City of Allentown’s PLA Ordinance Challenged

As reported by Peter Hall in  the Allentown Morning call, the Associated Builders and Contractors of Eastern PA has sued the City of Allentown over the City’s controversial ordinance bidders on City projects in excess of $250,000 to abide by a project labor agreement.  The Call reports that F.H. Rohrbach of Allentown, A.J. Trunzo of Bath, and Engelman Construction of Macungie joined ABC in the lawsuit.  A copy of the Complaint can be downloaded here.  ABC v. City of Allentown.

According to the complaint filed in the Federal Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, federal law preempts Allentown Ordinance 14865, which mandates that successful bidders on City projects recieving State or Federal funding to enter into collective bargaining agreements with various labor unions.  The Complaint asks the Court for a declaratory judgment that the Ordinance is invalid and an injunction prohibiting its enforcement.

The Complaint was just filed on October 24 and therefore an answer from the City of Allentown is at least twenty days away.  However, I will surely be blogging about this case in the future.

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Louisiana Bans Project Labor Agreements

Former GOP rising star/policy wonk/excellent Governor, Bobby Jindal of Louisiana,  recently signed into a law a bill banning government mandated PLA’s.  Louisiana is the fifth State in 2011 and the ninth overall to ban the use of PLA’s on government funded projects.

Thanks to aggressive efforts of organizations like the Associated Builders and Contractors and the National Right to Work Committee, State Houses are finally waking up to the waste of taxpayer dollars caused by PLA’s.

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