Gov. Charlie Baker is eager to sign a bill on his desk providing $400 million for the construction of a new Holyoke Soldiers’ Home, but first he has to make a decision on a controversial project labor agreement contained in the legislation.

A project labor agreement requires the contractor chosen to build the home to use workers supplied by various trade unions and to abide by wage and benefit provisions in return for a no-strike clause. 

On The Codcast, one of the state’s top union officials and one of its leading non-union, or open shop, contractors staked out different stances on the project labor agreement. Frank Callahan, president of the Massachusetts Building Trades Council, said he hopes Baker signs the bill as approved by the Legislature, while John Cruz, the owner of a third-generation minority construction firm, said he hopes the governor deletes the project labor agreement. 

The arcane provision has prompted an intense debate on Beacon Hill about competition and whether requiring a project labor agreement drives up costs and discourages minority participation. Nevertheless, the Holyoke bill passed with overwhelming support. 

Cruz said requiring his company to use workers supplied by the unions is wrong, and indicated he wouldn’t submit a bid on the project if the project labor agreement requirement is retained. He said 95 percent of the state’s minority-owned contractors are open shop businesses and most of them are unlikely to bid on the project. 

“This, to me, is a form of discrimination,” he said. “It says that you can’t get the treatment a union contractor or member can get. It’s that simple.”

But Callahan said the project labor agreement is not discriminatory. He said any contractor – union or nonunion — can bid on the project. But he acknowledged that unions would supply most of the workforce and that the contractor would be required to abide by the pay and work conditions laid out in the project labor agreement.

“Any contractor, union or nonunion, who bids work on this contract simply has to operate under the terms and conditions set for the workforce,” Callahan said. 

Callahan said the workers supplied by the building trade unions are well trained and come from diverse backgrounds. He ticked off a series of construction projects with project labor agreements that met or exceeded minority participation goals, including UMass Boston, the New Bedford Marine Commerce Terminal, and the Wynn Resorts casino in Everett. 

“We train 93 percent of all female apprentices in the state of Massachusetts and 86 percent of all people of color in registered apprenticeship programs. We’re doing the job,” he said. “We’re very proud of the workforce we provide.” 

The legislation calls for the creation of an access, inclusion, and diversity committee to promote and monitor minority participation on the Holyoke project.

Cruz said the committee is needed because minority participation is hard to achieve with a project labor agreement. “When it walks like a duck, quacks like a duck, it’s a duck. That’s why it’s in there,” he said of the committee. 

During the debate over the project labor agreement, opponents, including Cruz, have pointed to Polar Park in Worcester and its failure to achieve minority hiring goals. But Callahan said Polar Park was not built with a project labor agreement and minority hiring goals were not achieved because open shop contractors working on the project failed to reach their goals. “That had nothing to do with project labor agreements,” he said. 

Callahan said there have been no project labor agreements on public sector construction projects during the Baker administration. He said the governor agreed to one for the expansion of the Boston Convention and Exhibition Center, but that project never moved forward. Baker’s original bill seeking funding to rebuild the Holyoke Soldiers’ Home did not include a project labor agreement.

“I can’t read the governor’s mind on this. I hope he will sign it,” said Callahan. 

Cruz is also unsure what the governor will do. “I would hope he is opposed to it. I believe he is. His support has been for open shop,” Cruz said.

BRUCE MOHL

 

FROM COMMONWEALTH

Spending challenge: The Legislature asked economic experts for advice on how to spend an estimated $5.3 billion in unrestricted funding coming from the federal government over the next five years under the American Rescue Plan. As Shira Schoenberg reports, it turns out spending such a large amount of money isn’t as easy as it appears.

  • First, the money can only go for four basic purposes — responding to immediate public health needs related to the pandemic, providing bonus pay to low-wage essential workers, replacing state money lost to the pandemic, and performing infrastructure work.
  • Since this is one-time money, the experts say the federal funds should go for one-time investments.
  • Be wary of construction projects, since the cost of labor and materials is skyrocketing right now because of heavy consumer spending. That means spending on school upgrades or affordable housing would yield less bang for the buck.
  • Good advice: “Spending this money will be easy. Spending it effectively will not,” said Evan Horowitz, executive director of the Center for State Policy Analysis at Tufts University. 

To read the full story, click here.

