By Jeremy Boren, PITTSBURGH TRIBUNE-REVIEW, 08.08.2010

Florinda Mascilli is accustomed to maneuvering around the biases of being a woman in the male-dominated plumbing business.

What she can't shake is that her nonunion business of 53 years is prohibited from working on some taxpayer-funded construction contracts that require at least 90 percent of workers to be labor union members.

"When they say equal opportunity, that should apply to everything. It should be male or female. Black or white. Union or nonunion," said Mascilli, 70, owner of East End Plumbing & Mechanical. "Otherwise, it's not fair."

Mascilli is part of a group of nonunion tradesmen and contractors planning to ask a judge to delay the start of work on the $21 million K. Leroy Irvis Science Center to be built on the Community College of Allegheny County's North Side campus.

The group, Associated Builders and Contractors Inc., wants a judge to allow nonunion shops to bid on the project without being required to hire union workers under project labor agreements, said Eileen Watt, president of the trade association's Western Pennsylvania branch.

Such union agreements guarantee healthy wages and benefits, usually in exchange for assurances that workers won't go on strike if there's a labor dispute. Critics say the deals increase costs and provide a means for politicians to repay unions for political campaign support.

"When you close out competition, you drive up costs," said Watt, a Cheswick Republican who was on County Council from 2003 to 2007.

Contractors must submit bids on the CCAC construction project by Tuesday. Work could begin as soon as September if city officials approve the college's master plan, said Robert D. Hamilton, CCAC director of facilities management.

He's aware that some nonunion or "open shop" owners are unhappy about the decision to require, for the first time, 90 percent labor-union participation on construction projects that cost more than $150,000.

Hamilton said the requirement mirrors a county policy on construction work in excess of $150,000 that was revised in March.

CCAC's building is one of the first projects to follow the requirement. County Public Works Director Joseph A. Olczak said the county labor agreement template leaves blank the percentage of union and nonunion participation; it does not require a certain level of union work. Instead, that's left to the discretion of individual agencies.

The document was changed to clarify contract language, Olczak said, and is not intended to exclude nonunion workers.

The CCAC agreement means hiring most of the employees for a job from union halls, said Michael Septak, owner of Allegheny City Electric, which has 48 nonunion employees........read more