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 […]
Boston Globe Op-Ed: Obama Kowtows to Labor Unions with Project Labor Agreements
An Op-Ed critical of President Obama’s pro-project labor agreement (PLA) Executive Order 13502 by David G. Tuerck, chairman and professor of economics and executive director of the Beacon Hill Institute (BHI) at Suffolk University, ran in today’s Boston Globe (“Obama Kowtows to Labor Unions,” 10/7). Professor Tuerck, author of a new BHI study called “Project Labor Agreements […]
Federal Times “This Week” News Brief: Project Labor Pacts Boost Costs, Study Finds
Federal Times, the premier news source for federal government managers, covered the September 23 release of the Beacon Hill Institute’s (BHI) study, “Project Labor Agreements on Federal Construction Projects: A Costly Solution in Search of a Problem,” in their September 28 “This Week” news briefs. The BHI study found that PLAs significantly increase construction costs on […]
Boston Herald Editorial Calls Project Labor Agreements Political Payback to Big Labor
Sunday the Boston Herald editorial board wrote a piece summarizing the latest study on costly and anti-competitive project labor agreements (PLAs) on federal construction projects from the Beacon Hill Institute (BHI) and agreed with one of the BHI’s key conclusions about PLAs (“Political Payback,” 9/27). The institute’s latest report on PLAs casts doubt on the only rationale for the agreements […]
New Study Calls Federal Project Labor Agreements a Costly Solution in Search of a Problem
A news release issued yesterday by the Beacon Hill Institute (BHI) promotes a new study that is critical of federal government-mandated Project Labor Agreements (PLAs) and President Obama’s Executive Order 13502. The study found that PLAs, which are encouraged on federal construction projects costing more than $25 million via President Obama’s Feb. 6 executive order, will “significantly increase construction […]
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 […]
New Evidence Shows Project Labor Agreements Will Injure Competition
On July 15, 2009, ABC’s weekly electronic publication, Newsline, conducted an electronic poll of Newsline subscribers about the impact of government mandated project labor agreements (PLAs) on bidding for public construction projects. The poll remained open until July 22, 2009 and readers were asked to respond to this question: “Would you be more likely or […]