Detroit News Editorial Calls for Fair Bids
In an outstanding editorial published today (“Editorial: Fair Bids,” 12/7/10), the Detroit News calls on Michigan’s leaders to eliminate government-mandated project labor agreements (PLAs) on state, local and university projects in the state. Here are the highlights: The contractors association says that some state universities, community colleges and local units of government are requiring their […]
Lansing Developer Considering Legal Action Against City Council
In response to the Lansing City Council’s recent decision to put union handouts ahead of job creation, Michigan developer Pat Gillespie is considering legal action against the city. Last week, several members of the Lansing City Council demanded that Mr. Gillespie require contractors to sign wasteful and discriminatory project labor agreements (PLAs) on the over […]
Lansing City Council on Job Creation: We Don’t Need It
In a stunning move, the Lansing, MI City Council has decided to put political payback to powerful special interests ahead of creating jobs for local residents. This wouldn’t be THAT big of a deal, except the East Lansing-Lansing unemployment rate has jumped to over 10 percent. Major development plans for downtown Lansing are now delayed […]
Project Labor Agreements and Big Labor Fail at Local Job Creation
Big Labor bosses and government-mandated project labor agreement (PLA) advocates frequently claim that PLAs are the only way to guarantee local hire on construction projects funded by tax dollars. Of course, this is another myth promoted by special interests to convince lawmakers and taxpayers that there is a public benefit to anti-competitive and costly PLA […]
Editorial: Obama Doing Labor’s Bidding
Another newspaper editorial, this time The Detroit News, is critical of President Obama’s scheme to funnel federal construction contracts to Big Labor through project labor agreements (PLAs) via Executive Order 13502 (“Obama Doing Labor’s Bidding,” 5/17). “In Barack Obama’s Washington, a union card is a gold card. The president is skewing policy to give the 12 percent […]
Mackinac Center: Is MSU Hyping Project Labor Agreements
In an October 5 commentary titled, “Is MSU Hyping Project Labor Agreements,” Paul Kersey from the Mackinac Center for Public Policy wonders if an October 13 conference held by the Michigan State University (MSU) School of Labor and Industrial Relations is promoting PLAs without examining the wasteful and discriminatory impact of these special interest handouts. Here’s an excerpt: A […]
It’s Still Taxpayer Money!
The winner of the most absurd PLA-related quote of the week goes to a local official in Monroe, MI. The Monroe City Council was forced to accept a bid on a water main repair and rehabilitation project that was 12.7 percent or approximately $200,000 higher than the engineer’s estimate because it was the only bid […]
Ingham County PLA Proposal Passes with Merit Shop Concessions
We have written a few times about a Ingham County, Michigan PLA proposal before the Ingham County Board of Commissioners. On June 23, the board voted 13-2 to approve a policy requiring that PLAs be considered for county-financed construction jobs valued at $100,000 or more. Here are the details of the final proposal, according to this BNA […]
Update: Ingham County Commission Moves One Step Closer to Approving Wasteful and Discriminatory PLA Requirement
Despite efforts to educate Ingham County residents about wasteful and discriminatory union-only project labor agreements through television news coverage and by mail, the County Commission moved one step closer to requiring PLAs on county projects costing over $100,000. The Commission’s County Services Committee voted 4-2 in favor of an amended version of the PLA requirement […]
ABC Michigan Mailer Opposes Ingham County PLA Requirement Proposal
TheTruthAboutPLAs.com blogged (5/21) about TV news coverage of the Ingham County, Michigan proposed ordinance to require discriminatory and costly PLAs for county projects with labor costs over $100,000. Note: One wonders how an entity can determine labor costs prior to issuing competitive bids? The Lansing State Journal reports that ABC Michigan sent anti-PLA postcards to county residents […]