Prince George’s Council advances Sphere funding bills without resolution to labor demands

The Prince George’s County Council is hoping to win concessions from Sphere Entertainment while it still can.

Council members, led by Chair Krystal Oriadha, have been in negotiations with Sphere representatives and the county executive’s team in recent weeks as they decide whether to approve up to $215 million in public bonds to pave the way for the Sphere at National Harbor.

Labor involvement has proven to be a sticking point, and the matter remained unresolved Tuesday.

In questionnaires completed ahead of the June primary, Oriadha and six other council members up for reelection said they supported project labor agreements for the Sphere project. On Tuesday, Oriadha said negotiations have “moved away from” a project labor agreement, which Sphere executives have roundly rejected.

She said council members are pushing to require that union workers make up a specific percentage of the project workforce.

The council delayed a key committee vote for more than six hours Tuesday before convening to notify the public it would vote to advance legislation to the full council but forgo decisions about substantive changes until next week to allow more time for negotiations.

County Executive Aisha Braveboy said during an evening news conference that her administration and Sphere had agreed the project would include a “labor peace agreement,” a contract in which an employer agrees not to interfere in union organizing and a union agrees not to picket, protest or otherwise disrupt business.

Braveboy broadly outlined the peace agreement that her administration negotiated, saying it “happens once the venue is operational” and that employees “will have the opportunity to join a union if they so choose.”

Union leaders said they weren’t on board.

Paul Schwalb, executive secretary-treasurer with UNITE HERE Local 25, which represents hospitality workers in the Washington metropolitan area, said Braveboy is “talking to some Trump-affiliated billionaires in New York about a labor peace agreement. She’s not talking to us.”

James Dolan, CEO of Sphere Entertainment and Madison Square Garden Entertainment, and President Donald Trump are longtime friends.

Schwalb said the labor peace requirement that the county negotiated wouldn’t take effect until the Sphere opens and wouldn’t cover all Sphere employees.

Schwalb said, if the council plans to guarantee labor peace, it must include a requirement in the bond legislation.

“Once the money is in hand, Sphere will do whatever they want,” he said.

Brian Fischer, spokesperson for the county executive, wrote in an email that Schwalb’s characterization of the labor peace negotiations is “patently false.”

He wrote that the wording of the labor peace agreement under consideration came from County Council members, on behalf of the unions, “with a goal of ensuring that all employees working at Sphere once opened have a right to organize.”

He added that the agreement will be enforceable under the county code.

Braveboy was resolute in her support of the Sphere — a project she predicted will more than triple the amount of combined annual revenue the county received from Six Flags America and the Washington Commanders’ home in Landover.

“This is a project that we know that we have to move forward with,” she said. “We will work out any final issues.”

Braveboy said during her news conference that Sphere Entertainment is a union-friendly company that “has always supported and worked with labor.”

Company representatives have said more than 97% of the tradespeople employed during construction of Sphere Las Vegas were union workers and 45% of its 3,000 full- and part-time employees are union members.

Representatives of Sphere could not be reached for comment Tuesday, and a spokesperson did not immediately respond to an email request for comment Wednesday.

Greg Akerman, president of the Baltimore-D.C. Metro Building Trades Council, which represents the region’s 22 construction trade unions, said labor groups are looking for Sphere to agree to binding commitments as part of the public financing for the project.

Akerman said Sphere and the county have offered to require that “a small portion” of the construction work go to union contractors.

He said the proposed percentage “is far too low” and called for “everybody, including Sphere, to come to the table and actually negotiate something that’s fair and equitable.”

Fischer, though, called Akerman’s comments misleading and said the county “has to balance the interest of all stakeholders, including local and minority contractors — the vast majority of which are not unionized.”

Braveboy said the county and Sphere have also agreed to require that at least half the construction jobs on the project will go to workers from Prince George’s County businesses and minority-owned businesses.

She said the 50% requirement for local and minority employers would “represent the largest percentage of any major project in Prince George’s County’s history.”

Matt Teffeau, director of government affairs for Associated Builders and Contractors of Metro Washington, said in a statement that the agreement is “a big win for Prince George County contractors, minority-owned and locally owned.”

Oriadha said Tuesday that the council is still negotiating requirements related to hiring Prince George’s County workers and contracting with minority-owned businesses.

“We are not gonna rush through something. We are gonna make sure it’s right and it’s right for all parties,” she said.

Oriadha has added a meeting to the council’s calendar next week, scheduled for Monday, to allow additional time to consider and potentially amend the public bonding legislation.

She said the council has a short window in which to consider the legislation, because it cannot meet too close to Election Day in November.

Having two council meetings next week instead of one, she said, “gives us more opportunity to continue meeting and negotiating.”

Council member Wala Blegay, who chairs the committee that hosted Tuesday’s meeting, said “this has been very controversial and very difficult.”

Blegay said she “spent over a decade in the labor movement,” including working as a labor attorney. She said the council must ensure “that our labor voices are heard.”