A proposed ordinance that would have prohibited Riverside County, CA from entering into Project Labor Agreements (PLAs) on county construction projects was rejected today by the County’s Board of Supervisors.

A major factor in the defeat of this proposal was the voluminous amount of research that has repeatedly shown that PLAs not only improve working conditions at job sites, but also result in better efficiencies and productivity gains because workers are often better trained.

Last year, the Obama administration issued an Executive Order advocating that federal agencies give preference to PLAs for public works projects carrying a price tag in excess of $25 million. The order countermanded a Bush administration policy prohibiting such agreements.

A host of local tradesmen told the board they were struggling to find work and PLAs might prove beneficial to Riverside County's anemic construction industry, which has been steadily hemorrhaging jobs since last June.

"Where did you ever get the idea that PLAs are bad?" Alex Lopez, a Riverside resident and member of the International Union of Painters & Allied Trades, asked one Supervisor who supported the ban.

"I challenge you to put a PLA to the test, and then come back and see if you need to pass this ordinance," Lopez said.

Gabriel Villarreal, with the Riverside County Building & Construction Trades Union, told the board that PLAs protect local labor and ensure workers are documented.

"You have fly-by employers ... bringing a lot of employees from out of state," he said. "We ensure workers on the construction site are from the site area. A lot of people are out of work here."