The second phase of Rochester’s massive public school modernization plan will go forward without a guarantee that jobs will go to local union workers…and to firms owned by women or minorities.
The Joint Schools Construction Board overseeing the $1.3 billion project voted 4-3 against a Project Labor Agreement similar to the one adopted for phase one. The agreement set goals for hiring minority workers and local union workers and set wages for the massive project.
The four who opposed a new agreement said they were disappointed with how it actually worked out on phase one. They said an internship program only had five apprentices.
Board Chairman Tom Richards, the former Mayor of Rochester, voted for the agreement. Richards says more than 20 percent of the workers in phase one were minorities and he says that was a success.