Governor Palin signs AGIA in Fairbanks, Wednesday June 5, 2007
Governor Palin, on Wednesday (June 5, 2007) signed the AGIA bill at a ceremony at the Trans Alaska Pipeline viewing station in Fox, just outside of Fairbanks. The bill was to be officially signed in Anchorage a bit later. The Governor was supported by several members of her staff, state and local legislators, and had dozens of labor representatives including several apprentices from the Plumbers & Pipefitters Local 375 and IBEW Local 1547 on hand, anxious to be among the next generation of highly skilled crafts men and women to build a natural gas pipeline.
Governor Palin's AGIA passes the House and Senate with Project Labor Agreement language as one of the main requirements for applicants
- published May 14,2007 by Vince Beltrami, president Alaska AFL-CIO
In landmark legislation Governor Paliln's Alaska Gasline Inducement Act (AGIA) passed both houses in the Alaska legislature Friday. In what turned out to be a temporary setback, the House Finance Committee amended the House version of the bill (HB 177) and removed the definition of what a Project Labor Agreement is. The Associated Builders and Contractor's (ABC) Rebecca Logan had been lobbying Republicans on the finance committee to remove the definition, and in fact, had tried to get labor to go along with the change. We obviously did not. For some reason, the ABC believed that without the definition the PLA could have been some watered down version of what a PLA typically is, thus undermining one of the governor's must haves in AGIA to maximize Alaska hire.
The arguments proffered by the sponsors of the amendment had to do with how unions didn't do a good job of ensuring local hire thirty years ago during construction of the Trans Alaska Pipeline. While admittedly the unions could have done a better job then, that was a long time ago, and we have learned from the lessons of the past, and demonstrated that not only are we the best bet for assuring Alaska hire, we are the only ones reaching out to rural Alaska to demonstrate that commitment. That is why folks like the Tanana Chiefs Conference and the Bristol Bay Housing Authority weighed in with support of a PLA. They've seen the proof.
The following day, on the house floor, after a great effort by a number of legislators, lobbyists, and a swarm of Palin administration officials, an amendment with 22 house co-sponsors came to the floor re-inserting the PLA definition back into the bill, matching the senate version. The amendment passed 25-13. Soonafter, AGIA passed both houses and became law. While many legislators stepped up to the plate, two legislators in particular should be applauded for their efforts. Rep. Harry Crawford dug his heels in and made it widely known that the PLA language being messed with was a deal killer for him and many others. Rep. Nancy Dahlstrom did some yeoman's work in patching up the differences and convincing the administration a huge floor fight could be averted with the help of the administration. And so it was.
The language in the bill states an applicant must: commit to negotiate, before construction, a project labor agreement to the maximum extent permitted by law; in this paragraph, "project labor agreement" means a comprehensive collective bargaining agreement between the licensee or its agent and the appropriate labor representatives to ensure expedited construction with labor stability for the project by qualified residents of the state;
Now all we have to do is get a gas pipeline project. The Governor and her team have a lot of work yet to do, but for now we thank the Governor for standing by the must have requirement of a PLA and what that means to our affiliated unions and all Alaskans.
