Story Missed Positives of PLAs

The Aug. 30 article “School Vote Is First Shot in Fight Over Union Contracts” misses the mark on Project Labor Agreements (PLAs).

The story refers to PLAs as “exclusive union-only agreements,” when in fact PLAs include language that assures all firms, not just union firms, can bid on project work. Non-union firms are regularly awarded PLA work. For example, on the $2 billion Southern California Reservoir project, 75 percent of all contractors on the project are non-union.

The article says that PLAs are “a relatively recent phenomenon.” The first public PLAs were used in the 1930s and ’40s, and the list of projects completed includes Grand Coulee Dam, Shasta Dam and the Oak Ridge Reservation. The private sector has used PLAs since the early 1900s. Because PLAs work, growing companies, such as Disney, General Motors, FedEx, and Chevron, increased their use of the agreements in the 1980s and 1990s.

The article makes sure to include all complaints about PLAs, but fails to address the accuracy of the complaints. Detractors say that PLAs increase construction costs, but real-life experience does not bear that out. After the Northridge earthquake, the Santa Monica Freeway was rebuilt in record time and under budget with a PLA. Costs on the giant Boston Harbor project have been reduced by $500 million from the original cost estimate through productivity savings.

Last month, the California Supreme Court decided that firms make their own choice about whether to bid on a project that requires a PLA, and that project owners have a right, as private firms do, to dictate project terms that are consistent with the competitive bidding statutes of government agencies. Thanks to the courts, state and local government construction managers now have a tool that has for so long been employed in the private sector and by the federal government. And taxpayer dollars will be saved as a result.

ROBERT A. GEORGINE

President, Building and Construction Trades Department

AFL-CIO