San Diego Area Voters Again Say No to PLA Mandates
San Diego area voters again said no to wasteful and discriminatory project labor agreement (PLA) mandates on Tuesday. Proposition A, the City of San Diego ballot initiative that will ban government-mandated PLAs on city funded construction projects, was approved with 58 percent of the vote. The City of San Diego is the eighth most populous city in the U.S. […]
San Diego Union-Tribune: Vote for Prop. A – Don’t Let Bullies Win
The editorial staff of the San Diego Union-Tribune Saturday announced their support for Proposition A, which would ban government-mandated project labor agreements (PLAs) on city funded construction projects in San Diego. This support comes despite union claims that if Proposition A is adopted, the city risks losing future state construction funding due to a new […]
California $16 Billion in the Red
While many states have found ways to balance their budgets, California Gov. Jerry Brown (D) reported yesterday that California has a $16 billion mid-budget cycle deficit. Nearly all 50 states, including California, are required to balance their budgets, so this news will likely trigger some combination of spending cuts and significant tax increases. Here are […]
Prop. A Face-off on KPBS in San Diego
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 […]
California Lawmakers Pay Back Their Big Labor Allies, Take Steps to Deprive Charter Cities of Local Control
Elected officials in California have again taken their focus away from solving the troubled state’s problems to give a handout to their Big Labor enablers. From 2000 to 2011, the merit shop construction community helped local leaders and voters across the state understand that government-mandated project labor agreements (PLAs) deprive taxpayers of the opportunity to […]
Respond to USACE PLA Survey for Fort Hunter-Liggett California by April 18
The United States Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) issued a survey requesting information from the construction industry on the potential use of a project labor agreement (PLA) for the construction of an operational readiness training complex at Fort Hunter-Liggett, Calif. TheTruthAboutPLAs.com encourages the merit shop contracting community to respond to the request for information. Tell […]
Victory for Taxpayers – Fair and Open Competition Saved in Ventura County: Disagreements Among County Supervisors Kills Project Labor Agreement Proposed for $250 Million Hospital
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 […]
Out of Nowhere: Project Labor Agreement and Community Benefit Agreement Tacked on End of Motion for New Sacramento Kings Basketball Arena
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, […]
County Hospitals Are Prime Targets for Project Labor Agreements: Ventura County is the Latest in California
The first government-mandated project labor agreement (PLA) in California (following the Boston Harbor decision at the U.S. Supreme Court) was imposed in the spring of 1994 by the Contra Costa County Board of Supervisors for a county hospital construction project. Last year, unions managed to squeak out (on a 3-2 vote) their first PLA for […]
Scandal-Tainted California Politician Voted for Project Labor Agreements in Two Different Lives!
This story is not unusual in California nowadays: an ambitious elected official is tangled up in a bizarre personal incident (see Supervisor Nadia Lockyer, Wife of California Treasurer, Acknowledges Substance Abuse, Affair – Contra Costa Times/Bay Area News Group – February 14, 2012). But this case is noteworthy from the perspective of TheTruthaboutPLAs.com because the elected […]