While the Giants and the Pats prepared for their Super Bowl match-up, Indiana’s state government took steps to guarantee Hoosiers the opportunity to work without having to pay dues to a labor union. On Wednesday, Gov. Mitch Daniels signed legislation to make Indiana the 23rd right-to-work state.

The enactment of Indiana’s right-to-work law may be the most significant general labor law reform adopted since the 2010 election. This law gives workers an opportunity to decide whether to join a labor organization, even if their workplace is organized, without having that decision made for them by union bosses.

Courtesy of the National Right to Work Foundation

From our perspective at TheTruthAboutPLAs, this is a very positive development. It will better position Indiana to attract investment and this will help create much needed jobs. This is particularly true in the manufacturing and service sectors of Indiana’s economy.

Unfortunately, the right-to-work law does not eliminate the threat of government-mandated PLAs in the Hoosier state. PLA mandates can still occur in right-to-work states, although the PLA cannot require workers to pay union dues. The PLA can still require contractors to recognize a labor union as the sole representative of all workers on the job, hire some or all of their workers from a union hiring hall, pay into union pension and benefit programs, and follow inefficient union work rules. The right-to-work law removes an important component of PLAs, but the other provisions are burdensome enough that contractors that utilize union labor are still at a competitive advantage over their merit shop counterparts.

Indiana is no stranger to PLA activity. Super Bowl attendees will enjoy the game from Lucas Oil Stadium, a facility constructed under a wasteful and discriminatory PLA mandate. As a result, it was virtually impossible for nonunion construction workers to build this project. This kept the 70 percent of Indiana’s construction workforce that chooses not to join a labor union from building this project, which was funded in part by their own tax dollars.

Additionally, the stadium project was $75 million over budget, despite burning through a $50 million contingency fund.

Lucas Oil Stadium Mid-Construction, Courtesy of Wikipedia

This is just another example of how PLA mandates not only hurt the construction workers and their families, who are deprived of the opportunity to compete for projects, but also average taxpayers.

In an interesting bit of irony, rumors are swirling around Indianapolis that some union members and ‘Occupy’ protesters are planning to protest the right-to-work law at the Super Bowl on Sunday. If protests do happen, we are sure the protesters will say they are standing up for the middle class. Someone should ask them how excluding 72 percent of Indiana’s construction workforce from building the stadium grows the middle class.

(Mr. Lefebvre’s testimony starts at the 2:09 mark)

In his testimony, Lefebvre tells committee members a story we followed here on TheTruthAboutPLAs, regarding a PLA mandate the cost New York State taxpayers nearly $5 million.

The New York Department of Transportation refused to consider a bid from Lancaster Construction to perform work on a highway project in Orange County, NY because their bid did not conform to the department’s PLA mandate, even though Lancaster’s bid saved taxpayers $4.5 million and was scheduled to utilize more minority/disadvantaged businesses as subcontractors than the firm that won the project.

Lancaster Construction and its employees were passed over because they refused to agree to build this project under Big Labor’s terms.

PLA mandates deprive taxpayers of the opportunity to get the best construction at the best price.  On public construction, they also limit the ability of the vast majority of the construction workforce to compete for projects funded by their own tax dollars.  In New York, that means more than 70 percent of the state’s construction workers are left out in the cold.

We urge New York lawmakers to carefully consider S.4121/A.7855, the Public Construction Savings Act.  This legislation would ensure that contractors – not government bureaucrats – decide when a PLA is most appropriate.

Here are the highlights:

Project Labor Agreements Build Nothing but Unions

OPED By ERIC CHRISTEN

January 16, 2012

Los Angeles is ground zero in a war raging over exclusionary and monopolistic project labor agreements, commonly called PLAs. Since these “agreements” started popping up 15 years ago, Los Angeles has had more implemented than any other city in America. The almost canine affection elected officials in this region have for doing the bidding of those who put them into power (Big Labor special interests) is quite striking and unmatched anywhere we have been fighting PLAs.

