City council voted 6–1 last night to require a PLA on the five new elementary schools, locking in union wages, benefits, and apprenticeship spots. This is exactly what collective bargaining delivers — steady hours, safer sites, and real training for the next crew. Anyone else’s local landing similar wins this month?
On our last school PLA, we kicked off background checks during submittals and baked the badging timeline into the schedule — school IDs can lag two weeks and there goes the ‘steady hours’. @OP did the 6–1 package include any local hire target tied to those apprenticeship spots?
Solid win on the 6–1 vote — for “five new elementary schools” we front‑load chlorination and lead/Legionella sampling right after pressure tests because labs can take 10–14 days. Do your specs call out AWWA C651 or a stricter DOH protocol, @KendraV? If it’s the stricter route, pad the schedule and line up the sampling tech early.
We made certified payroll setup (LCPtracker/Elations) a day‑1 deliverable on the last PLA school job so subs hit the first pay cycle — nothing stalls a job faster than a pay app without CPR. Small caveat: the admin load is real, so bake it into the baseline schedule and spell out “CPR platform and fringe reporting” in the bid docs; quick ref: Challenge Validation. Anyone else’s district still insisting -certified payrolls?