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.

Update: Cement Workers Ordered Back to Work

Crain’s New York Business is reporting that an arbitrator has ordered striking concrete workers back to work on four sites covered by project labor agreements (“PLA’s”).  In my previous post, I discussed how these workers were violating the terms of the PLA’s No Strike/Work Stoppages Clause.

Despite the Cement Union’s decision to ignore the clear terms of the PLA and go on strike, the Real Estate Board of New York still finds value in them:

“When we got the [project labor agreement], the main thing we got out of it was the no-strike clause,” said Mr. Spinola said. “The fact that we had the PLA and enforced it, and they’re back working today demonstrates there was a value to the PLA.”

Moreover, although it is reported that workers have honored the arbitrator’s ruling and returned to work on some sites, the Union plans to appeal the decision.  According to Crain’s:

“A source close to the building trades said the Cement and Concrete Workers District Council would appeal the ruling. The source said the union’s counsel was not properly notified about Tuesday’s hearing and therefore did not know about it in time to show up. Had officials known about the hearing, they would have argued that the no-strike provision was no longer in effect because the workers’ contract expired at the end of June.”

I will continue to monitor this interesting story.

PLA Fails to Prevent NYC Strike

The Concrete Union strike in New York and subsequent walk off on the World Trade Center Memorial and Madison Square Garden projects  made minor fanfare this week.    What many do not realize is that the Concrete Union was the signatory to a project labor agreement (“PLA”) covering these project which is supposed to prevent strikes, walkouts, and labor stoppages.  As Crain’s New York Business reported:

“Workers are not supposed to strike at sites where developers and unions inked project labor agreements, but an industry source said concrete workers did not show up Monday for their jobs at the new Weill Cornell Medical Center research building on East 69th Street, a project that does have such an agreement. The source said a request for an arbitration hearing was made to the Building and Construction Trades Council.”

Unions sell PLA’s to private developers and government bodies as a way to prevent strikes and walkouts and to assure overall labor “peace.”  However, the situation in New York draws into question whether Unions can continue to make this selling point.

The strikes in New York also unmask the true intentions of Unions when promoting  the use of PLA’s.  While Unions claim PLA’s prevent strikes and walkouts, clearly this is not the case.  The ABC has a great post about repeated violations of the No Work Stoppage/No Strike clauses in PLA’s by unions throughout the country. Apparently, Labor does not deny that these No Strike Clauses are being repeatedly violated.  Moreover, the collective bargaining agreement between a local union and a signatory contractor likely already prevents strikes and walkouts.  Thus, what the Unions are really saying when they pitch PLA’s as a way to guarantee labor “peace” is that the job will be free from unlawful secondary picketing, threats of violence, and other shenanigans Unions pull to get their way.  In other words, PLA’s are a veiled form of extortion.  And, on government funding projects, what do the taxpayers get in return for extracted labor “peace?”  Typically, projects that cost more and take longer to complete.

What is even troubling about Union violations of a PLA is that owners are apparently powerless to stop the violation.  The Norris–La Guardia Act Anti-Injunction Act, which, as those that followed the NFL lockout will recall, prohibits a court from issuing an injunction that interferes with a labor strike and, thus, ordering workers striking in violation of a PLA back to work.  Moreover, even if the Act did not apply, it is doubtful – indeed the standard is very high – that a Court would issue an injunction forcing someone to return to work.

Conversely,  if a contractor violates a PLA by not hiring employees through the hall the consequences are severe.  Potentially, a contractor could be required to pay contributions to the local union’s benefit funds for the non-union employees that worked on the job, whether those employees were actually union members or not.  Because those contributions are based on the  the number of hours each employee worked on the job, the financial liability can quickly add up to significant amounts.  Furthermore, the officers of the offending firm face personal liability to the Union Funds for these contributions.

Hopefully, this recent dust up over PLA’s will continue to erode public support for them.  If Unions do not honor PLA’s what is their purpose?