MYTH: PLAs are initiated by local politicians to save taxpayers money.
FACT: PLAs were invented by the union to increase union membership. Organized labor acknowledges that the purpose of PLAs is to help unions regain lost market share.
MYTH: PLAs control costs.
FACT: The opposite is true. By excluding open-shop contractors (80 percent of the construction workers), PLAs drastically reduce competition - which always increases costs. If PLAs control costs, why was the cost of the Big Dig, which had a PLA, so out of control?
MYTH: PLAs guarantee a project is done on time.
FACT: PLAs do not address schedule issues whatsoever. In fact, several projects built with PLAs have experienced wide-spread delays, such as the Town of Milton's school building project, the downtown parking garage in Worcester and the Big Dig, just to name a few.
MYTH: PLAs don't stop open-shop companies from bidding.
FACT: An open-shop company would cease to exist if it were forced to bid on a PLA project. Union claims to the contrary, open-shop participation in construction projects with a PLA are impossible in practical terms. First, employees of an open-shop company would have to join a trade union for the duration of the project, then hope that they are assigned to the project by the union hall. Second, even if they are hired for the project, they would have to pay union pension and benefit dues for the duration of the project, even though they would not be union employees long enough o quality for any benefits.
The cruel irony of PLAs is that they penalize workers, even though the unions claim to be "pro-worker."
MYTH: PLAs do not increase the cost of construction.
FACT: It's simple economics-by limiting competition to 20 percent of the construction industry, project costs will increase. The Big Dig is not the only example. The Town of Milton has had to approve several Proposition 2 1/2 overrides to pay for the PLA-related cost overruns on their five-school building project. And in 2005, the City of Fall River adopted a Project Labor Agreement on a five-school construction project. Because of the PLA, fewer than half the qualified bidders submitted proposals and those bids were millions over budget. After the mayor reluctantly dropped the PLA, taxpayers svaed approximately $8.5 million.
MYTH: PLAs are necessary to standardize wages and enforce the prevailing wage law.
FACT: State law sets wage rates for ALL public construction projects - whether the contractor is union or not. The Prevailing Wage Law is strictly enforced by the Attorney General, with severe penalties for companies that do not comply.
MYTH: PLAs ensure quality.
FACT: First of all, PLAs make no mention of quality. But more importantly, open-shop contractors dominate the constrcution industry simply because they are preferred by an overwhelming majority of construction end-users. According to several union-sponsored surveys, the reasons cited were quality, flexibility, and a better attitude among workers. In fact Ed Hill, President of IBEW said, "our customers think we care more about ourselves then them."
MYTH: A PLA ensures a "continuum" - a guarantee of no labor problems.
FACT: The carpenters' union staged several work stoppages during the San Francisco Airport expansion project - even though the project had a PLA. In other words, even the fundamental reason given by the unions for PLAs has been discredited.
MYTH: The only reason open-shop companies can bid lower than union companies is that they pay substandard wages and benefits.
FACT: Again, on public projects, wages are the same for union and open-shop workers by state law. And the fact is, open-shop contractors are employers in the true sense. Unlike union contractors, they offer year-round employment. They also pay competitive wages and benefits, such as helath care, pension plans, holdiay and vacation pay, paid sick time, and many offer profit-sharing.
MYTH: Union workers are better trained than open-shop workers.
FACT: Both the union and open-shop provide state-sanctioned schooling for their workers. However, union workers apprentice training are mandated 4 and 5-year programs. Open-shop apprentice programs allow workers to progress as rapidly as they are able to complete the required instruction and pass the required licensing examinations. Some local open-shop contactors provide in-house state-certified apprentice programs which follow similar training programs as in union shops.
MYTH: Only 50 percent of construction workers work for open-shop companies.
FACT: That's a statistic produced by the building Trades Council. The U.S. Census Bureau and unionstats.com are neutral, reliable sources that report open-shop companies employ 80 percent of Massachusetts's construction workers.
MYTH: Most public projects have PLAs.
FACT: Most of the cities and towns in Massachusetts successfully complete public projects without PLAs. In fact, there have been hundreds of schools built in Massachusetts - and only a handful a with PLAs.
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