Obama Admin Requiring Economy Wrecking, Budget Bloating Project Labor Agreements
July 27, 2009 | Filed Under Anti-Americanism, Barack Obama, Budget, Business, Communism, Congress, Democrats/Leftists, Economy/Finances, Government, Corruption, Jobs, Liberals, President, Socialism, Society/Culture, State Government, Taxes, Warner Todd Huston | Comments Off
-By Warner Todd Huston
What is a project labor agreement (PLA) and why is it bad for our economy? And why is President Obama so intent on implementing these budget busting regulations right in the middle of a depressed economy?
First of all a PLA is a requirement forced on building contractors by the federal government and some state governments. In order for a building contractor to be awarded a government building contract a PLA demands that it must adopt union pay scales and collective bargaining whether the builder is a union shop or not.
Secondly, it should seem pretty obvious why a PLA is a bad thing. Not only does a PLA force the costs of federal construction to rise to satisfy undeserved demands by Big Labor, but to force the 80% of America’s contracting companies to observe costly union contract requirements in order to get a federal contract results in a situation where only union contractors can get federal business. This excludes the largest number of America’s builders from government building jobs in order to favor the 20% of those contractors that are unionized.
PLAs also negatively affect construction workers, as well. In some states, for instance, a PLA forces non-unionized workers to pay union dues — sometimes at reduced rates, but paying nonetheless — while working on a government construction job. So even if an employee cannot in good conscience join a union, the government will force that employee to pay union dues anyway. If that doesn’t violate freedom of association, what does?
Almost as soon as he took office, President Barack Obama repealed a Bush executive order and issued EO #13502 which once again forces all federally contracted building projects to suffer under a PLA. The fact is that President Obama stands in opposition to cost effective use of our federal construction dollars as well as free enterprise.
And why did he do this? Perhaps the millions of dollars raised by unions to fund Obama’s presidential campaign explains why? This is no less than a pay back to Big Labor. Unfortunately the 80% of non-union workers out there are getting the back of Barack’s hand with his pro-union actions.
Taxpayers certainly benefit when building contractors must compete for contracts based on best services and the ability to hold to a budget. But with a PLA the constant cost overruns, budget bloating, and featherbedding so common with union operations becomes the norm and federal dollars are wasted by fraud and abuse.
PLAs may be great to float the fatcat salaries of union bosses, but they are bad for the American taxpayer. (Click HERE for more info on PLAs)
Associated Building Contractors has some great info on PLAs and why they are so detrimental to our federal budget.
Some of the logical points that ABC makes are as follows:
- Despite the fact that non-union companies have their own benefit plans, union-only PLAs require these companies to pay their workers’ health and welfare benefits to union trust funds. Thus, companies have to pay benefits twice: once to the union and once to the company plan. Workers never see any of their benefits sent to the unions unless they decide to leave their non-union employer and remain with the union until vested.
- PLAs require non-union companies to obtain apprentices exclusively from union apprenticeship programs. Participants in federal and state-approved non-union apprenticeship programs cannot work on a job covered by a PLA. This means craft professionals enrolled in non-union apprenticeship programs are excluded from work in their hometowns.
- PLAs require non-union companies to obtain their workers from union hiring halls. This means a non-union company has to send its hard working employees to the union hiring hall and hope the union sends the same workers back.
- Non-union workers may have to pay union dues and fees or join a union in order to work on a PLA project.
Do yourself a favor and look over ABC’s entire presentation. You’ll see much useful information there.
____________
Warner Todd Huston is a Chicago based freelance writer, has been writing opinion editorials and social criticism since early 2001 and is featured on many websites such as newsbusters.org, RedState.com, Human Events Magazine, AmericanDailyReview.com, townhall.com, New Media Journal, Men’s News Daily and the New Media Alliance among many, many others. Additionally, he has been a frequent guest on talk-radio programs to discuss his opinion editorials and current events and is currently the co-host of “Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Conservatism” heard on BlogTalkRadio. He has also written for several history magazines and appears in the new book “Americans on Politics, Policy and Pop Culture” which can be purchased on amazon.com. He is also the owner and operator of publiusforum.com. Feel free to contact him with any comments or questions : EMAIL Warner Todd Huston
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