Spokane council to consider stronger labor requirements for city projects of $5 million or above

Contractors bidding to build Spokane’s city roads, facilities and other public infrastructure may soon have to show that one-fifth of the project’s labor will come from underrepresented or impoverished communities living in the city, as well as ensure affordable day care and other benefits.

Councilman Paul Dillon, alongside several area unions such as Carpenters Local 59, Ironworkers Local 14 and International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers 73, unveiled the Public Dollars for Public Benefit act at a Monday news conference. Councilman Zack Zappone is co-sponsoring the ordinance.

Dillon and supporters argue the law would create better protections for construction workers on city projects, ensure a larger portion of local tax dollars are paid out to local workers, and promote the development and retention of a local skilled workforce. Detractors fear some of the provisions will be difficult or impossible to comply with and would dissuade many general contractors from bidding for city projects, decreasing competition and raising bid costs.

If approved, 20% of the labor hours on a city public infrastructure project that costs at least $5 million must be from a “priority hire.” Those priority hires must either be a graduate from a state-certified pre-apprenticeship program; a veteran, person of color, woman, those formerly convicted of a crime, formerly homeless or a tribal member; or living in a poorer, less employed and less educated area of the city.

The ordinance would be implemented through a labor agreement negotiated with the Northeast Washington/North Idaho Building and Construction Trades Council and executed between the city and at least one labor union.

“I want Spokane to be the most pro-worker city in the state,” Dillon said at Monday’s news conference. “I want our laws to demonstrate our commitment to treating working people with dignity and fairness.”

Tony Edwards, a team lead and treasurer for Carpenters Local 59, argued the increased reporting requirements would also help prevent contractors that skirt state labor laws from receiving large city contracts.

“A big part of what we do is investigate contractors who take advantage of the lack of enforcement of prevailing wage laws in Washington State,” Edwards said. “These cheating contractors bring a workforce from outside Spokane who are unfamiliar with the area standard wages … that either don’t know how much money they are owed or are often too afraid to speak up for fear of losing their jobs.”

Rulebreakers gain an advantage over contractors abiding by state and local law, he argued, and the Public Dollars for Public Benefit law would help level the playing field by increasing accountability and transparency.

Some argue the provisions are unrealistic and ultimately preferential to union contractors.

Cheryl Stewart, executive director of the Inland Northwest Associated General Contractors, raised concerns at a Monday council committee meeting that contractors had not been included early in discussions of the law. She believes that lack of stakeholder engagement had resulted in comments like those of Edwards, which she called “disheartening.”

“There’s bad players in every field, and I don’t believe the majority of people who do work for the city are those people,” Stewart said in a Tuesday interview.

She argued the language of the ordinance would exclude apprenticeship and pre-apprenticeship programs that aren’t affiliated with unions or meet other arbitrary requirements.

She also believes the requirement to sign onto an agreement mandating union involvement, as well as some of the provisions such as for affordable child care, would make city projects unattractive for many contractors. With fewer bidders, there would be less competition to lower costs, she argued.

The Spokane Alliance, a coalition of 35 faith, labor and community organizations that initially proposed the new law and claims to represent over 20,000 people across the city, disputes that labor agreements would increase costs or decrease efficiency, pointing to studies from the pro-union Illinois Economic Policy Institute.

“I 100% believe it will raise costs,” Stewart said. “It will be less competitive; there will be contractors that simply won’t bid on these programs because they don’t want to become signatories of the union, or they have employees who don’t want to sign on.”

She also worries that the 20% priority hire requirement will be difficult to implement because of a general labor shortage, requiring mass hiring of inexperienced workers and possibly increasing safety issues.

Stewart said organizations like hers or contractors wary of the ordinance shouldn’t be painted simply as anti-union.

“A majority of the contractors working for the city currently are union contractors, and we fully support them,” she said. “This issue is about restricting who can and can’t work on a city project.”

The ordinance has not been scheduled for a vote but is likely to come before the council in July.