OPINION: 

Mass General Brigham expansion: Paul Hattis, a former member of the Health Policy Commission, outlines what he hopes to learn as various state agencies review a proposal from Mass General Brigham to open ambulatory care centers in Westwood, Woburn, and Westborough. Read more.

Stay cool: Rebecca Davis of the Metropolitan Area Planning Council and Melanie Gárate of the Mystic River Watershed Association say climate change requires us to be just as attentive to staying cool in the summer as staying warm in the winter. Read more.

 

FROM AROUND THE WEB

 

BEACON HILL

The Globe Spotlight Team digs in on the Holyoke Soldiers’ Home tragedy and says Gov. Charlie Baker and Health and Human Services Secretary Marylou Sudders were much more closely tied to the fired head of the home, Bennett Walsh. The report said Baker interviewed Walsh for the post despite claiming the first time he met him was at his swearing-in. 

MUNICIPAL MATTERS  

In the showdown over whether Marty Walsh knew about the 1999 domestic violence allegations against Dennis White before naming him Boston police commissioner, Suffolk District Attorney Rachael Rollins says she believes former commissioner William Gross, who said in an affidavit that he did. (GBH)

Homeless people have been sleeping in a New Bedford cemetery, leading to complaints of improper behavior from individuals who are going to visit graves there. (Standard-Times)

HEALTH/HEALTH CARE

The New England Patriots, by delivering Chinese COVID-19 vaccines to El Salvador, get caught in the middle of a diplomatic dispute between China and the United States. (Associated Press)

The Springfield Republican profiles an ICU nurse’s scary experiences treating patients during the worst of the COVID-19 pandemic.

WASHINGTON/NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL

A year after cutting the police budget by 8 percent in response to protests following the killing of George Floyd, Los Angeles is adding 250 more officers and reversing the cuts in response to a huge spike in violent crime. (New York Times)

ELECTIONS

William Coleman of Worcester has been on the ballot every election for 40 years – and hopes his current run for city council is finally the time he gets elected. (Telegram & Gazette)

BUSINESS/ECONOMY

Across the South Shore, summer rental properties are all booked up. (Patriot Ledger)

At least five states, including Connecticut and New Hampshire but not Massachusetts, are offering cash incentives for people to rejoin the workforce. Sen. Ryan Fattman has proposed a budget amendment that would offer a $1,200 “Get back to work” bonus. (MassLive)

EDUCATION

More than half of the first graduating class of New Heights Charter School in Brockton is getting an associate’s degree along with their high school diploma, thanks to the school’s participation in the state’s early college program. (The Enterprise) 

ENERGY/ENVIRONMENT

The state is backing off plans to dramatically hike hunting and fishing fees next year, instead planning to phase the increases in over a five-year period. (Salem News)

CRIMINAL JUSTICE/COURTS

Bristol County Sheriff Thomas Hodgson says he is considering legal action after the Department of Homeland Security terminated his contract with ICE. (Standard-Times)

Attorney General Maura Healey said she will not make any decision about launching an investigation of her own into the death of Hopkinton 16-year-old Mikayla Miller until the ongoing investigation by Middlesex District Attorney Marian Ryan is completed. (Boston Herald) 

The Hampden district attorney’s office is set to announce a “significant development” that may close the case in the 1972 murder of 13-year-old altar boy Danny Croteau. The only named suspect since that time has been a defrocked priest and convicted child molester who died last week. (MassLive)

Three inmates who have been implicated in the killing 2½ years ago of James “Whitey” Bulger in a federal prison in West Virginia have been held in solitary confinement since then — but with no sign of being charged with Bulger’s slaying. (Boston Globe)

MEDIA

Alden Global Capital, known for its cost-cutting approach to profitability, won approval for its $633 million bid for Tribune Publishing, which owns the Chicago Tribune, Baltimore Sun, New York Daily News, and a host of other papers. (NPR)

STAT looks at how Ashish Jha, dean of the Brown University School of Public Health, became TV’s in-demand everyman doctor guiding the public through the pandemic. 

PASSINGS

Sam Berman, the lead singer for the original recording of “Charlie on the MTA,” which was a campaign song for a 1949 left-leaning Boston mayoral candidate, a decorated World War II veteran who opposed most other wars, died at age 98. (Boston Globe)