Pandering to Unions Doesn't Pay

By Art Pedroza

A Primer on Project Labor Agreements

The basis of the lawsuit is that the project labor agreement (PLA) passed by the RSCCD, and signed onto by the named unions, violated the federal Fitzgerald Act, which requires states to treat union and non-union apprentices equally on a non-discriminatory basis.

The apprentices who filed the suit belong to a state-approved apprenticeship program, a program the Rancho PLA does not recognize. The suit is currently pending settlement of related suits that are pending in the 9th Circuit Court.

There is never a good reason to pass a union-only project labor agreement, or PLA. These measures serve only to bar non-union contractors from bidding on public works projects; they accomplish nothing positive for taxpayers, public utilities, or anyone else outside of a handful of trade unions.

Nevertheless, over the years we have seen PLAs crop up even here in Orange County, and as expected they have been a negative return for public stakeholders. Nativo Lopez, a trustee on the Santa Ana Unified School Board, was recalled after he forced passage of a PLA. As is typically the case, a bond measure had been passed by voters to fund construction of new schools. Project costs soared under the PLA, which the board eventually cancelled.

There is word now that a second bond measure may be presented to voters, in order to get the money to finish some of the planned projects that floundered under the PLA. Voters should insist that any future bond measures should be protected from a PLA yet to come.

Cynthia Coad, the former Chair of the Orange County Board of Supervisors, lost her political career when she allied with fellow supervisor Jim Silva to pass the much-maligned Orange County PLA. In the meantime the Orange County PLA resulted in greatly reduced bidding pools, and predictably higher costs. Thankfully, the O.C. Board of Supervisors voted not to renew it when it expired.

So why do politicians keep passing PLAs? Generally, they are promoted by union allies, and while most of these are Democrats, there are exceptions. Both Coad and Silva fashioned themselves as conservative Republicans, but their actions indicated otherwise.

Surely Republicans should know better than to promote PLAs. Democrats on the other hand are proud of their ties to organized labor. Voters should take note and refuse to support any politicians who promote PLAs. Research almost always shows that those who support PLAs are usually the recipients of campaign contributions from the very unions that benefit.

Proponents of PLAs argue that these pacts result in less labor strife, and safer production. In truth, there have been many instances of strikes on projects with PLAs. Furthermore, there is no evidence that non-union contractors are less safe than their union counterparts. Given today's massive workers compensation insurance payments, it makes no sense to run unsafe operations.

PLAs are also very damaging to the majority of workers. Over 85% of the American labor force is not affiliated with any union. Yet PLAs reject all of these non-union workers, expressly disallowing them from working on affected public works projects. It is un-American in the extreme to take away a worker's right to decide for his or herself whether to work for a union or non-union company.

Albert Einstein once said that "Everything that is really great and inspiring is created by the individual who can labor in freedom." Freedom does indeed lie at the heart of the debate over PLAs.