Big Labor Spreads Lies to Defeat Chula Vista’s Prop G
On June 8, 2010, residents of Chula Vista, California will vote on Proposition G, which guarantees fair and open competition for public works projects in Chula Vista.
Visit www.fairnessforchulavista.com to learn why Prop G is good for taxpayers and the construction industry.
Big Labor opposes Prop G because it curtails their ability to receive costly and anti-competitive handouts from public officials via project labor agreements (PLAs) on Chula Vista’s publicly funded construction projects.
PLAs are special interest schemes that typically increase the cost of construction and require that all or most labor on a construction project belong to a union.
Unfortunately, Big Labor is resorting to a campaign of misinformation to defeat Prop G. A mailer from Big Labor to Chula Vista voters sent to us by a TheTruthAboutPLAs.com reader demonstrates that Big Labor is trying to win the hearts and minds of Chula Vista voters through deception.
Big Labor claims Prop G will ban union labor. This is a lie.
Prop G will not ban union members from Chula Vista projects. Prop G prohibits the use of government-mandated PLA schemes. Remember that PLAs are responsible for discouraging nonunion contractors and their employees from competing on PLA projects because provisions in PLAs typically prevent all or most of a merit shop contractor’s local and skilled nonunion workforce from working on a PLA project. PLAs can’t even guarantee a local workforce.
The PLA – not Prop G – is the instrument of unfair discrimination. It is one of the reasons why Prop G is on the ballot in June. Prop G simply ensures that all of Chula Vista’s union and nonunion construction professionals have a level playing field to earn a living on public construction projects.
After Prop G passes, union contractors are likely to win Chula Vista construction contracts and are free to utilize union agreements to manage their union workforce after they have won a contract in a fair and open competitive bidding contest.
Prop G simply prevents a rigged bidding process that Big Labor has pushed all over the country through a simple formula: Political cronies Big Labor has helped install in public office use PLAs as legal method to funnel lucrative public works contracts to their largest political supporters – Big Labor. It is pure corruption and denies citizens the accountability they deserve from government.
Prop G is good for taxpayers because it creates an environment where public officials must deliver the best possible project at the best possible price.
It is why the San Diego Union-Tribune editorial board has endorsed Prop G and went out of their way to shame Big Labor’s campaign of misinformation:
With mail balloting starting next week, misinformation and grave distortions are being spread about Proposition G in an effort to confuse. [snip]
Simply put, the measure would prohibit Chula Vista from joining the union/management fray. According to City Attorney Bart Miesfeld’s impartial analysis, “The city shall not fund, in whole or in part, or enter into any contract which contains a requirement that the contracting party” sign into a collective bargaining agreement, pay into union trust funds or use workers who belong to a union. There is nothing prohibiting a contractor from choosing to do so, only that the city would be prohibited from requiring it.
Chula Vista residents are too smart to fall for Big Labor’s schemes. They know The Truth About Project Labor Agreements.