Ever since President Barack Obama signed an Executive Order encouraging the use of project labor agreement on federal construction projects, the Associated Builders and Contractors have ratcheted up their shrill and unfounded criticisms against what they say are “anti-competitive” government-mandated PLAs. In the ABC’s warped world, PLAs are nothing more than “special interest schemes” and “political payback” to America’s Building Trades Unions from politicians who may have received labor’s support.
At the core of the ABC’s argument against the use of PLAs in the public sector is their contention that PLAs are a raw deal for an industry because these agreements “saddle contractors with archaic and inefficient union work rules that drive up construction costs.”
In response, America’s Building Trades Unions have continually posed to the ABC, as well as all the other people who see PLAs as nothing short of “evil incarnate,” one very simple, yet profound, question. And that question is this: If PLAs are so bad, and if they are so inefficient and lead to huge cost increases, then why on Earth are so many cost-conscious and profit-oriented corporations in the private sector increasingly turning to PLAs to achieve “on time, on budget” results for their construction needs? In fact, if PLAs are so bad, then how come over 300 of these agreements – both public and private, and with a cumulative total in excess of $50 billion – have been negotiated this year alone? Some of these projects include: the Blythe Solar project in CA; the Plant Vogtle Nuclear project in GA; the Lawrence Energy Center in KS; a Toyota Manufacturing plant in MS; W.R. Grace Chemical in MD; a Goodyear plant in OH; and the World Trade Center Towers in NY City.
For example, Toyota, a company long renowned for a corporate culture premised upon cost containment and efficiencies, has built all of its manufacturing facilities in the United States under PLAs (with another currently under construction in Mississippi) and they have reported that their construction costs per square foot are approximately 1/3 less than their competitors who eschew the use of PLAs. But how can that be when, according to the righteous indignation of the ABC, PLAs are the essence of economic and financial immorality, leading to catastrophic cost increases?
Even more illuminating is the fact that Wal-Mart – yes, WAL-MART – is increasingly turning to PLAs for the construction of its retail centers. One would be hard-pressed to identify any other corporate entity that places a greater emphasis upon value, cost-containment and efficiency than Wal-Mart. And yet they, too, are turning to project labor agreements to build their stores. Again, the question has to be asked: How can this be if PLAs unnecessarily drive up the cost of construction?
Perhaps it’s because the ABC and other conservative ideologues don’t fully grasp the concepts associated with simple labor economics. America’s Building Trades Unions produce the world’s safest, most highly skilled and productive skilled craft workers in the world. Yes, these workers command more money because they have gone through 4 and 5 year apprenticeships in the world’s most stringent and admired skilled craft training infrastructure. In fact, Building Trades Unions and their signatory contractors jointly invest upwards of $1 billion annually in workforce training and development to build the American skilled workforce of the future. Unlike the “race to the bottom” devotees that comprise the ABC, and who continuously fail to invest any substantial resources in workforce development and training, America’s Building Trades Unions actually invest the time and resources to produce American craft professionals whose skills and productivity have been estimated to be far and away greater than their non-union counterparts. And greater productivity, combined with incessantly better skills and craftsmanship, are valued commodities for most construction owners who seek “on time, on budget” results.
What rigid ideologues like the ABC continually fail to grasp is that even though a union skilled craft professional may claim a higher wage and benefits package due to his/her level of skill and training, he or she is significantly more productive and produces better quality work that does not have to be repaired or corrected down the road.
Put simply, it is the knowledge base, the skill set and the productivity track record associated with unionized craft professionals that has private sector, profit-oriented corporations, in this day and age of scare resources and demands for greater efficiencies and accountability, turning to PLAs in increasing numbers.
It is without argument that project labor agreements have met the private market test. And this private experience would seem to validate the public use of project labor agreements for appropriate new construction projects and to override much of the criticism; particularly the specious arguments pertaining to costs, economy and efficiency.
Isn’t it high time that conservative lawmakers and the media take a break from their hysterical, albeit unsubstantiated and nonsensical, union-bashing and instead take a serious and in-depth look at the non-union “race to the bottom” business model which, among many of its ills, has been one of the single biggest sources of corporate law-breaking and fraud that can be found in the United States today. From the abuse and exploitation of undocumented workers, to the misclassification of employees that robs federal, state and local economies of billions of dollars in revenues, to runaway cost-shifting in the health insurance market, the non-union construction industry in America today is savaging the ability of American workers and American communities to maintain decent standards of living.
By way of background research, they might begin by reading this 2006 expose by the New York Times on the employment practices of Miller and Long Construction, a company that epitomizes the “race to the bottom” approach to doing business like no other.
Perhaps at some point, they too may reach the same conclusion that hundreds of cost-conscious and profit-oriented companies have.
And that is: PLAs work!