Last week, following in the footsteps of his predecessors, Washington, DC Mayor Vincent Gray announced the signing of a Project Labor Agreement (PLA) for the construction of the $300 million DC United soccer stadium. His reasoning? The PLA ensures that District construction workers are paid federal Davis-Bacon wage rates.
However, according to TheTruthAboutPLAs.com:
…existing law called the Davis-Bacon Act governing federal, federally funded and DC-funded projects already requires above-market government-determined union scale wages and benefits to be paid to craft labor with or without a PLA. It’s a smokescreen to cover the fact it is a gift to unions [emphasis added].
The White House explains that a PLA is “a pre-hire collective bargaining agreement with one or more labor organizations that establishes the terms and conditions of employment for a specific construction project.”
But let’s get real. A PLA is nothing more than a corrupt scheme that removes competition from the construction bidding process and instead awards a contract to unionized construction workers.
Unfortunately, we’ve seen this game played in DC before with Nationals Ballpark. The end result? Eighty-five percent of construction workers and 95 percent of minority-owned contractors were left out of the work, and the project cost tens of millions of taxpayer dollars more than anticipated. Makes one wonder just how much the city actually cares about its workers.
From our support of Right-to-Work laws and public pension reform, it’s no secret that National Taxpayers Union is an outspoken proponent of fair labor laws that benefit workers, not just union bosses. Despite what may appear to be a well-intentioned effort to protect workers, Mayor Gray’s PLA for the DC United Stadium is nothing more than a kickback scheme to his union pals. The deal represents another example of just how dangerous backroom government dealings with unions can be – not only to taxpayers but to non-unionized construction workers struggling to find work in the Obama economy.
For more on the DC United Stadium PLA debacle, go HERE.