Fairbanks borough weighs community workforce agreements on construction over $3.5 million

Fairbanks North Star Borough construction projects over $3.5 million would be reviewed for a community workforce agreement, and contractors would sign one where a review team required it, under an ordinance up for public hearing at or after 7 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 24, at the Juanita Helms Administration Center.

Assembly Members Patrick Roach, Garrett Armstrong and Nick LaJiness sponsor the measure, which amends Title 16 of borough code, the chapter governing borough procurement and contracting. The meeting begins at 6 p.m. in the Mona Lisa Drexler Assembly Chambers at 907 Terminal Street.

Ordinance 2026-25 is closely modeled on Anchorage municipal code, without the efficacy-review clause Anchorage struck in February. Anchorage adopted its framework in Ordinance AO 2019-24, which requires a review team to evaluate qualifying projects and attaches the agreement to the invitation to bid, binding the winning bidder to its terms. Anchorage's own ordinance findings flagged a tradeoff: agreements on large public construction projects may increase costs and reduce bidder participation, even as the city moved ahead with the requirement.

A community workforce agreement is a binding labor-management contract negotiated among the project owner, the local building trades council and prime contractors, and it binds every subcontractor on the job. The Center for Empowerment and Economic Development describes the difference from a project labor agreement, the same instrument without community terms: "The difference between the CWA and a Project Labor Agreement is that community interests are incorporated into the terms of the CWA." The center says such agreements commonly prioritize hiring residents of high-poverty or high-unemployment areas and neighborhoods near the project.

The Fairbanks review team would seat borough staff, the building trades council and a contractor representative chosen by contractor associations, and weigh the impact on bidding contractors, particularly benefit costs. Any agreement must open union hiring halls to nonmembers.

At the Gas Line Caucus listening session on Aug. 6, Alicia Maltby, president and chief executive of the Associated Builders and Contractors of Alaska, said, "Private parties can and should be free to negotiate labor arrangements that work for them. Our concern is when public policy requires a PLA regardless of whether that model is appropriate for every component of a project."

The agenda carries no written sponsor statement and no administration position, though its findings cite a shortage of skilled tradespeople and argue apprenticeships would enlarge the bidding pool. Testimony is limited to three minutes per person.