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Project labor agreements are associated with fiscal irresponsibility and mismanagement, internal corruption and lack of accountability to the people who pay taxes for the government to provide services. Citizens in Los Angeles have abdicated their responsibility to oversee their local governments. As a result, unions fill the resulting political vacuum and attract ambitious people who see unions as a vehicle to attain personal power and position.

Arguments based on reason and common sense have no power in this kind of environment, where only scandals earn public attention. The problem with Los Angeles is that fidelity to Big Labor is so pervasive that the resulting corruption is hard to keep up with. From the hundreds of millions of dollars wasted under the Los Angeles Unified School District and Los Angeles International Airport PLAs to the broken promises of the Port of Los Angeles and the city of Long Beach PLAs, where does one even begin?

Let’s just pick two.

The city of San Fernando was the first municipality in California to require a PLA for all public works projects. On Sept. 19, 2005, the San Fernando City Council voted 5-0 to require all construction contractors to sign a PLA Agreement with unions for prime contracts worth $150,000 or more, and specialty contracts worth $25,000 or more. These project cost thresholds are unusually low, indicating that representatives of the city made little effort to engage in credible negotiations with union leaders to develop the project labor agreement.

Voting for the PLA in 2005 were council members Julie Ruelas, Nury Martinez, Steven Veres, José Hernández, and Maribel De La Torre. So what happened to them?

San Fernando voters recalled Hernández and Ruelas on Jan. 13, 2009.

Martinez was elected in 2009 to the board of the LAUSD, with endorsements from the Los Angeles/Orange Counties Building & Construction Trades Council and the Los Angeles County Federation of Labor.

Veres was elected in 2011 to the board of the Los Angeles Community College District, with endorsements from the construction trades council and the county labor federation.

Only De La Torre remains on the San Fernando City Council. At its Nov. 21 meeting, she was entangled in a spectacle that is bizarre, even by California standards, involving her relationship with the mayor.

Meanwhile, the city continues to require its contractors to sign a PLA to work on taxpayer-funded city construction. Business as usual.

Then we have the Los Angeles Community College District, subject of a multipart series in the Los Angeles Times highlighting the waste, fraud and poor quality of work that took place under the district’s multibillion-dollar PLA.

The latest scandal involves an inquiry that targets two contractors who worked extensively under that PLA. “The D.A.’s probe centers on Los Angeles Community College District allegations that the firms submitted fraudulent billings for Mission College work, part of a $5.7 billion construction program,” reported the Times.

Coincidence? Hardly. These instances are all quite predictable for any entity that purses something as immoral as a PLA. Sadly, it is the taxpayers, school children and the average citizen who continue to pay the price for the status quo in this region that places the interests of union bosses over that of everyone else.

In the end, the voters have no one left to blame but themselves for placing such morally illiterate people into office.

A number of projects in the L.A. area have been constructed with PLA mandates.  Their track record is well documented in the 2011 edition of Government-Mandated PLAs: A Public Record of Poor Performance.  Here are some examples with their page number for citation purposes:

Cost Overruns:

• The Eastside Reservoir project east of Los Angeles, built under a government-mandated PLA, was the nation’s largest earth moving project in the late 1990s. In October 1998, the project reported a $220 million (11 percent) cost overrun. The increase was attributed to payment of overtime wages under circumstances mandated by the PLA. (p. 9)

Project Delays:

• In 2006, four Los Angeles Unified School District campuses built under a PLA were forced to open their schools one month late because contractors could not find enough skilled labor to complete the project on time. (p. 23)

Discrimination Against Women and Minorities in the Construction Industry:

• In 2010, a private audit found violations by 55 contractors working on a $150 million high school under a PLA mandated by the Los Angeles Unified School District. The violations included inadequate supervision of workers and performing work under expired or suspended licenses. (p. 30)
• The biggest contractor on the union-only San Francisco International Airport PLA project was sued by a Los Angeles transit agency alleging that it used bogus minority subcontractors to get millions in unionized subway work.127 Similar allegations were investigated by the FBI in connection with the San Francisco Airport project. The Los Angeles lawsuit and San Francisco investigation both alleged that white-owned unionized firms set up companies that “either were not qualified or in whom the union companies owned an undisclosed interest.” The lawsuit also alleged that the union joint venture joined with its sham minority subcontractors to present false claims on subway work to obtain millions of dollars in additional payments. (p. 31) 

This is a sample, not a comprehensive list, of the various problems associated with PLA mandates on projects in the L.A. area.

