The following testimony was submitted by the Grassroot Institute of Hawaii for consideration by the Maui County Council on May 16, 2025.
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May 16, 2025, 9 a.m.
Kalana O Maui Building,
To: Maui County Council
Alice Lee, Chair
Yuki Lei Sugimura, Vice Chair
From: Grassroot Institute of Hawaii
Jonathan Helton, Policy Analyst
Re: Bill 54 (2025) — RELATING TO COMMUNITY WORKFORCE AGREEMENTS FOR LARGE CAPITAL IMPROVEMENT PROJECTS OF MORE THAN $500,000
Aloha Chair Lee, Vice Chair Sugimura and other members of the Council,
The Grassroot Institute of Hawaii opposes Bill 54 (2025), which would require that any bidder for a capital improvement project contract valued at more than $500,000 to be a signatory to a community workforce agreement.
This proposed community workforce agreement would include several conditions. One would be that the contractor must aim to use Maui County residents for 80% of all hours worked on the project. Another would require that the contractor’s rules for wages, hours, shift schedules and holidays be governed by the craft’s union master agreement — even if the contractor is not a unionized contractor.
More than 69% of Hawaii’s construction workforce is non-unionized.[1] By requiring that even nonunionized contractors abide by union rules, Bill 54 (2025) would increase costs for capital improvement projects.
Research indicates that community workforce agreements — also called project labor agreements — tend to increase project costs.
A 2024 RAND Corporation study of a Los Angeles project labor agreement for publicly funded affordable housing found that the PLA increased total development costs by about 22%.[2]
The author suggested that one reason could be that housing projects subject to the PLA — those with at least 65 units — took longer to complete than comparable projects.
To put this in context for Maui, a $1 million contract for road repairs in Lahaina could cost as much as $1.2 million if subjected to such a community workforce agreement.
In addition, with federal funding in flux, the Council must make a good effort to maximize county resources for repairing and expanding infrastructure. Bill 54 (2025) would run counter to that goal.
Thank you for the opportunity to testify.
Jonathan Helton
Policy Analyst
Grassroot Institute of Hawaii
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[1] “Hawaii’s Workforce Shift: Over 69% of Workers Opt for Nonunion Employment,” Associated Builders and Contractors Hawaii, March 13, 2025.
[2] Jason Ward, “Project Labor Agreements and Affordable Housing Production Costs in Los Angeles,” RAND Corp., Aug. 13, 2024, p. 20.
