To:    
The Honorable Raymond H. LaHood, U.S. Secretary of Transportation
The Honorable Robert F. McDonnell, Governor, Commonwealth of Virginia
The Honorable Scott K. York, Chairman, Loudoun County Board of Supervisors
The Honorable Sharon Bulova, Chairman, Fairfax County Board of Supervisors
 Richard R. Sarles, GM, Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority
 Michael A. Curto, Chairman, Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority
 
From:
Apartment and Office Building Association
Committee for Dulles
Dulles Corridor Rail Association
Dulles Regional Chamber of Commerce
Dulles South Alliance
Fairfax County Chamber of Commerce
Greater Reston Chamber of Commerce
Loudoun CEO Cabinet
Loudoun County Chamber of Commerce
Loudoun Economic Development Commission
NAIOP – Commercial Real Estate Development Association
Northern Virginia Association of Realtors
Northern Virginia Transportation Alliance
Washington Airports Task Force
 
On behalf of our members, who represent a major part of our region’s economy, it would be unconscionable if the second phase of the Dulles Corridor Metrorail Project were not built simply because MWAA and its funding partners could not agree on language concerning workplace agreements between the prime contractor and the labor force.

There is unanimous support among the six signatories of the Memorandum of Agreement developed under Secretary of Transportation Ray LaHood’s leadership that Phase 2 must be built under Virginia’s right to work labor laws.
 
The best approach for all parties is to focus on outcomes not terminology. By this we mean that all prime contractors responding to the MWAA contract process should clearly understand that the funding partners expect them to provide a well-qualified and reliable workforce to build Phase 2 of the project.  Any qualified contractor will have their own methods on how to achieve such articulated goals. As evidence of the advantage this approach yields, one needs only to look to the success in Phase 1 that focused on workforce qualification issues and performance standards.
 
In that case, the prime contractor and its subcontractors have achieved exemplary results by establishing priorities and standards that apply to every aspect of the project. There is every reason to believe that the identification of similar contractor performance standards, focused on outcomes, would result in comparable success in connection with the construction of Phase 2.
 
In the furor over the phrase “Project Labor Agreement,” everyone seems to forget that the LaHood agreement requires that Phase 2 must comply with Virginia’s right to work laws.
 
We believe that the statesmanlike way to move the project forward would be for all the stakeholders to agree to establish workplace and workforce performance standards focused on outcomes (safety, stability, skill sets, etc.), and not on the terminology used to describe these standards, and to leave the issue of how those outcomes are achieved to the selected contractors.
 
Thank you for your commitment to this project. We look forward to continued work with you to support completion of Phase 2 of this critical project.