The City of Bayonne successfully fended off a legal challenge that would have voided the requirement to use union labor for certain projects at the former Military Ocean Terminal and other locations throughout the city.
Last year, the City Council approved a Project Labor Agreement that requires the city to use union labor in public construction contracts when a tax abatement is granted.
Prior to that, the Bayonne Local Redevelopment Authority also required that work done on the former Military Ocean Terminal site on behalf of the BLRA use union labor.
A Project Labor Agreement requires all contractors, whether they are unionized or not, to subject themselves and their employees to unionization in order to work on a government-funded construction project. This is done by including a union collective bargaining agreement in a public construction project’s bid specifications.
Bayonne fended off a court challenge to Project Labor Agreements this week. One of the companies interviewed for a job at the former Military Ocean Terminal sought to void them.
Project Labor Agreements have long been hailed as a tool to facilitate construction projects using contractors who employ qualified building trades. But opponents of Project Labor Agreements claim such agreements increase the overall costs to projects and subject non-union workers to union control on these projects.
“Bayonne is home to many members of the building trades unions.” – Terrance Ruane
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The court dismissed the UTCA move to void the labor agreements. It was their opposition to the agreement that was dismissed in the case.
City officials claim that when properly implemented, PLAs provide specific benefits for complex construction projects of large scope such as schools construction, public works projects, and major capital improvements. They also say that PLAs can advance the community’s interests of cost, efficiency, quality, safety, timeliness, skilled labor force, labor stability, and job training and enrichment goals.
Mayor Mark Smith said that, since public funds were going to be used for public improvements, it is only right that Bayonne could and ultimately did decide to require that infrastructure projects at the Peninsula at Bayonne Harbor be conducted under the auspices of Project Labor Agreements.
“The community will benefit from the infrastructure investment,” said Smith, “PLAs allow us to leverage that investment into quality jobs, job training opportunities, and better citizens – these are admirable goals.”
Councilmember Terrence Ruane, a commissioner on the BLRA, was also pleased about the settlement.
“Bayonne is home to many members of the building trades unions,” he said. “The people who pay the taxes in this town deserve to benefit from some of the work that is performed with their tax dollars.”