Another PLA Myth Busted: PLAs Fail to Prevent Strikes on NYC Projects
Construction unions market project labor agreements (PLAs) to public and private construction owners as a tool to guarantee labor peace on construction projects. But recent examples of strikes and walkouts on PLA projects in NYC and other areas across the U.S. call into question the value of these anti-competitive schemes designed steer contracts to union contractors and union […]
WSJ Editorial: Government-mandated PLAs “Deserve to be Outlawed”
The title says it all and we completely agree! The editorial board at The Wall Street Journal has again come out against wasteful and discriminatory government-mandated PLAs. Here are the highlights from the editorial (“Project Labor Revolt: The states ban union political bid-rigging. Obama demurs,” 7/19/11): One benefit of the squeeze on state and local […]
Indiana Senate Poised to Consider Open Competition Law
With the full Indiana Senate in a position to consider S.B. 333, which would prohibit the use of wasteful and discriminatory project labor agreements (PLAs) on state projects, rhetoric on all sides has started to heat up. Eric Schansberg from the Indiana Policy Institute shared some fantastic insight into the real impact of PLAs with readers […]
Do Project Labor Agreements Ensure Compliance with Labor Laws?
It is a myth that anti-competitive government-mandated project labor agreements (PLAs) — schemes public officials beholden to Big Labor’s special interests execute to funnel lucrative public construction contracts to unionized contractors and union members in return for continued political support — ensure compliance with labor and employment laws and regulations.
An audit found violations by 55 contractors working on a $150 million Los Angeles Unified School District high school under construction in San Fernando, Calif., subject to a government-mandated PLA. The violations include failure to pay prevailing wages and inadequate supervision of apprentices. Four of the contractors had expired or suspended licenses.
The audit results demonstrate contractors working under a government-mandated PLA violate labor laws, yet PLA proponents frequently perpetuate the myth that a PLA prevents labor law infractions on PLA projects. This example shows how the presence of a PLA does little to ensure compliance with labor laws and the arguments in support of PLA mandates are weak.
Do PLAs Reward Special Interests?
TheTruthAboutPLAs.com has long maintained that government-mandated project labor agreements (PLAs) are one of the purest forms of payback to special interests. Sometimes it is hard to believe that PLAs are even legal. And as this example will demonstrate, elected officials go to great lengths to justify their paybacks to special interests. Matthew J. Brouillette, president […]
Poll: MA Public Opposes Key Mandate of PLAs
According to a press release by the Beacon Hill Institute at Suffolk University, in Boston Mass., a new poll of Massachusetts voters indicates the public opposes a key provision of typical PLAs. A new survey conducted by the Suffolk University Political Research Center for the Beacon Hill Institute shows that 69% of Massachusetts voters oppose a […]
PLAs Are Political Payback To Big Labor
There is a textbook example of PLAs being used as political payback to Big Labor from politicians that need union support brewing in Iowa right now. This is a story about America’s most politically endangered incumbent governor and the unrealized dreams of one special interest group – Big Labor. When Democrats took over Iowa’s state […]
Domestic Dispute in Big Labor’s House
Despite the special interest handouts to Big Labor by politicians supported by construction trades unions at the local, state and federal level, trouble’s brewing in the fragile house of Big Labor. A TruthAboutPLAs.com reader sent me this sensational letter from Terry Nelson, executive secretary treasurer of the Carpenters’ Disctrict Council of Greater St. Louis and Vicinity. Nelson is outraged that […]
Imperial County Supervisors Reject Big Labor’s Monopoly Scam Disguised as Green Jobs Program
The Imperial County Board of Supervisors (California) rejected a wasteful and discriminatory project labor agreement requirement as part of a green job training and weatherization/retrofit program at their December 22 meeting. Here is Associated Builders and Contractors – San Diego Chapter’s press release: Imperial County Supervisors Reject Big Labor’s Monopoly Scam Disguised as Green Jobs […]
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) […]