America's Building Trades Unions Announce 5-year Renewal of Project Labor Agreement with Tennessee Valley Authority

WASHINGTON, Jan. 20, 2011 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- A 5-year extension of a project labor agreement (PLA) with the Tennessee Valley Authority has been approved by the Building and Construction Trades Department for the construction and maintenance work on TVA's extensive energy generation network.  The PLA extension will cover between 12.5 and 15 million man-hours of work annually over the course of this agreement.  The extension was announced at the January 2011 meeting of the Governing Board of Presidents of the Building and Construction Trades Department.

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PLAs are pre-hire collective bargaining agreements that are designed as a "project efficiency" tool to facilitate complex construction projects.  Each PLA is negotiated and designed individually, and tailored to meet the needs of a specific project or an owner/manager/public entity.  PLAs govern the work rules, pay and benefit rates, and dispute resolution processes for every worker on the project.

"We are extremely pleased that this agreement is being extended with one of our most valued customers," said Mark H. Ayers, President of the Building and Construction Trades Department.  "This is a shining example of just how effective and useful PLAs are as a tool to ensure jobsite efficiencies, while also providing stable and secure livelihoods for thousands of skilled craft professionals."

TVA is a corporation owned by the U.S. government, and provides electricity for utility and business customers in most of Tennessee and parts of Alabama, Mississippi, Kentucky, Georgia, North Carolina and Virginia – an area of 80,000 square miles with a population of 9 million. TVA operates 29 hydroelectric dams, 11 coal-fired power plants, 3 nuclear plants and 11 natural gas-fired power facilities and supplies up to 37,188 million kilowatts of electricity, delivered over 16,000 miles of high-voltage power lines.

"This agreement will ensure that TVA receives the skills, productivity, craftsmanship and commitment to safety that are necessary for us to be fully competitive with the best-run utilities in North America," said Payton Hairston, Vice President for Diversity and Labor Relations.

The Building and Construction Trades Department is an alliance of 13 national and international unions that collectively represent over 2 million skilled craft professionals in the United States and Canada.

SOURCE Building and Construction Trades Department