Unions heaping praise on labor agreement verdict

Tuesday, June 8, 1999 | 11:06 a.m.

CARSON CITY -- The Nevada Supreme Court ruled Monday that governments may negotiate construction contracts with unions without violating the state's competitive bidding and right-to-work laws.

"This is a great victory," Jack Jeffrey of the Southern Nevada Building and Construction Trades Council said. "It's the first (case) in Nevada."

The court upheld the right of the Southern Nevada Water Authority to reject the low bid of $1.5 million submitted by American Asphalt for a water development project. American Asphalt said it would not comply with a project labor agreement negotiated between the authority and Las Vegas building trade unions.

A project labor agreement is a contract between the owner of the project and a labor union that a contractor must sign to perform work on the project.

The union is designated the collective bargaining representative for all employees on the project and agrees there will be no strikes or disputes. The contractor must abide by certain union conditions, such as hiring through union hiring halls and complying with union wage rules.

But the workers on the project do not necessarily have to belong to the union.

After the water authority rejected American Asphalt's bid, the company and the Associated Builders and Constructions Inc. of Southern Nevada filed suit. Dallas Coonrod, executive director of the Associated Builders, could not be reached for comment.

Associated Builders argued that the project labor agreement violates the state's competitive bidding, right-to-work and freedom of association laws.

District Judge Jeffrey Sobel rejected the Associated Builders suit and upheld the high court decision.

The unanimous decision said the agreement does not require union membership to work on the project and therefore does "not violate Nevada's right to work statute."

Nevada's right to work law prohibits a company and a union from entering in a contract to only hire union workers.

Jeffrey said the unions just entered into a project labor agreement with the Las Vegas Convention Authority for an expansion project. And the unions are talking to the school district.