Sonoma County Board of Supervisors Abandons Project Labor Agreement Policy; Instead Directs Staff to Negotiate Project Labor Agreement for Sonoma County Airport Expansion
Without a vote, the Sonoma County Board of Supervisors directed county staff on September 18, 2012 to negotiate a Project Labor Agreement (PLA) with unions and with the input of contractors for the planned $54 million expansion of the runways at the Charles M. Schultz Sonoma County Airport. Supervisors listed numerous items to be addressed in the negotiations and asked staff to present an agreement to the board for consideration within two months…
California Governor Signs Union-Backed Senate Bill 922, Intended to End Local Project Labor Agreement Bans
California Governor Jerry Brown announced on Sunday, October 2 that he has signed Senate Bill 922. He even included a signing message that declared SB 922 to be “fair” and “democratic.” This is the most dramatic attempt to date by unions and their political cronies to suppress the Fair and Open Competition movement that started in California and is sweeping the country. The bill was signed one day before the San Diego City Council was expected to…
Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors Crushes Fair and Open Competition for Hospital Project
The seven-month battle at the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors over requiring contractors to sign the county’s first government-mandated project labor agreement (renamed on the May 24 agenda as a “Community Workforce Agreement”) came to an end today (May 24, 2011) with a regrettable result for county taxpayers, as well as businesses and their employees not affiliated with a labor union. After a long series of public comments from supporter…
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 PLAs for large industrial, commercial, and residential projects, despite the cost increases inherent in PLAs. P…
Los Angeles Tangled Up in Project Labor Agreements in 2010
The web site for the Los Angeles Convention and Visitors Bureau describes Los Angeles as a “union-friendly city” and declares that “Meeting professionals who plan union meetings often end up in Los Angeles, a city built by union labor. L.A.’s world-class buildings – Walt Disney Concert Hall, STAPLES Center, L.A. LIVE and the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels – were all built by the city’s union labor.” It is true that the most prominent buildin…
New California Legislation Targets Union Abuse of Environmental Laws Meant to Squeeze Project Labor Agreements Out of Private Developers
When Governor Ronald Reagan signed the California Environmental Quality Act, or CEQA, (now comprising California Public Resources Code Sections 21000-21177) into law in 1970, many California state legislators believed the law would only apply to public projects, such as highways. The courts decided otherwise, and now unions routinely victimize private developers by abusing and exploiting CEQA for ends that have absolutely nothing to do with its p…
Bill at Governor Brown’s Desk is Basis for Argument to Remove Project Labor Agreement Ban from Proposed Escondido Charter
As of September 28, Governor Jerry Brown has not publicly announced his decision on Senate Bill 922, a hastily gutted and amended union-backed bill that deprives California charter cities of state funding for construction projects if they have Fair and Open Competition policies that prohibit city mandates for contractors to sign Project Labor Agreements with unions. But at an Escondido City Council meeting on September 28, the bill was already st…
San Diego Residents To Vote On Fair and Open Competition
There is a growing local movement in California to protect taxpayers and ensure the best quality construction at the best price by prohibiting project labor agreements (PLAs). On Tuesday, February 9, the San Diego County Board of Supervisors, representing the sixth most populous county in the country, voted 5-0 to authorize supervisor Bill Horn to draft a proposal that would evaluate two options that would protect taxpayers from PLAs. Option A is…
Divisive Vote Near Los Angeles for Project Labor Agreement: Three School Board Members Defy Community and Reward Union Campaign Contributors
Big Labor politics in Los Angeles was on brazen display at the San Gabriel Unified School District in the City of San Gabriel (ten miles east of downtown Los Angeles) on the evening of Wednesday, November 10. In front of more than 100 irate local residents who packed the meeting room, the elected Governing Board for the school district voted 3-2 to require contractors to sign a project labor agreement (PLA) with unions for future taxpayer-funded…
California: Land of the Lost
There are few reports available that summarize how local governments across the United States are responding to the challenging economic and political circumstances of the last two years, but we at TheTruthAboutPLAs.com have been tracking the not-altogether-unexpected reaction at local governments in California. Considering the reputation of California as a state where government fiscal irresponsibility and mismanagement are commonplace, it is no…