PLAs

New Right to Work Podcast: How "Project Labor Agreements" Line Big Labor's Pockets

Will Collins — Wed, 21 Apr 2010 15:00:21 -0400

Right to Work President Mark Mix appeared on "The Gary Nolan Show" to explain how Project Labor Agreements enrich union bosses. Click here to listen or use the embedded player below:

Obama Administration Backs Down (For Now) Rather than Defend Discriminatory Project Labor Agreements

Will Collins — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 17:19:13 -0500

After only a few months in office, the Obama Administration issued a controversial executive order that encourages federal agencies to use discriminatory Project Labor Agreements (PLAs) when allocating lucrative government contracts. For those of you unfamiliar with the term, PLAs give unionized companies preferential access to government work, which allows federal agencies to pressure unwilling employers to turn their workers over to union bosses. Fortunately, the first federal PLA issued under this executive order has just been defeated in New Hampshire:

Administration Bureaucrats May Have Unethically Given Union Bosses Inside Information; Documents Demanded

Will Collins — Tue, 15 Sep 2009 18:09:21 -0400

Union officials are apparently getting inside information from the Administration, and the National Right to Work Foundation is demanding the documents to prove it.

Not long ago, the Foundation filed formal comments opposing the Obama Administration's attempt to push government contractors into Project Labor Agreements (PLAs), which discriminate against nonunion employees in favor of unionized contractors.

Right to Work On CNN: Obama Executive Orders Funnel Taxpayer Dollars into Union Bosses' Pockets

Will Collins — Fri, 27 Feb 2009 12:35:13 -0500

Foundation VP Stefan Gleason appeared on CNN Wednesday with Lou Dobbs as part of a piece on the Obama Administration's new Project Labor Agreement Executive Order, which discriminates against the vast majority of construction workers who have not chosen to unionize. The executive order is likely to result in hundreds of millions of dollars in new forced union dues, while jacking up the costs shouldered by taxpayers. Check it out:

Bittersweet End for Boston's Big Dig

Justin Hakes — Wed, 26 Dec 2007 10:04:48 -0500

America's most notorious union-only project labor agreement (PLA), Boston's "Big Dig," will come to completion with the end of 2007. What a bittersweet day for citizens of Boston. The Associated Press puts it this way:

"Don't expect any champagne toasts."

As also noted by the AP, the Big Dig's history was "littered with wrong turns" such as a major tunnel leak in 2004, as well as the tragic death of a motorist in 2006.

Financially, the Big Dig sapped taxpayers for $14.8 billion, over five and a half times the original cost estimate of $2.6 billion.

This train wreck of a public construction project should serve as "exhibit A" of the gluttonous waste inherent in PLAs. Such projects are also a "lose-lose" for employees that wish to remain nonunion because they are blackballed from working, as well as for the taxpayers forced to foot the bill.

Philly Rejects Union Blockade Against Minority Contractors

Justin Hakes — Fri, 07 Dec 2007 11:00:34 -0500

The Philadelphia Inquirer today reports:

Accusing trade unions of standing in the way of minority hiring objectives, City Council yesterday declared the $700 million Convention Center expansion open to nonunion contractors and workers - an unprecedented gesture in a city dominated by organized labor.

Union officials commonly shut out minority and nonunion contractors from such projects through so-called "project labor agreements." These cynical pacts require all contractors, whether they are unionized or not, to subject themselves and their employees to unionization in order to work on a government-funded construction project.

For more information on the harmful effects of PLAs, see this study from the National Institute for Labor Relations Research.