(Do I sense a theme here?)

[FONT=Verdana]Broome County[/FONT][FONT=Verdana], NY[/FONT][FONT=Verdana] legislators said they'll consult with their attorney and other officials before deciding whether to continue support of a labor agreement that local non-union contractors insist is unfair.

[/FONT] [FONT=Verdana]Legislators voted Nov. 20 to approve a project labor agreement that would require the $16.9 million renovation of the George Harvey Justice Building to be done by 90 percent union workers.

[/FONT] [FONT=Verdana]Legislators said the agreement would save money and keep jobs local, because bid-winning contractors would have to hire from local union halls. But non-union contractors, who may make up as many as 75 percent of Broome's contractors, disagreed.

[/FONT] [FONT=Verdana]"It's unfair for those 75 percent to not participate in a project in their own hometown," said Allyn Jones Jr., president of J & K Plumbing & Heating Co. of Binghamton -- a shop that employs both union and non-union tradesmen.

[/FONT] [FONT=Verdana]Jones was one of more than 100 business owners, plumbers, insulators, electricians, pipe fitter, carpenters and other tradesmen who met Monday with Broome legislators to talk about the agreement. Union contractors were also on hand at the meeting at the county office building in Binghamton.

[/FONT] [FONT=Verdana]Bids for the project are scheduled to be opened on Dec. 19. But the next meeting of the Legislature is Dec. 20, which would require scheduling a special meeting to rescind any votes on the measure.

[/FONT] [FONT=Verdana]Chairman Mark Whalen, D-Binghamton, said the Legislature would have to discuss legal issues with county attorneys and with Henry Weissmann, commissioner of the county's public works department, before deciding whether to allow the matter to come before lawmakers before Dec. 19.[/FONT]
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Non-union contractors said Monday they wouldn't bid on the project with a project labor agreement in place.

[/FONT] [FONT=Verdana]Luciano Piccirilli, owner of Piccirilli-Slavik & Vincent Plumbing & Heating Inc. of Binghamton said at least one legislator told him they'd make a motion to rescind the labor agreement. Piccirilli didn't name the legislator.

[/FONT] [FONT=Verdana]Seventeen of 19 legislators voted to approve the agreement, with one absent and the other, John Hutchings, D-Binghamton, chairman of the Legislature's Public Works Committee and a regional labor union representative, abstaining.

[/FONT] [FONT=Verdana]Non-union contractors told Legislators on Monday that most of their workers were Broome residents, and that by approving a labor agreement -- a first in Broome -- those workers would not be able to work on the project.

[/FONT] [FONT=Verdana]Nor was the issue one of union shops and workers versus non-union shops and workers, one contractor said. Most county projects have included both. And contracts have been awarded to the lowest qualified bidder. The prevailing wage law in New York requires that both be paid the same rate for their work.

[/FONT] [FONT=Verdana]Contractors want the right to bid on this project without being told who their workers will be on the project," said the treasurer and purchasing agent for Nelcorp Electrical Contracting Corp. of Endwell -- a non-union business employing 48 electricians, 44 of them Broome residents.[/FONT]
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"We want the freedom to do what we have the right to do -- period," said Donn R. Webber.[/FONT]