The Truth About PLAs Exposed During DC Council Hearing
The D.C. Council committees on Housing and Workforce Development and Government Operations held a joint hearing on June 30 to consider the District Resident Employment and Trade Stimulus Amendment Act of 2010 (Bill 18-650). This bill would require the use of wasteful and discriminatory project labor agreements (PLAs) on all projects costing more than $200,000 […]
The Most Infamous PLA Job: Lessons from Boston’s Big Dig
Boston newspaper editorials point out that Mass. Gov. Deval Patrick’s recent use of PLA mandates in exchange for Big Labor’s support during November’s gubernatorial election makes little fiscal sense for Mass. taxpayers and stinks of political favoritism – especially considering the $22 billion Big Dig’s well-documented record of missed deadlines, cost-overruns, construction defects (including a motorist fatility due to a collapsed tunnel ceiling panel), and reports of union workers visting methadone clinics, sleeping and drinking heavily on the job.
Funded by federal and Massachusetts taxpayers, the Big Dig is the most expensive and infamous government-mandated PLA job of all time.
Calif. Officials to Spend $1.6 Million to Administer Project Labor Agreement Scheme
Big Labor continues to pick the pockets of taxpayers and students of California’s Riverside Community College (RCC) District. Last week the RCC District Trustees approved spending $1.6 million for staff and consultants to oversee the RCC District’s anti-competitive and costly project labor agreement (PLA) scheme that will govern about $350 million worth of future RCC District construction. TheTruthAboutPLAs.com have […]
Gov. Strickland Official Investigated for Pay-to-PLA Contracting
The Columbus Dispatch reports that Ohio Inspector General Thomas P. Charles is investigating whether Ohio School Facilities Commission (OSFC) Director Richard Murray behaved inappropriately by “pushing districts to use union labor through project labor agreements” (PLAs) (“School Facilities Commission director probed for pushing union use,” 6/20/10): Murray formerly was the head of Ohio LECET, a group that assists […]
Gov. Strickland’s Cronyism Delivers Construction Contracts for Big Labor
An article in The Columbus Dispatch explains how the revolving door shuffling Big Labor’s special interest lobbyists into Ohio government positions is helping funnel lucrative construction contracts to Big Labor through project labor agreements (PLAs) (“Unions get deaf, blind schools contract,” 6/14). It’s a corrupt practice that will increase the cost of construction and deny taxpayers the […]
Union Boss Calls for Reform: Says Union Labor is Costly and Unproductive
Comments from a St. Louis area union boss in an article in the Illinois Business Journal supports the premise that anti-competitive project labor agreements (PLAs) saddle construction owners and contractors with poor productivity and archaic union work rules that needlessly inflate the cost of construction (“Lack of productivity puts St. Louis in backseat for economic development“). Note: […]
District of Columbia Big Labor Bosses Busted for Pay-to-Play Politics
A TruthAboutPLAs.com reader has sent us evidence we are sharing with the public that demonstrates that the AFL-CIO Metropolitan Washington Council is engaged in shameless pay-to-play politics with Prince George’s County (Maryland) officials. TheTruthAboutPLAs.com has covered how a lobbyist for the AFL-CIO Metropolitan Washington Council perpetuated misleading/intentionally false statements in support of District Resident Employment and Trade Stimulus Act of 2010 […]
Waterbury PLA Schools Continue Record of Poor Performance
The Waterbury Republican American reported on 2/24/10 that two CT schools recently constructed under project labor agreements (PLAs) have suffered cost overruns, construction defects and missed construction deadlines. CONSTRUCTION CONTRAST: Item: The $20.5 million Rotella Interdistrict Magnet School was finished late and came in 10 percent over budget. Today, it’s leaky, the climate-control system is faulty, […]
Domestic Dispute in Big Labor’s House
Despite the special interest handouts to Big Labor by politicians supported by construction trades unions at the local, state and federal level, trouble’s brewing in the fragile house of Big Labor. A TruthAboutPLAs.com reader sent me this sensational letter from Terry Nelson, executive secretary treasurer of the Carpenters’ Disctrict Council of Greater St. Louis and Vicinity. Nelson is outraged that […]
Milpitas City Library Project PLA: A “Model Of Success”
Big Labor and their allies often claim that wasteful and discriminatory project labor agreements (PLAs) guarantee that workers will be paid fair wages and ensure that contractors on covered projects follow the highest labor standards. Nevertheless, the Taxpayers Accountability Project of Associated Builders and Contractors, California Cooperation Committee (ABC-CCC) found at least 56 violations of […]