Published on Saturday, August 16, 2008
By Staff Writer
RIVERSIDE
Utilities board to push for labor agreement
The Board of Public Utilities voted unanimously Friday to recommend the City Council approve a project labor agreement for construction of the second phase of the city's main power plant, utility General Manager Dave Wright said.
The agreement would not require the use of contractors whose employees are unionized, he said, but it would require all workers on the project, whether union members or not, to receive union wages and benefits while working on the plant.
It also includes a preference for hiring workers within a 50-mile radius of the city.
Not signing the project labor agreement could delay the$110 million project until 2011 because of union threats to force a prolonged state environmental approval process for the plant, which also could add up to $9 million to the project's cost, Wright said.
