The Truth About Project Labor Agreements

PLA’s work you have it all wrong, and the worst representative to express your points of view is Multi-Millionare Glenn Beck. The only one worse would be Rush Limbaugh. Your Republican philosophy of less government in business and more business in government is why this country is the way it is today. I do not know why you oppose an american worker from reciving good wages and benefits for his work that ultimately makes you wealth. I suppose it is just greed

Tom-

Our blog reports what the media is saying about PLAs and we sometimes provide commentary on the media stories. Glenn Beck happened to mention it in one of his broadcasts, and that is certainly newsworthy.

Unfortunatelly, this shouldn’t be a GOP or Democrat issue, but it is. It should be about fairness, opportunity and getting taxpayers the Best product at the Best price.

Contrary to what you may believe, TheTruthAboutPLAs.com is not anti-worker. We are for ALL workers (regardless of their labor affiliation) and government accountability.

One of the reasons why PLAs are so offensive is because on PLA projects, nonunion workers lose employer-funded health and pension benefits earned during the life of a PLA project unless they join a union and become vested in these plans. Shouldn’t they get to keep hard-earned health and pension benefits without any strings attached?

In some instances, PLAs prohibit nonunion companies from using their nonunion employees. Shouldn’t these workers have a fair shot at feeding their families?

Finally, the issue of wages and benefits doesn’t help your case when it comes to federal PLAs. All federal construction work is covered by the Davis-Bacon Act, which is typically the union wage and benefit rate and is much higher than wage and benefit rates earned in the free market.

If you guys think the Davis-Bacon rates are “..typically union wage and fringe benefits rates..” what else in your PLAs facts is wrong? Are you for a business model where your clients hire illegal aliens at ridiculously low wages and no fringe benefits? Why doesn’t the ABC endorse and enforce on its members that only American citizens or people lawfully in our country will be hired? Your “race to the bottom” philosophy with low wages and no benefits for workers (usually illegals) will destroy the image of a construction career as an opportunity to elevate workers to the middle-class.

Wow! Are Bob and Tom for real or are they just stooges trying to clog up the site? If you dont have anything to say but ridiculous remarks about illegal aliens and all republicans are greedy do us all a favor and keep your remarks to yourselves.
“Better to be thought of as an idiot than to open your mouth and remove all doubt”.

Bob-

I stand by my comment that Davis-Bacon wage and benefit rates are usually equal or similar to union wage and benefit rates.

In some areas of the country, the U.S. DOL has failed to conduct wage surveys in many years and those wage rates are below free market wage rates. It is one of the problems with having the government and not the free market determine wage rates. Fortunately, in those locations the free market pays employees greater than the outdated government-set wage rates, so the notion that workers are exploited without government intervention is not accurate.

ABC contractors and their employees are the best in the industry. Your misinformed opinion about ABC contractors has about as much credibility as the commonly held (and false) sentiment that union contractors and union members are puppets of the mafia.