How Does a Labor Strike Affect Your Construction Contract
Unions representing construction workers around Chicago are on strike. Union representatives from the Chicago Laborers' District Council and the Union of Operating Engineers Local 150 met yesterday with representatives of the Mid-America Regional Bargaining Association negotiating on behalf of construction companies. The deadlock continued today as negotiators did not reach an agreement to end the strike. They plan to meet again on Friday and resume efforts to end the strike.
Meanwhile numerous projects stand idle, from public projects like work on the Eisenhower Expressway to school renovations in Naperville and office renovations and build-outs downtown.
So how does the strike affect project participants like contractors, owners, material suppliers, architects, and engineers?
- Do completion and delivery dates get postponed?
- Do delay damages get triggered?
- Do liquidated damages pile up?
- Who pays for the costs for protecting and preserving work in progress while work is suspended, additional jobsite overhead cost, and re-mobilization costs?
It all depends on the what the contract for each affected project says.
What do your contracts say about strikes:
- How a strike affects schedules and completion dates?
- Who pays additional costs?
- Is there delay damage exposure?
Have you recently considered these things and other strike related concerns? Are your contracts prepared to provide the kinds of answers you'd hope they provide?
Construction Law Today is a legal blog about construction contracts, disputes, finance, and the people whose job it is to deal with them.
In Houston there is not really a union that makes a lot of sense for me (I own a small Houston Wrought Iron fence and gate company) to be a part of, per se, but when I find out fellow construction colleagues are having difficulties (or if they ever went on strike) I think I would have to join them on principle. Unions have always baffled me; so necessary and so useful on so many levels, and yet they have caused such dramatic problems in the past (hearing stories of my granddad would curl your hair). Anyhow, an interesting subject for sure.