The Truth About Project Labor Agreements

An editorial in today’s Washington Times blasts President Obama’s Big Labor Payback via the pro-project labor agreement (PLA) Executive Order 13502 and rumored Easter recess appointment of SEIU and AFL-CIO Counsel Craig Becker to the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB).

The NLRB is the critical federal agency that supervises and conducts union representation elections and rules on unfair labor practice charges filed by unions, employees and employers. The NLRB enforces and interprets the National Labor Relations Act – the law that governs private sector labor-management relations.

Becker opponents maintain he should not receive a recess appointment because his well-established hyper-partisan legal views demonstrate that he is unsuitable to serve as a NLRB member.

Becker has written numerous law review articles and journals which reveal his radical views on labor law. Among other things, he has proposed significantly restricting, if not essentially banning, employers from communicating with employees about unions during an election and significantly restricting employer involvement in NLRB hearings. Mr. Becker also was involved in President Obama’s labor transition team, where he assisted in drafting pro-labor executive orders while he was on “vacation” from working for the AFL-CIO and SEIU. 

This blatant conflict of interest is why the Senate didn’t confirm Becker Feb. 9, 2010 and why ABC opposes Becker’s nomination to the NLRB.

In short, Big Labor Bosses want Becker on the NLRB so Becker can issue NLRB rulings that will allow Big Labor to achieve some of the same job-killing and unfair special interest objectives contained in the unpopular Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA) that is stalled in Congress.

Here’s what the editorial has to say about Executive Order 13502 and government-mandated PLAs. 

Worse, Mr. Becker’s appointment would not mark the end of the payback. An executive order Mr. Obama signed last year will go into effect soon, requiring federal contractors to have project labor agreements that effectively shut out the 85 percent of construction workers who are nonunionized and requiring contractors to make contributions to union pension funds. In other words, Big Labor will cash in while taxpayers are stuck with bills some 20 percent higher.

Bowing to the needs of the union bosses now will only serve to worsen America’s economic condition. Senators should make clear to the administration that they do not want this radical serving in such a key position to hand out favors to his former employers.

The TruthAboutPLAs agrees.

So does the editorial board at the Wall Street Journal.