How Will Decline in Construction Union Membership Change Project Labor Agreement Debate?
A new report released today by the U.S. Department of Labor’s Bureau of Labor Statistics indicates that from 2008 to 2009, union membership in the U.S. private construction workforce fell from 15.6 percent to 14.5 percent. In 2009, just 958,000 members of the U.S. private construction workforce belonged to a labor union, compared to 1.195 million construction union […]
New Report Finds PLA Pension Requirements Steal From Employee Paychecks, Harm Employers and Taxpayers
A new study supports a key argument frequently made by nonunion employers and employees against government-mandated project labor agreements (PLAs): PLAs harm workers because they confiscate health and retirement benefits earned by nonunion employees working on PLA construction projects. An October 2009 report by Dr. John R. McGowan, “The Discriminatory Impact of Union Fringe Benefit […]
Washington Times: Obama Puts Union Strings on Federal Jobs with Project Labor Agreements
The Washington Times covered President Obama’s Executive Order 13502 and the bid protest filed this week with the Government Accountability Office by North Branch Construction, a Concord, N.H.-based general contractor and member of ABC (“Obama Puts Union Strings on Federal Jobs,” 10/7). The focus of the bid protest is a government-mandated project labor agreement (PLA) […]
Construction Union Pension Plans and Project Labor Agreements
A column in the Washington Examiner by Irwin Steltzer, a senior fellow and director of the Hudson Institute’s Center for Economic Studies, discusses how Big Labor’s push for the hallucinegenically-named Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA) is primarily a strategy to steady struggling union pension plans (“Irwin Stelzer: Unions need growth to save unfunded pensions,” 9/4). The article is […]
RedState.com: Barack Obama Sneaks Through “Union Only” Order Shutting 8 in 10 Construction Workers Out Of Federal Projects
RedState.com is the latest media outlet to expose Executive Order 13502, which encourages the use of project labor agreements (PLAs) on federal construction over $25 million. It is a handout to Big Labor at the expense of American taxpayers. In a September 1 post, RedState.com’s Erick Erickson calls the executive order “appalling and “an astonishing reach.” We […]
Construction Unions Posture for Pension Bailout?
Folks are talking pensions, an issue at the heart of the project labor agreement (PLA) debate. Following this 7/26 WSJ piece, yesterday Politco ran a plea for pension reform by Sheet Metal Workers International Association Union (SMWIA) President Michael Sullivan (“Time for true pension reform,” 7/29). “It is clearly time to overhaul our current pension system.” […]
WSJ says Union Pensions in the Red. Project Labor Agreements to the Rescue?
As TheTruthAboutPLAs.com has said before, one of the reasons construction unions push discriminatory and costly project labor agreements (PLAs) is because they are a windfall for their mismanaged and underfunded pension programs. The Wall Street Journal’s July 26 opinion piece, Union Pensions in the Red, exposed the inadequate funding levels of numerous union pension plans’ and lists Big […]
Update on Vegas Laborers Union Betting on PLA with Union Pension Money
A www.TheTruthAboutPLAs.com reader sent me a Las Vegas Sun follow-up story about the Laborers Local Union #872’s plans to gamble with nearly $80 million of union pension money to fund the construction of a new Las Vegas city hall (to be built with a union-only PLA, of course). We questioned this unwise use of union pension […]
Vegas Laborers Union Gambles with Union Pension Fund to Build a Union-Only Project
A Las Vegas Sun article demonstrates how the Laborers Union Local #872 is willing to gamble with their union’s pension fund in order to secure a union-only project labor agreement (PLA) on a new Las Vegas city hall (“Old Vegas-style financing offered for city hall,” 7/17). A spokesman for Laborers Local 872 said the union hopes to […]
Expert Advice: Beware of PLA Multiemployer Pension Plan Mandates
PLAs often require contractors to participate in union multi-employer pension programs mandated via applicable union collective bargaining agreements referenced in PLAs . Contributing to multi-employer pension plans is problematic for nonunion contractors for a variety of reasons highlighted here. An interesting article by Chang, Ruthenberg and Long Employee Benefit Attorneys warns employers about the problems with contributing […]