With leaders of Hawaii’s construction unions on either side, Mayor Kirk Caldwell on Wednesday signed what he called Hawaii’s first agreement to award city contracts to unionized companies for projects valued at least at $2 million.

Asked if the agreement puts nonunion companies at a disadvantage to bid on city contracts, Nathaniel Kinney, executive director of the Hawai‘i Construction Alliance, said at Wednesday’s contract signing ceremony that a “nondiscriminatory provision” in the agreement specifically levels the playing field.

Kinney and other labor leaders also said that employees of nonunion-affiliated companies will benefit because they will enjoy union benefits and wages, as long as they go down to the relevant union hall and pay union dues while working on large city projects.

“When people say that project labor agreements tamp down competition, I think they don’t really see the big picture,” Kinney said.

Or, as Caldwell put it, “You can still work on projects … but you have to go through the hiring hall at the union and you can work.”

Whether companies that bid on large city contracts employ unionized laborers, Kinney said, “will have no bearing on whether (they) get awarded a project.”

Caldwell said the benefits are many.

The agreement prevents electricians, plumbers, painters, iron workers, masons, laborers, operating engineers, cement truck drivers and other unionized construction workers from “strikes, work slowdowns, project disruptions” and other traditional union practices that could cause “delays and add costs,” Caldwell said.

At the same time, the agreement ensures unionized employment “for people born here,” along with union training for military veterans who might otherwise end up jobless and homeless, Caldwell said.

Isle-born unionized construction workers “can make a living here and retire here and support their families,” Caldwell said.

Caldwell, members of the City Council and labor leaders repeatedly used the word “historic” to refer to the agreement.

The City Council originally approved Bill 37 (2019), which became law in October without Caldwell’s signature. It required that city projects valued at $2 million or more include a collective bargaining agreement between the city, the Hawaii Building and Construction Trades Council, the Hawaii Construction Alliance and their affiliated labor unions.

But Bill 37 divided support among labor unions, as well as supporters and detractors at Honolulu Hale.

So Council Budget Committee Chairman Joey Manahan introduced Bill 40, which was designed to address concerns raised by Caldwell and city attorneys that requiring workforce agreements infringes on the executive branch’s authority to procure contracts, to decide whether community workforce agreements are suitable and then negotiate those agreements.

Councilman Tommy Waters said Wednesday that the Council’s decision to pass Bill 40 came with plenty of controversy.

“Our emails was blowing up, our telephones was blowing up,” Waters said.

So witnessing Wednesday’s signing represented a “chicken skin” moment, Waters said, because “you’re fighting for working families.”