local legislation

Santa Fe Struggles to Implement CWA Mandate; Will Likely Delay Requirement’s Effective Date

0 June 13, 2012  State & Local Construction

Readers of this blog remember that earlier this year the Santa Fe City Council adopted a policy that requires the use of community workforce agreements (CWA) – a wasteful and discriminatory project labor agreement (PLA) by another name – on all city projects costing more than $500,000. Since this requirement was adopted, the city negotiated […]

READ MORE

Big Labor Claims Prove Unfounded

0 June 12, 2012  School Construction, State & Local Construction

In the wake of the overwhelming voter support for Proposition A, which bans government-mandated project labor agreements (PLAs) on city projects in San Diego, union boss Lorena Gonzalez has said repeatedly that Big Labor was outspent 7-1 by corporate interests supporting Proposition A. Here is a video of Gonzalez making the claim on a local […]

READ MORE

Project Labor Agreements: Not What We Need, Not What We Deserve

0 June 7, 2012  Federal Construction, Open Competition Works, School Construction, State & Local Construction, Transportation & Infrastructure

Today, Associated Builders and Contractors (ABC) released a new video explaining the negative impact of union-favoring government-mandated project labor agreements (PLAs) on taxpayers and the vast majority of the construction workforce that chooses not to join a labor organization. This video is just one more resource in the fight against wasteful government-mandated PLAs. Supporting facts […]

READ MORE

San Diego Area Voters Again Say No to PLA Mandates

0 June 7, 2012  State & Local Construction

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. […]

READ MORE

San Diego Union-Tribune: Vote for Prop. A – Don’t Let Bullies Win

0 May 16, 2012  State & Local Construction, Uncategorized

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 […]

READ MORE

California $16 Billion in the Red

0 May 13, 2012  State & Local Construction, Uncategorized

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 […]

READ MORE

California Lawmakers Pay Back Their Big Labor Allies, Take Steps to Deprive Charter Cities of Local Control

1 May 1, 2012  School Construction, State & Local Construction, Uncategorized

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 […]

READ MORE

Santa Fe City Council Adopts the State’s First PLA Mandate

1 April 2, 2012  State & Local Construction

There was a distributing development in Santa Fe, N.M., on Feb. 29, when the city council quietly adopted a policy requiring community workforce agreements (CWAs) on all projects costing more than $500,000. A community workforce agreement is no different than a wasteful and discriminatory project labor agreement (PLA); it just goes by another name. Washington, […]

READ MORE

“Skip the PLA”

0 March 30, 2012  School Construction, State & Local Construction, Uncategorized

Last week, we covered the numerous project labor agreement (PLA)-related events that have occurred in Connecticut in recent weeks. On Friday, March 23, Meriden Record-Journal op-ed writer Eric Cotton authored a strong piece urging the city not to require a wasteful and discriminatory PLA on two future school construction projects.  Here are the highlights from his […]

READ MORE