In addition to the examples of problems above, government-mandated PLAs discriminate against the 84 percent of the L.A. area construction workforce that chooses not to join a union and are essentially locked out of construction funded by their own tax dollars.

Mandating PLAs on taxpayer funded work is clearly bad public policy.

The latest to do so is Anne Arundel County, MD, where local leaders adopted a ban on government-mandated PLAs on January 17.

Courtesy of Wikipedia

Maryland joins California, Texas and Pennsylvania as states in which local government entities have approved bans on these Big Labor handouts.  An increasing number of local leaders are starting to understand how Big Labor promises of PLA success usually lead to only cost overruns and discrimination against the vast majority of the construction workforce that chooses not to join a labor organization.

This ban on PLA mandates was enacted just one county away from the upcoming Cheltenham Youth Facility project in Prince George’s County, where Maryland leaders are attempting to become the first state or local government entity to procure a construction project with the Obama administration’s U.S. General Services Administration (GSA) PLA preference policy adopted in April 2010.

Here at TheTruthAboutPLAs.com, we thank Anne Arundel’s leaders for standing up for taxpayers and the local construction workforce.

One such example occurred in California, where union efforts helped get Robert Calone appointed to the Governing Board for the Contra Costa Community College District.  Mr. Calone’s day job is Recording Secretary for the Plumbers and Steamfitters Local 159.

While it’s possible that civic duty motivated Mr. Calone to apply for this office, it is also pretty clear that the construction unions have a revenue stream to develop.  And thanks in part to Mr. Calone, Big Labor will have a virtual monopoly on community college construction for the next five years.

But in all of the excitement over securing nearly all of the community college’s construction work in the next five years for Big Labor, it appears that Mr. Calone may have forgotten to take care of a small detail – properly completing his ethics disclosures.

Here is the press release from the Golden Gate Chapter of Associated Builders and Contractors issued on January 10:

FPPC Complaint filed against Contra Costa Community College District Trustee for Failure to File Form 700 Timely and Report Income

The Fair Political Practices Commission has confirmed receipt of a complaint filed for possible violations relating to Robert Calone, who holds the office of Governing Board member for the Contra Costa Community College District.

California Government Code §87202(a) states that “Every person who is elected to an office specified in Section 87200 shall, within 30 days after assuming the office, file a statement disclosing his or her investments and his or her interests in real property held on the date of assuming office, and income received during the 12 months before assuming office.”

Robert Calone failed to file a statement within 30 days (he did it 200 days after assuming office, after the public requested his Form 700 from the college district). When he filed his statement, he failed to report income.

Finally, by filing his Form 700 late and then omitting a source of income on the late Form 700, Robert Calone concealed his financial interest in a controversial contract that was approved on December 14, 2011 by the Governing Board of the Contra Costa Community College District. Only the intervention of the public in exposing Robert Calone’s failure to submit a Form 700 and his failure to report his employment income prevented him from voting on a contract for which his loyalties and allegiance were divided and influenced by his paid employment as an instructor for an organization that was signatory to the contract.

“Mr. Calone, the Recording Secretary for the Plumbers and Steamfitters Local 159, was appointed to the Board for the sole purpose of enacting a union-only Project Labor Agreement for District construction projects, thereby creating a monopoly on District work that will result in reduced competition and increased costs for public contracts funded by taxpayer dollars” stated Matt Heavey, a local citizen who filed the complaint.

A copy of the complaint can be viewed here.

