Leave PLAs Aloo-o-o-ne

We're baffled by politicians who actually claim that building trades workers make too much money. When was the last time they saw a hard hat chauffeured to work in a limousine? Here in our nation's capital we see plenty of people driven around in sleek black vehicles. They're not headed to construction sites. Usually they're parked outside of the Fox News studio.

But we digress. 

All over the U.S., politicians are pushing legislation that would eliminate or weaken project labor agreements. In San Diego, an initiative to ban PLAs is on the summer ballot. In Pennsylvania, lawmakers are trying to restrict them. Yesterday an Indiana legislative committee heard testimony on a bill to ban PLAs completely. It's another front in the war on workers.

Here's what banning project labor agreements will do: They'll take jobs away from communities that need them most, according to a new study by Cornell University. Getting rid of PLAs will hurt communities where factories have moved to Mexico. It will hurt military veterans returning from Iraq and Afghanistan who can't find jobs. It will hurt poor cities.

American Rights at Work helped fund the Cornell study. Reports ARAW,

Project Labor Agreements (PLAs) are simply agreements between labor and management that make sure the jobs created on a project are good, safe jobs.  Despite the outcry from the anti-worker crowd, a long list of big-name companies – even Walmart – use PLAs...

The report...focuses on the community development benefits of Project Labor Agreements (PLAs) and Community Workforce Agreements (CWAs). ... If one thing is certain, it’s that these CWAs create jobs for the communities that need them most. In fact, if the $105 billion dedicated to construction projects in Obama’s plan was spent on projects with CWAs identical to one of the agreements profiled in this report, approximately 525,000 good jobs could be created. 

Here are some of the report's conclusions:

• The most widely used provisions involved the hiring of local area residents and apprentice utilization levels. 139 PLAs included Helmets-to-Hardhats provisions to promote the entry of veterans into the construction industry.
• 45 PLAs included provisions for employment and career opportunities for economically disadvantaged populations.
• Community workforce or targeted hiring provisions have increased job and career path opportunities in the construction industry to workers from low income communities and minorities in Washington, DC, New York City, and Cleveland.

Read the whole thing here.