Told You So: Project Labor Agreement on Connecticut High School Increased Costs and Reduced Competition
In 2012, the merit shop contracting community and city employees predicted Meriden, Conn., would face increased costs and reduced competition if the city council mandated a union-favoring project labor agreement (PLA) on $220 million worth of contracts to renovate two local high schools. (TheTruthAboutPLAs.com covered the controversy here and here). Despite the warnings, testy public […]
Data Busts Myth that Project Labor Agreements Result in Increased Local Hiring
Special interest groups are in the business of convincing government officials and taxpayers there is a public benefit to anti-competitive and costly government-mandated project labor agreements (PLAs), which create jobs exclusively for unionized construction workers and steer huge public construction contracts primarily to well-connected unionized contractors. In particular, proponents of government-mandated PLAs push an unsubstantiated […]
Boston Globe Editorial Blasts Government-Mandated Project Labor Agreements and Patrick Administration
An editorial in today’s Boston Globe decimates flimsy arguments in favor of government-mandated project labor agreements (PLAs) and skewers Mass. Gov. Deval Patrick (D) for requiring PLAs on major state projects, including the Whittier Memorial Bridge, which TheTruthAboutPLAs.com covered last week (“Project labor agreements: Mass. taxpayers lose again,” 7/24/12): Although it lacks any compelling reasons for doing so, […]
Data Shows Project Labor Agreement on Phase 2 of Silver Line Could Hurt Virginia’s Construction Industry
New evidence suggests a union-favoring project labor agreement (PLA) on Phase 1 of the Silver Line Metrorail project may be responsible for the creation of fewer jobs for Virginia’s construction workforce. Dulles Transit Partners (DTP), the prime contractor building Phase 1 of the Silver Line, recently shared data with the Metropolitan Washington Airport Authority (MWAA), the […]
Virginia Passes Law Curtailing Government-Mandated Project Labor Agreement Schemes
In a win for taxpayers and Virginia’s merit shop construction industry, on April 9, Gov. Bob McDonnell (R) signed the Fair and Open Competition in Government Contracting Act (HB 33) into law. H.B. 33 prohibits the Commonwealth of Virginia and recipients of state assistance from mandating project labor agreements (PLAs) and enacting PLA preferences discriminating […]
Labor Department to Mandate Controversial Project Labor Agreement on Manchester Job Corps Center
The U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) issued a pre-solicitation on Dec. 22, 2011, for a $20 million to $50 million DOL Job Corps Center in Manchester, New Hampshire, indicating the project will be subject to an anti-competitive and costly project labor agreement (PLA) mandated by the DOL. Bidding is open only to certified small business […]
Philly Mayor Opens Door to Waste and Discrimination with Pro-PLA Executive Order
Philadelphia Mayor Michael A. Nutter issued Executive Order 15-11 on Nov. 29, 2011, re-establishing the use of anti-competitive and costly union-favoring government-mandated project labor agreements (PLAs) on city projects costing more than $5 million. According to Philly’s press release, the order does not mandate PLAs on all projects, but it creates a PLA evaluation procedure that opens the door […]
San Diego Unified School District PLA Fails to Meet Local Hiring Goals
Longtime readers of this blog remember that a PLA requirement was adopted by the San Diego Unified School District for all projects funded by Proposition S, a $2.1 billion voter-approved school construction bond. We have already seen this PLA requirement lead to expensive cost increases. Media reports now find that projects covered by the PLA […]
ABC Virginia Tells MWAA Phase 2 Metro Rail Construction Project Labor Agreement Scheme Will Increase Costs and Hurt Virginia’s Construction Workforce
The Virginia Chapter of Associated Builders and Contractors (ABC VA) continues to raise objections to the Metropolitan Washington Airport Authority’s (MWAA) resolution mandating a union-favoring project labor agreement (PLA) on $3.5 billion worth of Phase 2 construction for the Dulles Metro Rail Project. On Friday, ABC VA sent a letter (pdf) to MWAA chair Charles Snelling […]
Solving Euclid’s Project Labor Agreement Problem
Corruption, Big Labor’s powerful special interest lobby, a change in Ohio’s political leadership, and poorly researched and half-baked public policy are all variables in a complicated equation the people of Euclid, Ohio, are desperate to solve. In November 2009, Euclid City School District voters barely passed Issue #105 – a $40.3 million bond measure (see election results […]