Here at TheTruthAboutPLAs.com, we believe sunshine and transparency are the best medicine for public corruption.

Regardless of whether Mr. Calone violated the letter of the law, this one doesn’t pass the smell test.

The hearing was an opportunity for the committee to discuss how certain parties, particularly labor unions, exploit public participation in the CEQA process to achieve objectives unrelated to environmental protection. Assemblywoman Grove cited four specific recent examples of different unions (the Teamsters, the California Nurses Association, the United Food and Commercial Workers, and the Service Employees International Union) filing CEQA lawsuits to delay projects as leverage to extract labor concessions from businesses. She also noted that some businesses use CEQA to try to block potential competition.

Testifying on behalf of the sponsor, ABC of California Government Affairs Director Kevin Dayton discussed how certain construction trade unions abuse CEQA as a weapon to delay projects until the owner agrees to require contractors to sign a Project Labor Agreement with unions. The Western Electrical Contractors Association (WECA) and the Chambers of Commerce Alliance of Ventura & Santa Barbara were the other public supporters of the bill.

Assemblywoman Linda Halderman (R-Fresno) cited a specific example of a union using CEQA to try to force a contractor to sign a Project Labor Agreement to install solar panels at Fresno-Yosemite International Airport. Assemblyman Steve Knight (R-Palmdale) adeptly exposed the Attorney General’s double standard of opposing the additional responsibilities assigned in AB 598 while remaining silent about adopting additional responsibilities through other legislation.

Legitimate environmental organizations such as the Sierra Club and the Planning and Conservation League opposed the bill. The Teamsters and United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) union opposed the bill in writing but did not speak at the hearing. Democrats on the committee opposed the bill, but some of them (along with the Attorney General’s office) acknowledged that some parties abuse CEQA. Assemblyman Bill Monning (D-Santa Cruz) said nothing about how the Carpenters union used CEQA in a recent high-profile campaign to delay and ultimately derail the proposed La Bahia Hotel in Santa Cruz.

The committee defeated the bill on a 5-3 party-line vote: Democrats opposed, Republicans in support.

You can thank the following state legislators at these email addresses:

Assemblywoman Shannon Grove: Contact

Assemblywoman Linda Halderman: Contact

Assemblyman Steve Knight: Contact

Background on Assembly Bill 598: text, committee analysis

Some Recent News Media Coverage of CEQA Abuse: Bad Environment for Development? (Los Angeles Business Journal, July 18, 2011, via Central City Association of Los Angeles); Firms Turning to Environmental Law to Combat Rivals (Los Angeles Times, November 14, 2011).

This is an important step toward ensuring that taxpayers get the best construction at the best price for their hard earned tax dollars.  This will also help guarantee that merit, not union affiliation, will determine how construction contracts are awarded in Westmoreland County.

Courtesy of Wikipedia

The Western Pennsylvania Chapter of Associated Builder and Contractors issued the following press release, in which they thank commissioners for standing up for taxpayers and the 73.5 percent of Pennsylvania’s private construction workforce that chooses not to join a labor union.

Tax Payers in Westmoreland County Win as Project Labor Agreements Are Banned

Pittsburgh, PA – The Associated Builders and Contractors of Western Pennsylvania (ABC) praises Westmoreland County Board of Commissioners Chuck Anderson (R) and Tyler Courtney (R), who today passed a resolution banning project labor agreements (PLAs) in Westmoreland County.

This resolution follows a PLA that former County Commissioners Tom Balya (D) and Tom Ceraso (D) passed in 2009. The resolution benefits the tax payers of Westmoreland County, relieving them of the higher costs, unmet deadlines and reduced competition that PLAs are notorious for.

Keith Impink, Chairman of ABC and President of Westmoreland Electric commented, “With the economy struggling, it is illogical to support PLAs that drive up costs 25-30%.” Impink continued, “The mission of the Westmoreland County Board of Commissioners is to represent the residents with prudence and fairness; they accomplished that mission today.”

