The Hudson Valley Building Trades Council and Central Hudson Gas & Electric signed a labor usage agreement this week, and if you're a contractor who bids utility work in Dutchess, Ulster, or Orange County, this is the sentence that matters: work covered by the deal goes to signatory union contractors first.
The agreement was first reported by Mid Hudson News and Empire Report, and it covers the kind of work Central Hudson contracts out constantly — gas line replacement, electrical infrastructure, substation upgrades, the stuff that keeps a utility's capital plan moving. A labor usage agreement isn't a PLA on a single job; it's a standing commitment that applies across a utility's ongoing program, which is a bigger deal for a contractor's five-year pipeline than for any one bid.
Here's what it means on Monday morning. If your shop isn't signatory to one of the Hudson Valley Building Trades' affiliated locals, you're not the first call on Central Hudson utility work going forward — full stop. If you are signatory, this is your cue to get in front of Central Hudson's capital planning people now, because utility labor agreements tend to lock in for years, not months.
Con Edison's capital plan has already been quietly driving a new round of NYC electrical work; this is the same dynamic one region over, except here the labor structure is spelled out in writing instead of inferred from spending. Worth watching whether other upstate utilities — O&R, National Grid — follow with their own agreements, because once one utility in a region signs, the building trades typically push the rest.
Neither the Hudson Valley Building Trades Council nor Central Hudson has posted the agreement's text publicly as of this writing; the terms described here come from the two outlets' reporting on the signing. Contractors bidding Central Hudson work should contact the utility's procurement office directly to confirm how the agreement applies to open or upcoming solicitations.