for Phase 2 of Dulles Rail were the proposals to make PLAs mandatory or to give some sort of preference in awarding the construction contract to bidders with PLAs. Such arrangements do not meet the letter or spirit of Virginia law and, accordingly, we opposed them.”