Labor issues are on the ballot this year as voters select candidates for the statewide offices.
Democrat Abigail Spanberger says she wants to use project labor agreements for large state-funded projects, but Republican Winsome Earle-Sears says forcing such agreements is a "backdoor attack" on the right-to-work.
"[A] project labor agreement is going to add cost usually. It usually means that you’ll be paying higher wages," says Stephen Haner of the Thomas Jefferson Institute. "And you'll be dealing with a lot of union work rules that tend to increase the cost of the final project."
Supporters say a full accounting would include the efficiency of avoiding change orders or tracking subcontractors. And then there's the threat of wage theft, says Northern Virginia Labor Federation president Virginia Diamond.
"A good example of this was the General Assembly Building that was constructed in Richmond. There was no project labor agreement," Diamond says. "And in fact, there was an enormous amount of wage theft and exploitation of the workers there."
Although labor groups are cheering Spanberger's position on project labor agreements, some might end up withholding their endorsement because of her reluctance to overturn Virginia's so-called right-to-work law.
This report, provided by Virginia Public Radio, was made possible with support from the Virginia Education Association.
