STATEMENT BY SEVEN MOUNTAINS AFL-CIO ON THE JULY 7 STATE COLLEGE BOROUGH COUNCIL MEETING AND RESPONSIBLE CONTRACTOR ORDINANCE
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
July 11, 2025
Earlier today, StateCollege.com reported on the difficulty faced by State College Borough receiving qualified, responsible bidders under the terms of the new responsible contractor ordinance, which went into effect over the Spring. Seven Mountains AFL-CIO was named in the Borough Council meeting that was reported. Subsequently, we issued a statement to StateCollege.com regarding our role, and had a highly productive discussion with the State College Borough Manager, Tom Fountaine, regarding the RCO and the discussion at Monday’s meeting.
In early June, the Borough reached out for assistance in identifying qualified bidders. We provided a list of signatory contractors for the Central Pennsylvania Building Trades Council, all of which participate in registered apprenticeships and would be qualified under the ordinance’s requirements. These contractors cover the full extent of the skilled trades, and many additionally bid as general contractors on a wide scope of projects, including roadwork.
Subsequently, a member of Borough staff reached out to the Central Pennsylvania Building Trades for information to help identify the specializations of different contractors. The most recent bid notice, discussed at the July 7 meeting, was sent directly to an additional group of qualified contractors in an effort to secure more qualified bids; previous bids were not. Moving forward, we believe continued marketing and outreach to a wider range of qualified contractors will help improve the likelihood of qualified bids.
We fully trust that Borough management and staff are working to faithfully implement the responsible contractor ordinance as approved by Council, and to ensure that it operates as intended. As members of this community, we share the same goal as the Borough: to ensure that projects are completed in a timely fashion, with the highest standards of worker training and safety, and with competitive costs for the Borough and taxpayers.
As we work toward that goal, we understand and fully support that reasonable, good faith measures must be taken to ensure that critical and time-sensitive projects are completed, and support such measures that preserve the integrity of the ordinance’s intent. We agree with Council President Evan Myers, who stated to Borough Council that passing the ordinance was the right thing to do, and that the Borough should stand by its principles while ensuring that the Borough’s work is completed in a timely and responsible fashion.
The goal of responsible contractor ordinances is to promote worker safety and to level the playing field to ensure that contractors participating in registered apprenticeships registered through the Commonwealth and the federal government are able to compete with contractors that do not. Unfortunately, “high-road” contractors often are disincentivized to bid on public projects when there is a high likelihood that bids will be awarded to “low-road” contractors that undercut bid costs, often at the expense of extensive records of worker safety issues, environmental fines, poor safety training, poor build quality, and civil and criminal violations of wage and hours laws.
The ordinance’s success at the county level shows it is possible to successfully address this imbalance. County projects have received competitive, qualified bids from contractors, including local contractors, that meet the standards workers and taxpayers deserve. We will assist as best we can, in partnership with our sisters and brothers in the Building Trades, to make sure to advertise the opportunities available in our community and to make sure “high-road” contractors, both union and nonunion, know there is a level playing field for bids.
Passage of the ordinance was a critical step toward promoting worker safety and worker justice in our community while providing the best value to taxpayers. We stand ready to support that work, and to continue pushing for a community in which working families thrive.
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Seven Mountains AFL-CIO is the local voice of the national American Federation of Labor and College of Industrial Organizations (“AFL-CIO”) and a Chapter of the Central Pennsylvania Area Labor Federation, representing 16,000 members of union households in Centre, Huntingdon, Mifflin, and Juniata counties.