Nine Ways Private Owners Are Coerced By Unions Into Requiring Project Labor Agreements
Sometimes, private owners of energy projects, banks, retail stores, manufacturing facilities, hotels, casinos and hospitals require contractors to agree to a project labor agreement (PLA) favoring trade unions as a condition of winning a construction contract funded by private money. This is known as a private PLA mandate or a private owner-mandated PLA. A private PLA […]
Barack and a Hard Place: President’s Decision to Kill Keystone XL Pipeline Pleases Environmentalists, Riles Unions
This week the Obama administration killed Phase 3 and Phase 4 of TransCanada’s Keystone XL pipeline project (for now), which would have connected Phase 1 and Phase 2 of the existing pipeline to new pipeline that would carry crude oil 1,600 miles from Alberta, Canada, to Gulf Coast refineries. The State Department’s denial of the […]
Chicago’s Crony Politics Force Wal-Mart to Sign Project Labor Agreement
TheTruthAboutPLAs.com readers have been sending emails and comments about recent reports that Wal-Mart has signed a multi-store project labor agreement (PLA) with Chicago area building trades unions for about $1 billion worth of construction during the next five years. The construction of “several dozen” stores in 19 Illinois counties is expected to create 10,000 permanent […]
Lansing City Council on Job Creation: We Don’t Need It
In a stunning move, the Lansing, MI City Council has decided to put political payback to powerful special interests ahead of creating jobs for local residents. This wouldn’t be THAT big of a deal, except the East Lansing-Lansing unemployment rate has jumped to over 10 percent. Major development plans for downtown Lansing are now delayed […]
Why Do Private Corporations and Developers in California Sign Project Labor Agreements? San Diego Provides a Clue
In October 2001, the California Research Bureau released a “study” commissioned by California State Senate Pro Tem and Big Labor advocate John Burton (D-San Francisco) about Project Labor Agreements (PLAs). As you can imagine, this report was full of logical fallacies, but fulfilled the intention of Sen. Burton to get an “authoritative” study to support PLAs […]
FOX News Report Exposes Union Greenmail
During the August 7 edition of FOX News’ Happening Now, William La Jeunesse exposes union attempts to monopolize green construction through exploiting state and local environmental permitting processes – a tactic known as greenmail. Don’t be fooled by Big Labor’s attempts to portray themselves as protectors of the environment. As this report shows, the […]
Gaming the System: California’s Environmental Laws Are Pivotal to Unions Winning Project Labor Agreements from Private Developers
In California, Project Labor Agreements (PLAs) are the primary tactic used by construction unions to gain market share in the industry. And PLAs are not confined to public works projects. Particularly in the San Francisco Bay Area, the Sacramento area, the City of Los Angeles, and the San Diego area, private developers have been signing […]
NYC Developers Say PLAs Save Less Than Claimed
According to this 4/30/09 NY Times article by Charles V. Bagli, New York City’s real estate developers, contractors and construction unions have been trying to negotiate wage concessions and other cost saving measures that labor and political spindoctors are touting as a solution to revive New York’s stalled construction and real estate market. The writers here at TheTruthAboutPLAs.com affectionately refer to […]