The Truth About Project Labor Agreements

RedState.com is the latest media outlet to expose Executive Order 13502, which encourages the use of project labor agreements (PLAs) on federal construction over $25 million. It is a handout to Big Labor at the expense of American taxpayers.  In a September 1 post, RedState.com’s Erick Erickson calls the executive order “appalling and “an astonishing reach.”  We couldn’t agree more.

Here are the highlights:

Barack Obama and his administration are about to significantly drive up the costs of federal building construction. This is an astonishing reach. The Office of Management and Budget has directed that any federal construction over $25 million benefit unions.

The order would make all federal construction projects 10-20% more expensive by requiring all contractors to either use union workers or apply inefficient union apprenticeship and work rules to their employees. Contractors would also be required to make contributions to union pension funds and other union programs that non-union workers will never benefit from.

This will hugely drive up the cost of construction of federal buildings and line the pockets of unions without even having union workers involved in the projects. The Bureau of Labor Statistics shows that only 15.6% of private construction workers in America belong to unions. In other words, 8 out of 10 construction workers in America will be legally denied the right to work on federal building projects.

This is appalling.

Great news in the midst of a recession, right?

Read the full post.