The County Commissioners asserted that all work should be awarded and performed on the basis of merit, regardless of labor affiliation, echoing ABC’s pro-competition beliefs. Eileen Watt, President of ABC stated, “PLAs not only cut out competition, but discriminate against women and minority workers as well. That is unacceptable for the tax payers of Westmoreland County.”

Watt continued “We cannot praise the efforts of County Commissioners Chuck Anderson and Tyler Courtney enough; they have the interests of Westmoreland County residents in mind.”

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This is a huge win for taxpayers, particularly considering that the Westmoreland County Board of Commissioners approved PLA mandates as recently as 2009.  This policy is likely to result in real cost savings for local taxpayers, and that is a good thing.

As the release goes onto say, one of the mandates hindering job growth in the construction industry in New York is government-mandated project labor agreements (PLA).  PLA mandates on both state and local projects have been a regular problem for the construction industry in New York – particularly for the 72.5 percent of the workforce that chooses not to join a labor union.

These mandates have also been a problem for New York taxpayers.  A blatant example of how these Big Labor handouts hurt taxpayers occurred in the spring of 2011, where the NYS Department of Transportation tried and was ultimately successful in implementing a PLA mandate on an infrastructure project that disqualified a qualified contractor’s bid and cost taxpayers an addition $5 million in unnecessary construction costs.

As America climbs out of recession, it is vital that government entities use taxpayer funds as wisely as possible.  As far as we are concerned, rewarding union bosses for their political support by giving union contractors a leg up against their nonunion counterparts doesn’t seem like the best use of public money.

Like the ABC Empire State Chapter, we urge Gov. Cuomo to support the Public Construction Savings Act and put an end to government-mandated PLAs in New York.

The ABC Empire State Chapter press release from January 5 is below.

STATEMENT FROM ABC PRESIDENT STEPHEN LEFEBVRE ON GOV. CUOMO’S STATE OF THE STATE ADDRESS

I want to applaud the governor on his first year in office and wish him the best on the start of the 2012 Legislative Session. The plan he laid out today in his annual State of the State provided some bold initiatives to enhance government and improve the economy through investment in many areas that the construction industry is sure to help build. With any discussion of development I encourage the governor to seek out the best value possible for the money paid by New York’s hard-working taxpayers.

I urge Gov. Cuomo to unshackle the full economic potential of any government funded construction work from the unnecessary use of restrictive measures such as mandatory Project Labor Agreements (PLAs) that time and again have driven up the cost of public work projects in the Empire State. The governor should seek construction mandate relief in the form of the Public Construction Savings Act (S.4121/A.7855) which would allow government entities to bid public construction in a way that promotes unfettered competition among contractors seeking public work to the benefit of taxpayers.

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The Empire State Chapter of Associated Builders and Contractors (“ABC”) represents over 550 merit-shop construction contractors and subcontractors employing thousands of workers throughout the State of New York.

Government-mandated PLAs have a negative impact on local construction workers and taxpayers.  These special interest handouts to Big Labor line the pockets of union bosses at the expense of average Americans.

Californians throughout the state have learned about PLA mandates and said “No Thanks” time and again.  Despite Gov. Jerry Brown and the California Legislature’s attempt to slow down the fight against PLA mandates, merit shop contractors, their workers, taxpayer advocates and ordinary citizens are gearing up to bring the message of fair and open competition to the people of Sacramento!

Visit www.fairandopencompetitionsacramento.com to learn more about the effort to ban government-mandated PLAs on projects funded by the city of Sacramento.

This ballot initiative will be similar to those passed by overwhelming majorities in Chula Vista, Oceanside and San Diego.  By putting an end of PLA mandates, citizens can be sure they are getting the best construction at the best price.  Always.

Unfortunately, the Democratic National Convention Committee (DNCC) has decided to make union favoritism a key criteria for selecting vendors for their 2012 convention, particularly for construction and renovations in and around the convention site – the Time Warner Cable Arena in Charlotte, NC.

