PLA Order Is Good For Workers And Taxpayers
Photo/Courtesy
Mary Vogel is the executive director at the Construction Institute in Boston.
President Barack Obama’s issuance of an Executive Order overturning the Bush Administration’s ban on federal Project Labor Agreements (PLAs) guarantees decent wages, benefits, and safer working conditions for American workers.
President Obama’s order reverses Bush’s order prohibiting federal government agencies from employing a tool that has been used successfully since World War I on billions of dollars worth of private and public construction projects across the nation.
For eight years, the Bush administration’s ban denied federal government agencies the ability to enter into PLAs to achieve the same benefits as private sector construction users and state and local governments. Obama’s order allows the federal government to take advantage of PLAs where appropriate.
Project Pacts
Some of the most respected institutions and businesses in Massachusetts have implemented PLAs to control costs, prevent work disruptions, and guarantee a steady stream of skilled workers. Worcester area PLA projects include Medical Cities (private project), Holy Cross (private project), Worcester Courthouse (public project), Union Station Garage (public project), and the Worcester Civic Center Commission Improvement Project (public project). Harvard University, Massachusetts General Hospital, Bristol Myers Squibb, Fidelity, The New England Patriots, Northeastern University, the MWRA, and Logan Airport, to name a few, have also used PLAs for one simple reason – they work.
Recently, poorly tracked “research” has left construction users and the public misinformed about the benefits of PLAs. In the most robust research study of PLAs to date, professors Dale Belman of Michigan State University, Matthew Bodah of the University of Rhode Island and Peter Philips of the University of Utah, definitively dispel the criticisms about PLAs.
The researchers examined 100 PLA projects using a variety of techniques, and the study found no evidence that PLAs decrease the number of bidders or increase the costs of construction projects, two central criticisms raised by the non-union construction sector.
PLAs provide maximum benefit to construction users; union and non-union workers; union and non-union contractors; lenders and insurance companies; and taxpayers.
They are frequently negotiated to address a wide range of local and social needs, including the assurance of offering local residents and minorities the opportunity for a career in the skilled trades.
PLAs, most importantly, secure access to the best-trained, highest-qualified craft workers in the area. With an unmatched financial investment of more than $28 million annually in recruiting and training, the building trades unions and their contractors in Massachusetts are able to provide a readily available workforce of highly trained and skilled craftsmen to meet market demands.
PLAs are clearly beneficial to all involved: workers are properly trained and earn respectable wages and benefits; employers have immediate access to the skilled workforce it demands; and owners can take comfort in knowing that their projects will be completed on time and on budget saving taxpayers money.
Mary Vogel is the executive director at the Construction Institute in Boston. She can be reached at maryvogel@builtbest.org.
WBJ Web Partners
Most Recent
Most Recent
0 Comments