A Connecticut construction workers’ union is accusing the regional Metropolitan District Commission of colluding to award a $7.5 million wastewater contract to a Vernon contractor the union deems unsympathetic to organized labor.
The Connecticut Laborers’ District Council says it “urgently requested” Thursday that the agency (MDC) that supplies drinking water and sewer service throughout central Connecticut review its hiring of VMS Construction Co. to rebuild Hartford’s Airport Road  wastewater pump and force main.
The union representing some 8,000 state construction workers claims another unnamed contractor submitted a bid in February that was $1 million lower than VMS Construction’s offer.
“This is a flagrant misuse of our taxpayer dollars,” laborers’ council Business Manager Charles LeConche said in a statement. “I really wonder about the politics that occurred behind the scenes during the decision making of choosing this contractor.”
“In fact, according to labor industry reports, another contractor was supposedly awarded the construction project back in February 2011. I wonder what happened back then and now,” LeConche said.
MDC denies any collusion in the contract award.
The backdrop for the council’s beef with VMS appears to be March 1 testimony that company President Victor M Serrambana Jr. gave before a legislative labor committee hearing.
In his remarks, according to the laborers’ council, Serrambana criticized a bill requiring contractors to set up a prehire collective bargaining agreement covering terms and conditions of a specific project – a so-called “community workforce agreement.”
The group quoted him as testifying, “I believe that any community workforce agreement would be detrimental to Connecticut by decreasing competition, increasing the costs, and discriminating against local contractors. This would be a terrible misuse of taxpayer money as Connecticut struggles to overcome a $3.7 billion deficit.”
LeConche could not be immediately reached for comment.
Serrambana did not immediately return phone calls seeking comment.
It also emailed HBJ Today a copy of a letter dated Thursday from district counsel R. Bartley Halloran to LeConche in which he said the agency was willing to meet to discussion the matter further.
