The Delaware Senate Labor Committee held a lengthy public hearing on SB 241, a bill that would require project labor agreements with the Delaware Building and Construction Trades Council on all public works contracts over $5 million advertised after September 30, 2026. No vote was taken; the hearing drew dozens of witnesses split sharply between union supporters and a larger contingent of merit shop contractors, minority business owners, and local government representatives in opposition.
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Jimmy Ashone (Operating Engineers Local 542 / Delaware Building Trades) stated that opposition claims about exclusion were 'factually incorrect,' arguing the bill 'would not prevent any contractor from bidding or being awarded work in the state of Delaware.' Stan Secora directly contradicted this, saying 'I'm never going to bid ever on a job that has a pla, which means all my workers will not be exposed to it. So don't tell me that I can bid on it because it's not going to happen.' Peter Irony (Mumford and Miller Concrete) similarly argued that participation 'is only open to you if you want to sign a PLA and join the union or join up with the union,' and that merit shop contractors have not done so because it is not a better model for them.
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“My assessment essentially boils down to market regulation on this scale would be preempted by federal law. As such, it would be subject to a legal challenge. My assessment that challenge will be successful. I'm given to understand that the chair, fellow member of the Delaware board, disagrees with me and my analysis. And I've invited him to give me a call so we can discuss that. Because in 10 years, it's the first time somebody has actually disagreed with the analysis that I put together.”
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Sign in to subscribeOkay, thank you everyone for joining the Senate Labor Committee today. We have one bill on the agenda. We obviously have a lot of people here who are interested in the bill. Senator Jack Walsh will present the bill. And when we move to public comment, we have people online, we have people here in the chamber. We're going to endeavor to rotate a little bit between people in the chamber and people online. We're going to endeavor to rotate a little bit between people who support the bill and people who oppose the bill. And as of right now, the thought is we probably have public comment limited to 90 seconds per person. There are committees that do 60 seconds. There are committees that do two minutes. We're going to try to strike the right balance. We want people to be able to speak and share their thoughts on the bill. I don't think it's reasonable to ask that people try not to be redundant because I think that people for and against the bill have similar thoughts. If you're for the bill or against the bill and we don't want you to not have a chance to speak.…
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