It was about a month and a half ago that I posted this piece, specifically noting that:
…if you read this piece, it looks as though the plan being discussed will exclude non-union shops from participating.
Here’s the thing, though: it doesn’t. It merely requires them to hold their employment standards to a certain level. This makes for a better bid process, because it prevents the contractors with good and solid labor practices from losing out to other companies which will just go for really low bids and pay their employees lower wages and benefits.
But, of course, hackery abounds. In this specific case, the hackery takes more than one form.
In the Times Argus we hear that:
Vermont lawmakers have weighed in as well. A letter signed by the chairmen of the House and Senate transportation committees asks New York officials to dispense with any PLA that has “the effect of putting Vermont contractors at a competitive disadvantage” or would force them to “go outside their usual labor pool.”
“We’re paying for half the bridge,” Patrick Brennan, chairman of the House Transportation Committee said Friday. “We may as well get some work out of it.”
This, of course, is hyperbole. No one is a competitive disadvantage here unless they are unwilling to abide by certain minimum standards. If Hirschfeld had bothered to contact anyone other than right wing anti union hacks in “researching” this piece, he would have known this.
And speaking of research, our research here at GMD notes that the vice-chair of the Senate Transportation Committee, Phil Scott, is “co-owner of DuBois Construction Inc.”
Right. No possible conflict of interest there when it comes to a bridge contract.
I just gotta say, if the media were doing its job on this sort of thing, it would save me a lot of time. Okay, a little time. But still, just because I can spend 15 minutes using Google doesn’t mean that people who are paid to do research for a living shouldn’t do a bit better.
Douglas is crying big crocodile tears for union members at VY and here you have his man Zicconi and several legislators doing their darndest to get around the union and New York State supported PLA agreements.
Reporter Hirschfield doesn’t do much digging beyond the Associated General Contractors talking points. In his 626 world article he quotes only Vermont State and industry officials opposed and no officials from labor or New York State which support PLA . Propped up in the middle of his piece is one 14 word sentence supporting the required fair wage regulations .
I think perhaps you are expecting way too much, of both “the media” and the general public.
In my view, the mainstream media aren’t interested in research (or even the truth), except insofar as doing so will attract the maximum number of readers/viewers to thus attract advertisers and to further their point-of-view. And most people are too lazy to read or hear most anything of any depth (or even the truth), preferring to believe this propaganda machine cleverly disguised as news.
And I’m afraid it’s going to get much worse:
http://greenmountaindaily.com/…
When are we going to get some effective penalties for officials who go ahead and exercise their conflict of interest without regard for their obligation under the law?
On top of that, adopting this position clearly puts the legislature at odds with the best interests of our labor force. Doesn’t anybody read these things?
Of course I’m going to say if they want Union jobs then they should join a Union but this is pretty good, this CLA and only makes sense. Levels the field. Woops, PLA, labor not taxes.
Why no quotes from labor officials or even a worker? Where’s that supposedly “liberal media” when you need it? Expressing one side of the story seems to be Hirschfeld’s M.O. He has written two pieces on Project Labor Agreements to date, and both were sorely lacking in the “fair and balanced” department.
It really is getting old hearing the Douglas Administration, the Agency of Transportation, the Department of Labor and, now, the chairmen of the legislative Transportation committees – one of which is (barely) a Democrat – taking positions that clearly favor business interests over the needs of our workers. The Governor, VTRANS, Sen. Mazza and Rep. Brennan made no effort to seek input from labor before going public with their anti-PLA views. My guess is the letters and quotes they’ve been unleashing were manufactured by the Associated General Contractors chapters in Vermont and New York.
Despite their claims to the contrary, the blowhards’ opposition isn’t about fairness, meeting the needs of Vermont-based contractors, leveling the playing field, etc. These folks simply don’t like unions influencing the construction industry.
Two excerpts from a recent study (link below) by Cornell University’s School of Industrial Relations, “Project Labor Agreements in New York State: In the Public Interest,” hit the proverbial nail on the head: