MWAA to Drop Project Labor Agreement

The Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority (MWAA) voted Wednesday to drop the project labor agreement for Phase 2 of the Silver Line Rail to Dulles.

The PLA agreement for Phase 2 gave preference to firms using union workers. It was a voluntary arrangement for Phase 1, which is now more than 70 percent complete. Phase 1 will run from Tysons Corner to Reston's Wiehle Avenue. It is slated to be operating by December 2013.

Phase 2, originally scheduled to open in 2016, has already been delayed amid financial and political haggling. Phase 2 is scheduled to run from Wiehle Avenue to Dulles International Airport and into Loudoun County.  

The mandatory PLA had been a he Virginia General Assembly also recently enacted a law and included language in the state budget prohibiting project labor agreements for Phase 2.

The PLA, as well as a possible opt-out by Loudoun County, has put the second phase of the rail project in jeopardy.  Loudoun Supervisors have also said they won’t contribute their share of about $200 million for Phase 2 if the labor agreement goes forward. The all-Republican Loudoun Board of Supervisors has until July 4 to decide.

More than  Last week, a

The advocacy group Loudoun Rail Now said in a statement Wednesday it is pleased that the MWAA Board has voted to remove the Project Labor Agreement from Phase 2 and is hopeful the project can now move forward.

"As clearly stated by the Loudoun Board of Supervisors and Gov. Bob McDonnell, removal of the PLA is the critical step in approving Rail to Loudoun," the group said. "With this vote, the Commonwealth will move forward with its $150 million contribution to Phase 2. Equally critical, Loudoun County’s Board has made the removal of the PLA an essential pathway towards opting into the Silver Line."

if that is what it will take to move the project forward.

"The project is of great national and regional significance," DRCA Chairman Del. Ken Plum (D-Reston) and president Patricia Nicoson wrote in a letter to MWAA in May. "The PLA has becomes a great sticking point in the project and needs to be addressed. We support efforts to drop the PLA preference and substitute language in the procurement process calling for effective management of workforce issues in a manner that conforms with the right to work laws of Virginia."