Boston Globe: Patrick Shouldn’t Bar Non-Union Workers on Longfellow Bridge
Two taxpayer-funded bridge projects in Mass. illustrates the stark contrast between the benefits of fair and open competition versus anti-competitive and costly government-mandated project labor agreements (PLAs) advanced by well-connected special interests.
Boston Herald: End Unpopular Pacts
The Boston Herald published another editorial opposed to government-mandated project labor agreements (PLAs) last week. It longed for the day Mass. officials enact legislation ensuring that all qualified contractors and their skilled employees have a fair opportunity to compete and win state-funded construction contracts (“End Unpopular Pacts,” 7/27/11): The Wall Street Journal recently tallied up the […]
ABC Members Testify in Support of Legislation Restoring Fairness in Federal Contracting
On June 3, the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee’s Technology, Information Policy, Intergovernmental Relations and Procurement Reform Subcommittee held a hearing, “H.R. 735 and Project Labor Agreements: Restoring Competition and Neutrality to Government Construction Projects.” The subcommittee, chaired by Rep. James Lankford (R-Okla.), heard testimony about the negative impact of President Obama’s controversial Executive Order 13502 […]
New Billboard Tells Gov. Patrick to Halt the Assault on Taxpayers
The Massachusetts Chapter of Associated Builders and Contractors (ABC) has launched a new billboard telling Gov. Deval Patrick (D) to halt the assault on Massachusetts small business. In June, the UMass Building Authority approved a requirement that all construction contractors must enter into a wasteful project labor agreement (PLA) with Big Labor in order to […]
Malkin: We Don’t Need to Theorize About How this Shakedown Works
In a breakdown of President Obama’s new $50 billion infrastructure construction proposal, commentator Michelle Malkin tells her readers something that we’ve been saying for quite some time: that all workers are not created equal to President Obama. In February 2009, President Obama issued Executive Order 13502, which encourages agencies to require the use of wasteful […]
Ethics Complaint Raises Questions About UMass Crony Contracting Scheme
Yesterday, The Boston Globe reported that a group of nonunion contractors filed a complaint with the State Ethics Commission alleging that a project labor agreement (PLA) favoring union labor on $750 million worth of construction at the UMass Boston campus violated the state’s conflict of interest law when it was approved by a board that includes two […]
No Union Advantage, Gov. Patrick?
h/t Red Mass Group The Boston Herald editorial board summarized this doublespeak nicely (“A Labored Response,” 7/8): Gov. Deval Patrick yesterday seemed baffled by the notion that unions have any advantage in the competition for certain public construction jobs. He should read his own public comments more closely. During his monthly radio appearance on WTKK […]
Boston Globe Editorial Opposes UMass Project Labor Agreement
A Boston Globe editorial opposes the anti-competitive and costly government-mandated project labor agreement (PLA) on $750 million worth of Umass-Boston construction projects (“Public benefits don’t justify labor deal on Umass project,” 7/5). It comes on the heels of intense media coverage, op-eds and editorials in Massachusetts newspapers of the Umass PLA and The Boston Globe columnist Jeff Jacoby’s sharp criticism of […]
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.
Boston Globe Columnist: Labor Agreements Make No Sense
The Boston Globe columnist Jeff Jacoby blasts Mass. Gov. Patrick’s support of anti-competitive and costly government-mandated project labor agreements (PLAs) on Umass-Boston construction projects (“Labor agreements make no sense,” 6/27). THIS IS the kind of thing, Charlie Baker was saying one day last week, that “makes people crazy about state government.’’ The Republican gubernatorial candidate was […]