March 19th, 2011
Ohio school districts using state construction funds no longer may require local bidders to pay prevailing union wages and benefits.
The Ohio School Facilities Commission, which oversees the statewide school construction program that shares costs with local districts, shut the door on such agreements at its Feb. 24 meeting.
The new rule has an immediate effect on three local districts: Akron, Barberton and Springfield.
Under Republican Gov. Bob Taft, school projects could not require that contractors pay the prevailing union wage. Democratic Gov. Ted Strickland issued an executive order allowing each district to decide for itself.
Akron entered what’s known as a project labor agreement in 2008 with the Tri-County Building and Construction Trades Council to build the new Leggett elementary school.
The agreement required contractors to pay the same prevailing or union-scale wages and benefits as local trade unions receive.
Leggett is complete but three other schools are being built with project labor agreements: the Buchtel combined junior high/high school project, Hyre Middle School and Schumacher elementary.
Buchtel is about 30 percent complete; Hyre and Schumacher are about 85 percent complete.
Some additional work — such as environmental cleanup and demolition of the old buildings — is covered under the project labor agreements but has not been bid yet.
That work might be subject to the new restriction. Akro
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Tags: School, School Construction
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