Waterbury Board of Education Gives Taxpayers Half a Loaf of Good Government
In a head fake in the direction of good government, the Waterbury, CT Board of Education rejected proposals requiring contractors to enter into wasteful and discriminatory project labor agreements (PLAs) with union bosses on 2 of 3 upcoming school construction projects totaling $105 million in taxpayer funds. Unfortunately, the board did approve a PLA requirement […]
Letter to the Editor: Writer Won’t be Intimidated by Pro-Union Threat
In a July 27 letter to the editor written by Mary Alford of Bristol, CT and published by the Bristol Press, Ms. Alford describes her experience testifying against Big Labor and their effort to persuade local officials to require wasteful and discriminatory project labor agreements on local school construction projects. Here is an excerpt from Ms. Alford’s […]
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, […]
“For us it’s a Preference Labor Agreement”
An October 19 article in the New Haven Independent titled, “Protesters: Hire More Black Workers,” notes recent protests in the New Haven, CT area over the discriminatory nature of project labor agreements (PLAs). Here’s an excerpt: [Alan] Felder said that the Project Labor Agreement (PLA) signed by all unions working on city school construction allows […]
State and Local PLA News Roundup: July 12-18
While much of this week’s attention focued on Obama administration attempts to encourage federal department and agency heads to utilize wasteful and discriminatory union-only project labor agreements, there have been PLA developments at the state and local levels that warrent attention as well. In Trumbull, CT subcontractors for the Trumbull High School renovation/reconstruction project have been selected. The local construction unions’ are […]
San Diego-Union Tribune Publishes “The PLA Plague” Editorial
During the past 10 years, many of California’s daily newspapers (including the Sacramento Bee, Oakland Tribune, Contra Costa Times, Orange County Register and San Diego Union-Tribune) have published editorials denouncing Project Labor Agreements (PLAs) proposed at local governments for public works projects. This is no surprise: anyone who looks objectively at how PLAs are promoted […]
Op-Ed: Open CT Projects to Merit Shop Labor
Today the Hartford Courant ran an Op-Ed by ABC Connecticut Chapter President Lelah Campo about the need for Connecticut to ban union-only PLAs on projects that receive funding, assistance, grants and other financial support from Connecticut. YOUR VIEW: LELAH CAMPO Open Government Projects to Nonunion Labor Hartford Courant, May 5, 2009 With Gov. M. Jodi […]
CT DOT Official: Project Labor Agreements Limit Pool of Prospective Bidders
According to this 5/3 New Haven Register article, Connecticut International Union of Operating Engineers Local 478 President Benedict Cozzi is upset that local union workers do not have a monopoly on the labor needed to build foundations for the Pearl Harbor Memorial Bridge, also known as the Q Bridge, in New Haven, CT. Merit shop contractors and subcontractors are building the […]
Project Labor Agreement Basics: PLAs Increase the Cost of Construction
If you read the last post, you have learned how PLAs discourage competition from merit shop contractors. Fact: PLAs effectively eliminate merit shop contractors and their employees from working on PLA construction projects. So how does this fact impact construction owners and taxpayers? Academic studies overwhelmingly show that union-only PLAs increase construction costs between 10 […]