Money For Nothin’
Bret Jacobson, a blogger on BigGovernment.com, reminds readers (Our Dire Straits: Money For Nothin’, 12/9/10) of a story reported earlier this week about taxpayer waste on the renovation of the Lafayette Federal Building in downtown Washington D.C. As regular readers remember, the U.S. General Services Administration (GSA) paid a federal contractor at least $3.3 million as […]
Millions of Stimulus Dollars Wasted on Lafayette Building’s Project Labor Agreement Gift to Big Labor
How much does a government-mandated project labor agreement (PLA) add to a $52.3 million construction project funded by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA) in Washington, D.C.? At least $3.3 million. That’s the cost of a change order the U.S. General Services Administration (GSA) paid to a federal contractor to ensure renovations to the […]
Spotlight on Big Labor’s ‘Middle Class’ Task Force
A piece by Washington Examiner Commentary Staff Writer Mark Hemingway argues that the, “White House’s Middle Class Task Force is nothing but a shibboleth for instituting a number of expensive pro-union regulatory reforms…” (“Big Labor’s ‘Middle Class’ Task Force,” 4/19). TheTruthAboutPLAs.com reported March 3 that the Feb. 26 report from the White House Middle Class Task […]
More Required Reading: April 14 Media on Obama’s Project Labor Agreement Final Rule
The public continues to cover the Obama administration’s controversial final rule encouraging federal agencies to require project labor agreements (PLAs) on federal construction projects costing more than $25 million. It’s a sop to Big Labor that is sure to increase construction costs, cut competition and inject some Chicago-style cronyism into the federal construction procurement process. A Washington […]
Big Labor’s Push for PLAs in Charm City Heats Up
Big Labor’s push for wasteful and discriminatory project labor agreements (PLAs) on city-funded construction in Baltimore City is kicking into high gear. We expect Baltimore City Councilman Bill Henry to introduce legislation today that would require “community partnership agreements” on construction projects that receive city financial support. This comes two weeks after a similar proposal […]
GSA Admits Jumping the Gun with PLA Gift to Unions?
Washington Examiner Beltway Confidential columnist Barbara Hollingsworth covered the controversial project labor agreement (PLA) on a federal construction project in Washington, D.C. that has been in the news (GSA Admits Jumping the Gun with PLA Gift to Unions, 12/28). The General Services Administration admitted it made a mistake when it placed a non-competitive, cost-raising, union-pleasing Project Labor Agreement […]
Jerry Gorski: White House Prevents Competition in Construction
Today’s Washington Examiner ran an outstanding Op-Ed questioning President Obama’s Executive Order 13502 and the White House’s support of discriminatory and costly project labor agreements (PLAs) from Jerry Gorski, president of Gorski Engineering in Collegeville, Pa. and the 2009 National Chairman of Associated Builders and Contractors. President Obama and many others are using popular words like “choice” and […]
More Coverage of Federal Project Labor Agreement in New Hampshire
The media continues to take interest in the government-mandated project labor agreement (PLA) on the U.S. Department of Labor’s new $35 million Job Corps center in Manchester, New Hampshire The Concord Monitor ran a piece that features a quote from a qualified New Hampshire nonunion business, demonstrating that a PLA cuts competition (“Builder Confronts Union Law,” […]
More on Union Pensions
Yesterday I wrote about how pension provisions in typical PLAs: Hurt retirement for non-union workers. Employer retirement contributions into union pension plans on behalf of non-union workers are forfeited unless workers join a union. Keep underfunded and mismanaged union pension plans afloat. Expose contractors to underfunded multi-employer pension withdrawal liability. Increase costs to construction users because […]
Construction Unions Push PLAs to Save Underfunded Union Pension Plans
A piece in The Washington Examiner (“Almost half of top unions have underfunded pension plans,” 6/7) reports that some major construction labor unions have underfunded pension plans. This is relevant to the PLA debate because PLAs typically force non-union employers and their employees to contribute to union pension funds for time worked on a PLA project. Readers may […]