Prisons

Do PLAs Reward Special Interests?

0 March 9, 2010  State & Local Construction, Uncategorized

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 […]

READ MORE

Delays and Increased Construction Costs Plague PA Prison

0 March 4, 2010  State & Local Construction, Uncategorized

Pennsylvania’s Graterford Prison project labor agreement (PLA) controversy is in the Philadelphia newspapers again. No progress has been made on the construction of this important project. Looking for something to blame? It’s the PLA, stupid! Looking for someone to blame? Blame Big Labor’s lobbyists for pushing costly, job-killing special interest PLAs and blame public officials for allowing these […]

READ MORE

Pennsylvania State Senator Lloyd Smucker On PLAs

0 February 23, 2010  State & Local Construction, Uncategorized

Pennsylvania Senator Lloyd Smucker got a chance to offer his thoughts on wasteful and discriminatory project labor agreements (PLAs) at a Feb. 16 Senate Appropriations Committee hearing with Department of General Services (DGS) Secretary James Creedon and Dep. Secretary for Procurement/Appropriations Anne Rung. As regular readers recall, DGS lead on effort on behalf of the […]

READ MORE

Pennsylvania: An Unequal Employer

1 November 18, 2009  State & Local Construction, Uncategorized

Commonwealth Foundation fellow Adam Cole published a great commentary discussing wasteful and discriminatory project labor agreements (PLAs) on November 17 titled, “Pennsylvania: An Unequal Employer” While this commentary covers many of the main arguments against these Big Labor handouts, that government-mandated PLAs increase construction costs and discriminates against women, minorities and nonunion construction workers, it […]

READ MORE

Op-Ed: Give PA and U.S. Project Labor Agreement Policies the Heave-Ho

0 November 13, 2009  Federal Construction, Uncategorized

An op-ed in The York Dispatch draws parallels between the controversy over open competition legislation in PA and President Obama’s pro-PLA Executive Order 13502 (Think Pa.’s Discriminatory Labor Agreements Are Bad? Check Out Obama’s, 11/12). Here is an excerpt: Pennsylvania’s Department of General Services (DGS) has tried to require them [PLAs] on about $800 million […]

READ MORE

Discriminatory PLAs Must End: Taxpayers Deserve Better

0 October 29, 2009  State & Local Construction, Uncategorized

Pennsylvania’s York Dispatch ran an excellent Op-Ed from PA Rep. Stan Saylor (94th District in York County) and Rep. John C. Bear (97th District in Lancaster County) opposing the Rendell administration’s corrupt attempt to reward one of its largest political contributors — Big Labor — with lucrative state construction contracts via project labor agreements (PLAs) (“Discriminatory PLAs must end; […]

READ MORE

Lancaster New Era Editorial: Level The Playing Field On Contracts

1 October 22, 2009  State & Local Construction, Uncategorized

In an October 22 editorial titled, “Level the Playing Field on Contracts,” the Lancaster (PA) New Era voices its support for Representative John Bear’s H.B. 2010, which prohibits the use of wasteful and discriminatory project labor agreements on taxpayer-funded projects in Pennsylvania. The editorial is so good that we’ve decided to post it in its […]

READ MORE

Endangered Species Billboards On Display in Harrisburg

0 October 21, 2009  State & Local Construction, Uncategorized

The campaign to save Pennsylvania’s most endangered species – the nonunion construction worker – has two new billboards on display in Harrisburg. These billboards are part of the “Save His Endangered Job” campaign to prevent wasteful and discriminatory project labor agreements on public construction in Pennsylvania. We encourage everyone to visit their website (www.theendangeredspecies.org).  Additionally, […]

READ MORE

Save The Endangered Species!

1 October 20, 2009  State & Local Construction, Uncategorized

The fight to save Pennsylvania’s most endangered species is on!  Big Labor is trying to drive Pennsylvania’s nonunion construction workforce into extinction. But the merit shop construction industry and 80 percent of Pennsylvania’s private construction workforce locked out of public construction work by discriminatory and costly government-mandated project labor agreements (PLAs) are fighting back! The “Save the […]

READ MORE

Pittsburgh Tribune-Review Editorial: The Project Labor Agreement Shakedown

0 October 12, 2009  Federal Construction, Uncategorized

The Pittsburgh Tribune-Review ran a scathing editorial about project labor agreements (PLAs) in light of the controversy surrounding Executive Order 13502 and the government-mandated PLA on the new U.S. Department of Labor Job Corps Center in Manchester, New Hampshire (“The PLA Shakedown,” 10/11). PLAs pervertedly are touted as giving taxpayers more bang for their buck. […]

READ MORE