Union thugs like PLAs – because they shut everyone else out of bidding on public works
Leave it to the goofballs at the Fib OC blog to defend project labor agreeements. How is it fair to shut non-union contractors out of public works? Less than 16% of workers belong to unions, so PLA’s shut out the majority of our work force.
And if you think that PLAs give work to local labor, guess again. The unions end up trucking in outside workers.
Here is how the O.C. Register put it in an editorial, “On Tuesday, the Orange County Board of Supervisors dealt a blow to backroom union deals that squelch competition and raise costs for government public works projects.”
You want to know more about how PLAs increase the cost of public works, while screwing most workers? Click here to read the Truth About PLAs.
Union-only PLAs eliminate merit shop contractors from competing for and winning construction projects. Construction contracts subject to union-only PLAs are almost always awarded exclusively to unionized contractors and their all-union workforces.
According to the most recent data from the U.S. Department of Labor’s Bureau of Labor Statistics, only 15.6 percent of America’s private construction workforce belongs to a union. This means union-only PLAs would discriminate against more than eight out of 10 construction workers who would otherwise work on construction projects if not for a union-only PLA.
I could go on and on, but instead, here is what my old friend Eric Christen, who heads up the Coalition for Fair Employment in Construction, had to say about the move by the O.C. Supervisors to ban County PLAs:
History was formally made yesterday when the Orange County Board of Supervisors, in a 5-0 smack down vote, codified into law our Open Competition and Anti-Discrimination Ordinance (Read the ordinance for yourself HERE). Yesterday’s vote was needed in order to fulfill the County’s Second Reading requirements and followed last week’s First Reading.
Last week, with over 100 merit shop employees, contractors, and association reps in attendance, the Board voted 5-0 to move the issue to a Second Reading. Big Labor showed up in force last week as well (See HERE) and, as one supervisor told me afterwards, demonstrated a complete mastery of how not to persuade people. LOL.
From Big Labor Grand Poobah Richard Slawson using his three minutes of public comments to demonstrate his petulant childishness by referring to CFEC as “The Coalition for Un-Fair Employment in Construction” (get it?), to ACORN(!) actually showing their face in public to speak in support of Big Labor, the proponents of waste, fraud, and abuse were something to behold. Yesterday they threw another temper tantrum and showed up in force again (with rats) only to accomplish nothing except help us out by making sure they weren’t out doing bad things somewhere else. Thanks guys.
Also a special thanks to Associated Builders and Contractors (ABC) of California’s Kevin Dayton, ABC of Southern California’s Jackie Nutting and Sue McNeil, ABC of San Diego’s Bill Baber and Scott Crosby, the Western Electrical Contractors Association’s (WECA) Richard Markuson, and all those contractors and workers who took time to come and stand up for fairness. CFEC appreciated it and I know the Supervisors did as well!
How We Arrived Here
Two years ago I decided that it was time to put PLA proponents on the defensive and created a strategic plan titled Operation Permanent Offense (OPO). One of the tactics of OPO is to implement PLA-bans all over California. Building on our PLA-ban we had voted into place in Fresno in 2000, our Open Competition and Anti-Discrimination Ordinance has now been perfected, polled, and, having now been passed in the OC, is ready to be unveiled and/or voted on in municipalities all over the state (all union bosses on this email will have to work to find out where they all are). For instance the City of Chula Vista’s (San Diego County) voters will be voting on this ordinance in June of 2010 thanks to ABC of San Diego’s efforts to get more than enough signatures collected allowing it to be placed on the ballot. Our polling shows it at 70% in the polls which means Big Labor will have to steal at least $2 million from their workers to have any chance of defeating it. (For those who want to know how they can SUPPORT this effort more to come soon.) OPO will be ongoing and will require help from all freedom loving, fair-minded citizens across California.
