Employee Says PLAs Obstruct Fair Play
An open shop employee’s letter to the Worcester Telegram (Mass.) editor was published today (“PLAs get in the way of fair play,” 5/4) “in response to a letter to the editor concerning a level playing field for unions.” Mr. Cote of Leominster writes: How can they call it fair play if I pay my taxes the […]
ABC Member Discusses Failing Union Pension Plans on Fox Business Network
TruthAboutPLAs.com readers familiar with provisions in wasteful and anti-competitive project labor agreements (PLAs) that force employers to contribute to failing union multi-employer pension plans on behalf of their employees have likely reviewed Required Reading on Multi-Employer Pension Plan Crisis. April 29, Fox Business Network’s Americas Nightly Scoreboard program invited the Small Business All-Stars to discuss Wall Street […]
Indentured Servitude in the USA and the Biggest Ponzi Scheme Ever
BigGovernment.com contributor and former Missouri state senator John Loudon offered his thoughts on the Obama Administration’s effort to encourage the use of wasteful and discriminatory project labor agreements (PLAs) on large-scale federal construction in a April 25 post titled, “Indentured Servitude in the USA and the Biggest Ponzi Scheme Ever.” Specifically, Mr. Loudon discussed how […]
Federal Contractor Debunks Big Labor Argument That Project Labor Agreements Are Only Road To High Wages and Benefits
Aleksandra Kulczuga’s article at The Daily Caller, “Obama Administration Hands Down Rule Limiting Contract Bidding to Union Shops,” interviews an employee of a federal and state contractor who debunks common pro-PLA arguments relying on the fallacy that PLAs guarantee high wages and benefits on federal construction projects: “As a public works company we’re already required to […]
Another Hidden PLA Problem: Apprentice Fringe Benefit Contributions
TheTruthAboutPLAs.com and ABC routinely field questions from contractors about the risks and dangers of signing project labor agreements (PLAs). This summary of a recent case by labor attorney David P. Wolds of the Wolds Law Group of San Diego, CA is yet another example of how a contractor trying their best to comply with the rigged procurement […]
Required Reading on Multi-Employer Pension Plan Crisis
Here is some required reading about Taft-Hartley plans and the problems facing multi-employer pension plans (MEPPs) by Frances Denmark at the Institutional Investor. Multiemployer Pension Plans Face Uncertain Future (pdf) A Hitchhiker’s Guide to Taft-Hartley (pdf) Update 8/19: Outstanding WSJ analysis in this editorial (8/15): “The Next Pension Bailout” (pdf) Readers can keyword search “pensions” to review […]
Metro Washington Council AFL-CIO President Argues McDonalds Employees Only Earn $50 an Hour
A quote in a recent Washington Business Journal article indicates that Joslyn Williams, president of the AFL-CIO Metropolitan Washington Council, believes McDonald’s employees earn $50 an hour (“Bill heats up battle over required use of union labor,” 2/28/10). “The city has to decide whether it wants people working on its construction projects to earn only ‘McDonald’s wages,’” said Joslyn Williams, […]
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 […]
Construction Union Pension Plans and Project Labor Agreements
A column in the Washington Examiner by Irwin Steltzer, a senior fellow and director of the Hudson Institute’s Center for Economic Studies, discusses how Big Labor’s push for the hallucinegenically-named Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA) is primarily a strategy to steady struggling union pension plans (“Irwin Stelzer: Unions need growth to save unfunded pensions,” 9/4). The article is […]
Construction Unions Posture for Pension Bailout?
Folks are talking pensions, an issue at the heart of the project labor agreement (PLA) debate. Following this 7/26 WSJ piece, yesterday Politco ran a plea for pension reform by Sheet Metal Workers International Association Union (SMWIA) President Michael Sullivan (“Time for true pension reform,” 7/29). “It is clearly time to overhaul our current pension system.” […]