They Cost Taxpayers Money! A union-only Project Labor Agreement (PLA) is a discriminatory addition to a construction project, effectively precluding merit shop contractors from competing for construction work. Construction contracts subject to PLAs are almost always awarded exclusively to union contracting firms and their all-union workforces. By limiting bidding to union-only contractors, project owners are forced to use only union workers, pay in to union coffers, and follow inefficient union work rules. By denying open-shop contractors the right to bid, costs for projects with PLAs dramatically rise, including public projects paid for with your tax dollars! Far from their claim of eliminating waste, these union-only contracts guarantee such waste by forcing open-shop contractors to adopt inefficient union work practices and use unfamiliar workers.
According to the most recent data from the United States Department of Labor’s Bureau of Labor Statistics, only 15.6% of America’s private construction workforce belongs to a union. This means that union-only PLAs effectively discriminate against more than eight out of ten construction workers, driving up the cost of these projects.
The next time you see that your elected officials are considering attaching a Project Labor Agreement on a construction project paid for by your tax dollars, speak up because it's costing you more!
by Eileen Watt, President
ABC strongly opposes union-only project labor agreements (PLAs) on public construction projects.
Union-only PLAs drive up the cost of construction by reducing competition and effectively exclude merit shop contractors from working on projects paid for by their own tax dollars.
A union-only PLA is a pre-hire contract that requires projects be awarded only to contractors and subcontractors that agree to:
- recognize unions as the representatives of their employees on that job
- use the union hiring hall to obtain workers
- obtain apprentices exclusively from union apprenticeship programs
- pay into underfunded and mismanaged union benefit plans
- obey costly, restrictive and inefficient union work rules
For more information about Project Labor Agreements, click here.