Why Are Project Labor Agreements Popular with Corrupt, Mismanaged, Fiscally Irresponsible Governments?
In California, project labor agreements (PLAs) go hand-in-hand with incompetent, unaccountable governments. Find a school district with low test scores that is close to bankruptcy. Or find a local government with a massive budget deficit and huge unfunded pension liability for its public employees. Or find a local government that holds its elections on oddball […]
Same Principles, Different Place: PLAs in California’s Inland Empire
Reporters for the Riverside Press-Enterprise newspaper connected the dots and exposed how construction unions are now trying to use project labor agreements to win control of projects in San Bernardino and Riverside Counties (known as the “Inland Empire” region of California). The March 20, 2010 article “Project Labor Agreements Spark Debate at Three Inland Agencies […]
The Truth About Taxpayer Funded State University “Labor Institutes”
Most of the academic “studies” published in support of Project Labor Agreements (PLAs) are produced by state university “labor institutes” with close connections to labor unions and convenient funding from taxpayers. One of the most notorious is the University of California Labor Institute, established in 2000 at the behest of the California Labor Federation. This […]
Update: PLAs Are About Politics: the California Experience
After twelve years of fighting Project Labor Agreements (PLAs) at local governments in California, I’ve developed a set of axioms based on my experiences. One of these axioms is that PLAs are about politics, not logic. After all, what kind of logic would lead an elected official to establish work conditions that would discourage perfectly […]