L.A. MTA Signs Historic PLA, Will Offer 10% of Work Hours to the Homeless, Chronically Unemployed

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The City of Los Angeles and its Mayor, Antonio Villaraigosa, have been leading the national push for Project Labor Agreements (PLA’s) to help create jobs for local workers. This trend continued last Thursday as the City and the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) announced that PLAs have been entered into to ensure that 40% of the work hours performed on most MTA projects moving forward will be done by people who live in economically disadvantaged communities. In addition, at least 10% of the work hours are to be reserved for people suffering from homelessness, chronic unemployment and other challenges. This kind of pro-active approach to tackling multiple societal ills through infrastructure development is commendable and needs to be mimicked nationwide.

From the LA Times blog L.A. Now:

“I am proud that the MTA board voted unanimously to become the first transit agency in the nation to use federal and local dollars to create jobs targeted at economically disadvantaged communities and individuals,” said MTA board Chairman and Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa. “This landmark program is part of a strategy to deliver public transit projects while creating jobs that will lift people out of poverty and into the middle class.”

While the unemployment rate in Los Angeles County declined in 2011, it still hovers around 11 percent, some two points above the national average. Ensuring local hire on big projects can get the chronically unemployed back to work and allow them to contribute to the stimulation of local economies. Supervisor Mark Ridley-Thomas, who sponsored the bill, said the following about the broad-ranging PLA:

“This is a matter of justice,” said the Supervisor to cheers during a rally after the vote. “As a result of this groundbreaking victory, Los Angeles is now a model for the rest of the nation. We have demonstrated that job creation — and not the creation of just any jobs, but highly skilled union jobs that lead to a middle class standard of living for workers — can and should be a standard component in transportation infrastructure projects.” The Crenshaw-to-LAX Light Rail Line, expected to break ground this winter, will be one of the first projects under this new policy.