Sec. 10-292. Labor Peace Agreements authorized
Codified through Bill No. CB-018-2026, adopted May 12, 2026, effective July 24, 2026. Source: Municode, Supplement 2026 Update 2. Editorial notes and legislative history omitted.
Prince George's County, Md., Code § 10-292 (2026)
Sec. 10-292. Labor Peace Agreements authorizedLinkCopy Citation
(a)
Legislative findings and policy.
(1)
In the course of managing real property that it owns or in otherwise carrying out its functions in the public interest, the County may participate in real property developments as a property owner, lessor, proprietor, lender, or guarantor, facing similar risks and liabilities as other business entities participating in such ventures. As a result, the County has an ongoing proprietary interest in these developments and a direct interest in their financial performance.
(2)
The County must make prudent management decisions, similar to any private business entity, to ensure efficient management of its business concerns and to maximize benefits and minimize risks. One risk is the possibility of labor-management conflict.
(3)
A major potential outcome of labor-management conflict is economic action by labor unions against employers. Experience of municipal and other investors demonstrates, for example, that organizing drives pursuant to the formal and adversarial union certification process often deteriorate into protracted and acrimonious labor-management conflict. Labor-management conflict can result in construction delays, work stoppages, picketing, strikes, consumer boycotts, and other forms of adverse economic pressure. Such conflict may adversely affect the County's financial or other proprietary business interests by causing delay in the completion of a project, reducing the revenues or increasing the costs of the project, and by generating negative publicity.
(4)
One method of reducing the risk to the County's proprietary interests is to require, when reasonable and prudent, as a condition of the County's investment or other economic participation in a development project, that employers taking part in the development project seek agreements with labor organizations in which the labor organizations agree to forbear from adverse economic action against the employers' operations.
(b)
Determination of need for labor peace agreement.
(1)
For each development project, the County Executive shall determine whether Prince George's County has a proprietary interest in the development project and whether a Labor Peace Agreement would be appropriate. The factors to be taken into account when determining the existence of a proprietary interest will include:
(A)
Through a lease of real property that is owned by Prince George's County and used for the development project, receives ongoing revenue, excluding government fees, tax revenue, or assessment revenue, or similar fees and revenues, except for tax revenue under the circumstances specified in Subparagraphs (B) and (C) of this Paragraph;
(B)
Receives ongoing revenue from the project to repay loans provided by the County to assist in the development of the project, including incremental tax revenues generated by the project;
(C)
Receives ongoing revenue from the project to pay debt service on bonds provided by the County to assist in the development of the project, including incremental tax revenues generated by the project;
(D)
Has significant assets at risk because it has agreed to underwrite or guarantee the development of the project or loans related to the project; or
(E)
Has a significant ongoing economic and nonregulatory interest at risk in the financial success of a project which is likely to be adversely affected by labor-management conflict, except that no interest shall be considered economic and nonregulatory if it arises from the exercise of regulatory or police powers such as taxation (except as set forth in Subparagraphs (B) and (C) of this Paragraph), zoning, or the issuance of permits or licenses.
(2)
(A)
If the County Executive determines that the County has a proprietary interest at risk in a development, the County Executive shall require that the developer(s) of the project, including the developer(s)' tenants, subtenants, contractors, or subcontractors, demonstrate that they have entered into a labor peace agreement with the labor organization(s) which seek to represent, or might seek to represent, workers on the project, prior to, and as a condition precedent of, the County's award of a public benefit to the development project.
(B)
For the purposes of this Section:
(i)
Contract means a written agreement, including a management agreement, service agreement, loan, bond, guarantee, or other similar agreement, to which the County is a party and in which the County has a proprietary interest;
(ii)
Employer means any person, corporation, company, association, limited or general partnership, joint venture, contractor, subcontractor, or other entity that employs individuals at the site of a development project; provided, that the term "employer" shall not include the United States, Prince George's County, a wholly owned government corporation, a Federal Reserve Bank, or a state or other political subdivision;
(iii)
Labor organization shall have the same meaning as under 29 U.S.C. §152(5).
(iv)
Labor peace agreement means a written agreement between an Employer and a Labor Organization, enforceable under Section 301 of the Labor Management Relations Act, 29 U.S.C. § 185, that contains, at a minimum, (1) a provision prohibiting the Labor Organization and its members from engaging in any picketing, work stoppage, boycott, or other economic interference with the employer's operations in which the County has a proprietary interest, for the duration of the interest; and (2) provides that any services to be performed by employees of the employer's tenants, subtenants, contractors, or subcontractors will also be done under agreements containing the same labor peace assurance.
(v)
Services means construction, janitorial, security (but not national security), building and grounds maintenance, warehousing and distribution, mechanics and truck services, hotel (and any restaurant connected thereto), and grocery sales.
(c)
Exceptions. The requirements to enter into a labor peace agreement shall not apply to:
(1)
An employer at the development project that meets the definition of a "small business" pursuant to the Code of Maryland Regulations ("COMAR") 21.01.02.01(80);
(2)
A development project that is not awarded a total public benefit of a value greater than One Million Dollars ($1,000,000);
(3)
A residential development project;
(4)
A development project that receives only conduit bond financing from the County, in which the County does not retain a proprietary interest; or
(5)
A development project involving a historically designated building.
([(d)
Reserved.]
(e)
Limitations.
(1)
Nothing in this Section requires an employer to recognize a particular labor organization.
(2)
Nothing in this Section requires an employer to enter into a collective bargaining agreement establishing the substantive terms and conditions of employment.
(3)
This Section is not intended to, and shall not be interpreted to, enact or express any generally applicable policy regarding labor-management relations or to regulate those relations in any way.
(4)
This Section is not intended to favor any particular outcome in the determination of employee preference regarding union representation.
(5)
Nothing in this Section permits or requires the County or any employer to enter into any agreement in violation of the National Labor Relations Act of 1935, approved July 5, 1935 (49 Stat. 449; 29 U.S.C.S. § 151 et seq.).
(f)
Requirement of County notice. A request for proposals or invitation to bid or similar document regarding a development project subject to this Section shall include a summary description of and reference to the requirements of this Section. Failure to include a description or reference to this Section in the document shall not exempt an employer otherwise subject to the requirements of this Section.