Project Labor Agreements & the NYC Tree Planting Program

As a public agency that spends hundreds of millions of dollars annually to procure construction services from external contractors, the City of New York (NYC) Department of Parks and Recreation (DPR) is a significant contributor to economic activity in the NYC building trades landscape. Project Labor Agreements (PLAs) are a mechanism often used by public sector agencies to ensure that large, complex, and multi-trade construction projects run smoothly, are completed efficiently with few disruptions, follow high work quality and safety standards, and put upward pressure on wages and benefits in regional construction industries. 

The Buffalo Co-Lab and the Worker Institute, in partnership with Laborers Local Union Local 1010 Laborers-Employers Cooperation and Education Trust (1010 LECET), conducted a feasibility study on the use of PLAs in New York City Department of Parks and Recreation street-tree-planting contracts.  As will be detailed at this event, the PLA design not only appears to be feasible for NYC street tree planting contracts; it has the potential to be net beneficial for the Department of Parks and Recreation, for the public, for firms that successfully bid on planting contracts, and for the workers performing the labor on those contracts.