Sen. Judd Gregg, R-NH, is furious that New Hampshire construction companies will be shut out of a $35 million Jobs Corp Center project in Manchester. Under President Obama’s Executive Order 13502, the Department of Labor is requiring a project labor agreement (PLA) – even though only 8.7 percent of New Hampshire’s construction workforce is unionized. A PLA forces contractors to use union hiring halls, pay prevailing union wages, and contribute to union pension funds.
And since the Labor Department’s request for bids requires proof of three prior PLAs, Sen. Gregg says, “not a single firm in our state would be eligible to bid on this multi-million-dollar construction project.” Mark MacKenzie, president of the New Hampshire AFL-CIO, acknowledged that only out-of-state contractors will be able to bid on the work.
A recent study on PLAs in three states by the Beacon Hill Institute (http://www.beaconhill.org/) found that PLAs increased the price of construction projects anywhere from 12 to 18 percent without reducing cost overruns, construction delays, or labor disputes – the chief benefits cited by their proponents. Executive director David G. Tuerck, one of the study’s authors, concluded that PLAs are “an effort to solve a problem that doesn’t exist.”
