Out of Nowhere: Project Labor Agreement and Community Benefit Agreement Tacked on End of Motion for New Sacramento Kings Basketball Arena
On March 6, when Sacramento City Councilman Robert King Fong made the motion to the Sacramento City Council for approval of a new $391 million arena for the Sacramento Kings professional basketball team, he generally read the posted agenda item verbatim, but then tacked on an additional, obviously pre-prepared provision out of nowhere: …and lastly, […]
County Hospitals Are Prime Targets for Project Labor Agreements: Ventura County is the Latest in California
The first government-mandated project labor agreement (PLA) in California (following the Boston Harbor decision at the U.S. Supreme Court) was imposed in the spring of 1994 by the Contra Costa County Board of Supervisors for a county hospital construction project. Last year, unions managed to squeak out (on a 3-2 vote) their first PLA for […]
Scandal-Tainted California Politician Voted for Project Labor Agreements in Two Different Lives!
This story is not unusual in California nowadays: an ambitious elected official is tangled up in a bizarre personal incident (see Supervisor Nadia Lockyer, Wife of California Treasurer, Acknowledges Substance Abuse, Affair – Contra Costa Times/Bay Area News Group – February 14, 2012). But this case is noteworthy from the perspective of TheTruthaboutPLAs.com because the elected […]
Airport Authority Continues Big Labor Favors on Dulles Metro Silver Line
Last week, the Metropolitan Washington Airport Authority (MWAA) gave Big Labor Bosses a generous Valentine’s Day gift. On Wednesday, MWAA passed a resolution adopting a new policy needlessly favoring contractors that submit proposals promising to use a union project labor agreement (PLA) to construct Phase 2 of the $2.8 billion Silver Line metro extension project […]
Minnesota Vikings to Require PLA on Upcoming Stadium Project
On Feb. 6, the Minnesota Vikings signed an agreement with the Minnesota Building and Construction Trade Division (BCTD), AFL-CIO to require contractors to sign a project labor agreement (PLA) on the upcoming construction of their new stadium. This will ensure that nearly all of the construction jobs on the project will go to union workers—leaving […]
PLA Mandates, Right-to-Work in Indiana and the Super Bowl
It is an exciting week in Indiana and not all of the action is on the football field. While the Giants and the Patriots prepared for their Super Bowl match-up, Indiana’s state government took steps to guarantee Hoosiers the opportunity to work without having to pay dues to a labor union. On Wednesday, Gov. Mitch […]
President’s SOTU Remarks About Construction Industry Raise Questions
In last night’s State of the Union address, President Obama made some remarks about the construction industry: “Building this new energy future should be just one part of a broader agenda to repair America’s infrastructure. So much of America needs to be rebuilt. We’ve got crumbling roads and bridges. A power grid that wastes too […]
Maryland County Says NO to PLA Mandates
State and local leaders continue to say NO to wasteful and discriminatory project labor agreement (PLA) mandates. The latest to do so is Anne Arundel County, MD, where local leaders adopted a ban on government-mandated PLAs on January 17. Maryland joins California, Texas and Pennsylvania as states in which local government entities have approved […]
Federal PLA on Navy Project in Washington Will Harm Local Construction Workforce and Procurement Efficiency
Naval Facilities Engineering Command (NAVFAC) Northwest has mandated a project labor agreement (PLA) on the construction of a $450 million to $550 million explosives handling wharf #2 (Solicitation No. N4425511R9004) at Naval Base Kitsap-Bangor in Washington. The PLA mandate harms Washington’s experienced and skilled nonunion construction workforce and will discourage competition from qualified contractors that have […]
California Union Boss/Community College District Trustee Not Big on Disclosure
It isn’t hard to see that Big Labor is engaged in an organized effort to get union bosses elected and appointed to local governing entities, i.e. school boards, community college commissions, county councils, etc. This strategy has paid dividends in a number of communities, where labor leaders have pushed these governing bodies into requiring wasteful […]