Fair And Open Competition

Yesterday I had the privilege to speak at a press conference for a ballot initiative we launched to ban Project Labor Agreements (PLAs) in the City and County of Sacramento.  PLAs mandate that all craftspeople working on a taxpayer funded public works construction project must be members of a union in order to perform work.  If they do not wish to join a union, they cannot work on a PLA project.

Since only 25% of the construction workforce in California chooses to belong to a union, PLAs discriminate against 75% of the craft workers - people who live and work (and pay taxes) in Sacramento.  If a worker chooses to join a union just for a given PLA project, they must pay dues to join the union, use the union benefits program (even if the worker already has a benefit program with their existing employer) and pay into the union pension program (even though they will lose some or all of this money since they will never vest in the union pension plan).  This results in a significant pay cut for these employees.

The only group that benefits from PLAs are the construction unions and union contractors.  Most merit shop contractors choose to stay away from PLAs due to the hassle it creates for their employees, and because they are only allowed to use a small number of their own employees and get the rest out of the union hall.

Because merit shop contractors do not bid PLA work, the prices on these projects increase (less bidders = less competition = higher prices).  This means taxpayers get less construction work done for a given amount of money.  In an economic time when every dollar counts, we can't afford PLAs.

Please keep your eye out to sign our petition to get this initiative on the ballot.  Workers should have the choice whether or not they want to belong to a union, and our City and County of Sacramento should not be allowed to discriminate against those who choose to not be represented by a union.  Both union and non-union contractors should be able to work on taxpayer funded projects.

For more information on the ballot initiative, please go to Fair And Open Competition Sacramento and see how you can help.  For more information on project labor agreements go to Coalition For Fair Employment in Construction.