It was a historic week for the merit shop contracting community in the U.S. House of Representatives. Thursday, by a bipartisan vote of 211 to 209, the House passed an amendment offered by Rep. Roscoe Bartlett (R-Md.) and cosponsored by Rep. Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.) to the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) for Fiscal Year 2013 [...]
By Ben Brubeck
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Posted in Uncategorized
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Tagged AGC, American Council of Engineering Companies, Business Coalition for Fair Competition (BCFC), Construction Industry Round Table, Executive Order 13502, Federal Construction, Federal Contracting, House PLA Votes, Independent Electrical Contractors, Merit Elevator Contractors Association of America, National Association of Women in Construction, National Black Chamber of Commerce, National Federation of Independent Business, National Right to Work, PLAs, PLAs are political payoffs to union leaders, PLAs Cut Competition, PLAs Discriminate, PLAs Increase Costs, President Obama, Project Labor Agreements, Rep. Flake, Rep. Gingrey, Rep. Guinta, Rep. Roscoe Bartlett, Rep. Tim Walberg, Small Business and Entrepreneurship Council, Sullivan, The Politics of PLAs, U.S. Chamber of Commerce, Union-only PLAs harm local workers, Women Construction Owners and Executives
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Must see video from San Diego. Eric Christen, executive director of the Coalition for Fair Employment in Construction (CFEC) recently debated former San Diego City Council Member Donna Frye on the merits of Proposition A, which would ban government-mandated project labor agreements on city funded projects. To learn more, visit their website www.fairandopencompetition.com or their [...]
By Andy Conlin
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Posted in Uncategorized
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Tagged ABC California, Ballot Initiative, California, Chula Vista, PLA Video, PLAs, PLAs are political payoffs to union leaders, PLAs Cut Competition, PLAs Discriminate, Project Labor Agreements, San Diego, San Diego County, Union-only PLAs harm local workers
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In a win for taxpayers and Virginia’s merit shop construction industry, on April 9, Gov. Bob McDonnell (R) signed the Fair and Open Competition in Government Contracting Act (HB 33) into law. H.B. 33 prohibits the Commonwealth of Virginia and recipients of state assistance from mandating project labor agreements (PLAs) and enacting PLA preferences discriminating [...]
By Ben Brubeck
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Posted in Uncategorized
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Tagged ABC Virginia, Barbara Comstock, Dennis Martire, Dulles Transit Partners, Fair and Open Competition in Government Contracting Act (HB 33), Fairfax County, Gov. McDonnell, local hire, Loudoun County, Metro Washington Airport Authority, Michael Curto, MWAA, PLAs, PLAs are political payoffs to union leaders, PLAs Cut Competition, PLAs Discriminate, PLAs Increase Costs, Project Labor Agreements, Ray LaHood, Silver Line, State Legislation, The Politics of PLAs, Tim Hugo, Union-only PLAs harm local workers, Virginia, Virginia Chamber of Commerce
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Construction unions attempt to entice merit shop craftspeople and new industry entrants into joining a union with promises of generous pension plans. They also convince elected officials in charge of procuring taxpayer-funded projects why union contractors and union workers deserve special treatment through various schemes like government-mandated project labor agreements (PLAs) because of the public [...]
By Ben Brubeck
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Posted in Uncategorized
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Tagged Credit Suisse, featured, Pension Withdrawal Liability, pensions, PGBC, PLAs, PLAs Discriminate, PLAs Increase Costs, President Obama, Project Labor Agreements, The Politics of PLAs, Union-only PLAs harm local workers, Wall Street Journal
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There was a distributing development in Santa Fe, N.M., on Feb. 29, when the city council quietly adopted a policy requiring community workforce agreements (CWAs) on all projects costing more than $500,000. A community workforce agreement is no different than a wasteful and discriminatory project labor agreement (PLA); it just goes by another name. Washington, [...]
By Andy Conlin
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Posted in Uncategorized
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Tagged ABC Newsline, local legislation, New Mexico, Open Competition, PLAs, PLAs are political payoffs to union leaders, PLAs Cut Competition, PLAs Increase Costs, Project Labor Agreements, State Legislation, Union-only PLAs harm local workers
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March 30, 2012 – 10:06 am
Last week, we covered the numerous project labor agreement (PLA)-related events that have occurred in Connecticut in recent weeks. On Friday, March 23, Meriden Record-Journal op-ed writer Eric Cotton authored a strong piece urging the city not to require a wasteful and discriminatory PLA on two future school construction projects. Here are the highlights from his [...]
At a special meeting this morning (Tuesday, March 13), the Ventura County Board of Supervisors rejected (on a 2-2-1 vote) a motion from the board chairman to require contractors to sign a project labor agreement (PLA) oriented toward the demands of the Tri-Counties Building and Construction Trades Council in order to work on a $250 [...]
By Kevin Dayton
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Posted in Uncategorized
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Tagged ABC California, California, Hospital Construction, Kevin Dayton, local legislation, Open Competition, PLAs, PLAs Cut Competition, PLAs Increase Costs, Project Labor Agreements, Union-only PLAs harm local workers, Ventura County
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On March 6, when Sacramento City Councilman Robert King Fong made the motion to the Sacramento City Council for approval of a new $391 million arena for the Sacramento Kings professional basketball team, he generally read the posted agenda item verbatim, but then tacked on an additional, obviously pre-prepared provision out of nowhere: …and lastly, [...]
By Andy Conlin
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Posted in Uncategorized
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Tagged ABC California, Ballot Initiative, California, Kevin Dayton, local legislation, Open Competition, PLAs are political payoffs to union leaders, PLAs Cut Competition, PLAs Discriminate, PLAs Increase Costs, Sacramento, Sacramento Bee, Sacramento Kings, Union-only PLAs harm local workers
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February 23, 2012 – 5:52 pm
Last week, the Metropolitan Washington Airport Authority (MWAA) gave Big Labor Bosses a generous Valentine’s Day gift. On Wednesday, MWAA passed a resolution adopting a new policy needlessly favoring contractors that submit proposals promising to use a union project labor agreement (PLA) to construct Phase 2 of the $2.8 billion Silver Line metro extension project [...]
By Ben Brubeck
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Posted in Uncategorized
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Tagged ABC Virginia, Metro Washington Airport Authority, MWAA, PLAs, PLAs are political payoffs to union leaders, PLAs Cut Competition, PLAs Increase Costs, Project Labor Agreements, Silver Line, State Legislation, Union-only PLAs harm local workers, Virginia
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February 16, 2012 – 2:58 pm
On Feb. 6, the Minnesota Vikings signed an agreement with the Minnesota Building and Construction Trade Division (BCTD), AFL-CIO to require contractors to sign a project labor agreement (PLA) on the upcoming construction of their new stadium. This will ensure that nearly all of the construction jobs on the project will go to union workers—leaving [...]
By Andy Conlin
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Posted in Uncategorized
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Tagged Citi Field, Detroit, local legislation, Minnesota, Op-Ed, Open Competition, PLAs, PLAs are political payoffs to union leaders, PLAs Cut Competition, PLAs Discriminate, PLAs Increase Costs, Project Labor Agreements, Safety Problem on PLA Project, Stadium, State Legislation, Union-only PLAs harm local workers
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