But today is a time for celebration and to give thanks to the OC Supervisors for being brave enough to take the next big step (after Fresno) in our effort to ban this PLA plague. A special shout out especially goes to OC Supervisor John Moorlach who asked to take the lead on this issue and delivered. Please take time to thank him and the other four Supervisors by emailing them today. They can be reached at:
OC Supervisor Janet Nguyen – janet.nguyen@ocgov.com
OC Supervisor John Moorlach – john.moorlach@ocgov.com
OC Supervisor Bill Campbell – bill.campbell@ocgov.com
OC Supervisor Chris Norby – chris.norby@ocgov.com
OC Supervisor Patricia Bates – patbates@ocgov.com
This issue was covered heavily by various media outlets including the Los Angeles Times and Orange County Register (including a GREAT editorial!). Below are those links.
Yes great, another step towards lowering wages over all so we can compete with China and Mexico. ALso expect less quailty in the completed projects.
Yes in the short term money wil be saved, but when we hire more people at lower wages then the price of housing, consumer spending and the quality of work all decline.
Someone working for $15 an hour or less vs someone working for $20 or more cannot afford to spend extra on consumer goods, have less incentive to do quality work more incentive to make extra work so they can get overtime.
Why not just go down to home depot and hire everyone there at miniuin wage and turn them loose on these projects ?
That will cut costs even more, temporarly.
Same thing with these free trade agreements we signed years ago, we fail to think through the longer term expenses and problems.
This is just more of the same short sighted policies that are bankrupting the country.
Good PLA’s are possible that reduce costs if those who are working on them are tough when they make the deal
Jim-
Those are weak slippery slope arguments that rely on fallacious reasoning. There is no credible evidence that suggests that the absence of a PLA lowers wages or leads to poor construction quality.
Corruption, cronyism, and pay-to-play politics – issues that are at the heart of the PLA controversy – are responsible for bankrupting California and America.
Perhaps, but the less percentage of people represented by labor the lower wages seem to get overall and the more we become a have and have not society, the Middle Class is what made this country great and that was mostly because of unions. Henry Ford once said he needed to pay his people enought to buy the cars they were making or his company would fail.
Corruption, cronyism, and pay-to-play politics are a part of the current corrupt system, not having or having a PLA will not make a difference in that. I do not recall that AIG, the many different Loan Companies, the Heath Care Companies that got exceptions to laws, bailouts and no-bid medicare contracts under the republican medicare reform had any PLA’s or Unions involved.
If this is your solution to Corruption, cronyism, and pay-to-play politics I am afraid you are hopelessly barking up the wrong tree.
Public, taxpayer funded campaigns are the a way to begin to fight the election of bought and paid for Officials, there are very few that are not unfortunatelly.
Run once for office and win, let your phone ring and Joe is on the line. Joe was very helpful in getting you elected.
How do you tell Joe no, could you? could you really ? Even if it goes against your principles? How many people really could or would? That is the real world as it is.
I do agree that Corruption, cronyism, and pay-to-play politics are destroying the country, but simplistic solutions sold to you by those who are particapating in corruption, cronyism, and pay-to-play politics, are simply selling you a bill of goods so you will continue to look somewhere else for the problem
Jim,
Your union pals are lying! Guess what? All workers make the SAME money on public works projects, union or otherwise, due to prevailing wage laws.
As for quality, these projects have plans, schedules, etc. that you have to stick to – and regular inspections. And the workers, union or otherwise, all have been through similar on the job experience and education.
I teach for a non union apprenticeship program, so believe me I know a lot about this.
Lastly, if you do the research you will find that the projects with the most accidents and bad quality are large public works projects with PLAs, such as the Boston Big Dig. The unions won’t fess up to this, but do the research and you will find it to be true.
I am not anti union. In fact I belong to a teacher’s union. But PLAs are anti worker so I refuse to support them.
Then how does it save money having a PLA vs not having a PLA if all the wages and benefits are the same?
I am not assuming that all PLA’s are good or all PLA’s are bad. I am just convinced that labor unions overall are very important to the health and well being of the US.