The DNCC’s Sept. 13 request for proposal for construction managers and event architects states that the DNCC will enter into a labor agreement with the construction manager, who will be obligated to ensure that nearly all work at the site be covered by union collective bargaining agreements to the “maximum extent possible.”

Republican candidate for Mayor of Charlotte Scott Stone wants to see exactly what is in these agreements.  He issued a letter requesting the DNCC release the actual project labor agreements and also issued the following press release on October 26:

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Mayoral Candidate Calls for Release of DNC Vendor Project Labor Agreement

Scott Stone Calls on DNC Host Committee to Release Project Labor Agreements

Charlotte, NC (October 26, 2011) – Republican mayoral candidate Scott Stone today called on the DNC Host Committee to release the project labor agreements that vendors will be required to sign. At a press conference in Charlotte, Stone presented a formal letter addressed to Mayor Foxx and the DNC Host Committee asking for the labor agreements to be made public.

Stone expressed his concern that at a time when other states around the country are outlawing project labor agreements, Charlotte and North Carolina – at the hands of the DNC – are heading toward them and down a slippery slope. “As project labor agreements are going away in Michigan, here in the Right-To-Work state of North Carolina they’re actually popping up.”

Now that the contracts have been awarded, Stone said it is time for the DNC host committee to release the project labor agreement that the vendors will be required to sign. “The contracts have been awarded and the DNC and Mayor Foxx cannot continue to put off these important questions about the extent to which organized labor will be used for the convention,” said Stone. “We understand that the DNC is going to use union labor and we think it only fair that they be transparent about how much union labor they will use.”

Page four of the DNC’s request for proposal indicates that the construction manager will be required to sign a project labor agreement.

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Scott Stone is a licensed civil engineer with decades of experience managing national building projects. Stone is the founder of the NC Heroes Fund and served on the City of Charlotte’s Business Advisory Committee from 2006 to 2010. Stone lives in Charlotte with his wife and two daughters. Stone is the Republican candidate for Mayor of Charlotte.

 

There are a couple problems here, one obvious and the other a little less so.  First, these labor agreements are designed to keep the 97.5! percent of the local construction workforce that chooses not to join a union from working on these projects.

Why would the DNCC want to exclude so many hard working Americans in this economy, when unemployment in the construction industry is higher than 13 percent?

It is because the Democratic National Convention is being held in a Right to Work state, with no union hotels and as a result, some construction unions are threatening to boycott the event.  The Democrats have a political problem and are solving it by cutting North Carolina’s construction workers out of the project.

The other problem with the Democrats’ decision to require project labor agreements at their convention site is less obvious, but more significant for American taxpayers.  The major political conventions are funded in large part by taxpayer dollars.

That’s right Americans, you are footing the bill for this one too!

As reported by the Washington Examiner (“GOP and Dems get taxpayer subsidies for conventions,” 6/22/11), taxpayers pick up the bulk of the tab for these events:

The PECF money goes into the main bank accounts of the Democratic National Convention Committee and its GOP counterpart. For instance, in 2008, the DNCC’s $16.8 million budget came almost entirely from its $14.9 million check from the U.S. Treasury. So, taxpayers, covered the committee’s $26,000 bill at the Ritz Carlton and six-figure cost for housing convention staff, plus plenty more.

The PECF is the Presidential Election Campaign Fund, which is funded by the $3 check-off option on the standard IRS tax forms that gives taxpayers the option of sending $3 of their federal taxes owed to fund presidential election activities.

In other words, taxpayers are picking up the cost of this political handout to Big Labor.  Again.

Here at TheTruthAboutPLAs.com, we thank Mr. Stone for working to get to the bottom of this mess.

Media Round-up

Charlotte Observer: “Stone Presses Union Jobs Issue,” 10/27/11

Red State: “Dems Dodge Questions On Discriminatory Union PLAs For DNC Convention,” 10/27/11

Liberty Watch: “Dems Dodge Questions On Discriminatory Union PLAs For DNC Convention,” 10/28/11