EAST LANSING - The Michigan State University Board of Trustees on Feb. 22 put into place a framework for the use of project labor agreements (PLA) for major campus construction projects.

At the same meeting, the trustees adopted a Responsible Contractor Policy, which sets basic pre-hire standards that allows the university to exclude bidding contractors if they fail basic safety, regulatory or standards.

Urged by the Michigan Building and Construction Trades Council, MSU Trustee Colleen McNamara led the effort to adopt both the PLA and responsible contractor language, which were both passed unanimously.

"I thank all of you for your time and attention to this important issue, and hope that as we begin to implement it you'll be there to help us make sure it works as we planned," she wrote in a letter to the building trades. "You've all been great to work with, so knowledgeable and dedicated. I realized through this how much respect, concern and affection you each hold for Michigan State."

The project labor agreement language approved by the MSU trustees applies to projects costing more than $1 million. It allows - but doesn't require - the university to enter into a PLA with union-employing contractors "in order to obtain project-specific benefits in cost savings, efficiency, timeliness, and quality."

Benefits the university says PLAs bring include "reduced risk of delay in completion of a time-sensitive project," as well as "enhanced access to skilled trades whose work is needed to complete a project," and "improved efficiency in project management on large, complex, multi-year projects."

Numerous governmental entities and companies utilize project labor agreements in an effort to standardize labor costs and work practices, and can assure that the construction workforce is drug-tested and meets certain training standards. In those agreements unions usually agree to no-strike, no-lockout guarantees, standardized overtime provisions and safety rules,

"Over the years we've had some problems with contractors employing some nonunion crafts on Michigan State projects, so along with our contractors and associations we made a concerted effort to reach out to the university and put a framework in place for them to use union contractors," said Patrick Devlin, CEO of the Michigan Building and Construction Trades Council. "Now, on a job by job basis, they're going to be looking at responsible contractors, and they're going to be looking at a PLA. Coming from where we were, that's a real plus for us."