Resources

PLA Presentations
A Win-Win Proposition for Construction Owners, Contractors, Workers & Communities - PLA PowerPoint
For anyone seeking to educate lawmakers, state and local agencies, or the media, on the wide array of benefits associated with Project Labor Agreements, this PowerPoint Presentation is designed to offer a fact-based explanation, while also refuting the many bogus claims that are continually launched by critics of these agreements, as well as offering up a stark portrayal of the alternative business model of PLAs – known as the “open-shop” business model.  WHEN VIEWING, PLEASE NOTE THAT THERE ARE EXTENSIVE PRESENTATION NOTES INCLUDED FOR EVERY SLIDE.

Click here to download the PLA Powerpoint


PLA Guidelines and Forms
For guidelines on how to negotiate a Community Workforce Agreement/PLA or access a PLA Approval Request form and other useful PLA related resources, visit the Building and Construction Trades Department website.

www.BCTD.org.


CWA/PLA Studies and Reports
Project Labor Agreements’ Effect on School Construction Costs in Massachusetts
In their on-going, mostly futile, attempts to discredit and tarnish the value of Community Workforce Agreements, opponents of these agreements almost universally cite one specific study concerning school construction costs that was conducted by the widely discredited Beacon Hill Institute. 

Now comes a research paper from experts at Michigan State University, the College of Wooster, and the University of Tennessee that concludes that the Beacon Hill study’s claim that Community Workforce Agreements raise construction costs by 14-17 percent are effectively bogus because the study was based on overly simplistic models.  When a more complex model is used, those cost increases are not evident.

Download the Project Labor Agreements’ Effect on School Construction Costs in Massachusetts Report


The Value of High-Road Construction at the Cherokee-Gates Redevelopment Project Report
"The Value of High-Road Construction at the Cherokee-Gates Redevelopment Project", September 2005,
Issue Brief No. 3 from the Campaign for Responsible Development (CRD)

Construction is not just about putting up buildings.  In projects that are funded with tax dollars, construction jobs are the first form of “economic development” flowing from our public investment.  Whether local contractors win the work, the wages and benefits workers receive, and the kind of skills and safety training workers get will significantly impact our local economy and communities.  This white-paper by the Campaign for Responsible Development in Denver, CO examined the difference between “low-road” and “high-road” construction and the effects that each can have on costs, jobsite productivity, and community at large.

Download the The Value of High-Road Construction at the Cherokee-Gates Redevelopment Project Report


Jacobs, Ronconi and Graham-Squire, UC Berkeley Center for Labor Research and Education
"Health Coverage Proposals in California: Impact on Businesses" Ken Jacobs, Lucas Ronconi and Dave Graham-Squire. UC Berkeley Center for Labor Research and Education. July 2007

This study focuses on California  legislation aimed at expanding health care coverage in the state. The study analyzes both the proposals; the Governor's Health Care Proposal and Assembly Bill 8.

To read the full study, CLICK HERE.

Graham-Squire, Jacobs and Dube, UC Berkeley Center for Labor Research and Education
"California Healthcare: Firm Spending and Worker Coverage" Dave Graham-Squire, Ken Jacobs and Arindrajit Dube. UC Berkeley Center for Labor Research and Education. March 2007

This study focuses on each of the major new health reform proposals in California in order to understand the impacts of these policies as a percent of payroll in California. Of particular interest are those workers without any health coverage and the healthcare spending patterns of their employers.

To read the full study, CLICK HERE.

Wilson, Center on Policy Initiatives
"Construction Apprenticeship Programs: Career Training for California’s recovery" Corinne Wilson. Center on Policy Initiatives. September 2009

This report demonstrates, building trades apprenticeship programs provide the best model to keep the construction industry on the high road and provide high-quality jobs, to the benefit of the industry, the workers and the greater community.

www.onlinecpi.org/downloads/Construction%20Apprenticeship%20Programs%20report.pdf

Kotler, Cornell University School of Industrial and Labor Relations
”Project Labor Agreements in New York State: In the Public Interest”.  Fred B. Kotler, J.D.  Associate Director, Cornell University School of Industrial and Labor Relations.  March, 2009.

A 2009 study by Fred B. Kotler, J.D., Associate Director of the [School of Industrial and Labor Relations at Cornell University] finds that PLAs do not discriminate against employers and workers, do not limit the pool of bidders, and do not raise construction costs,

"There is no evidence to support claims that project labor agreements either limit the pool of bidders or drive up actual construction costs. Such claims by opponents are based on inadequate data and faulty methodology. PLAs – in New York City and State and elsewhere – have instead proven very successful at saving costs while respecting fair labor standards.”

http://digitalcommons.ilr.cornell.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1021&context=reports


Belman, Bodah & Philips
“Project Labor Agreeements.” Dale Belman, Ph.D. Michigan State University; Matthew M. Bodah, University of Rhode Island; Peter Philips, University of Utah.  Electri International (2007).

In a report entitled Project Labor Agreements, Professors Belman, Bodah and found that there is no evidence that PLAs decrease the number of bidders or change the cost of construction projects. Rather than increase cost, the agreements provide benefits to the community. Indeed, the study shows that project cost is directly related to the complexity of a project, not the existence of an agreement. Cost is strongly correlated with size, location, whether the school is an elementary school, and the amenities provided such as cafeterias and swimming pools.

www.onlinecpi.org/downloads/PLA-report.pdf


UCLA Labor Center
UCLA Labor Center, "Construction Careers for our Communities.”, 2008

This report explores one potential benefit that sometimes emerges from the innovative bargaining structure of Project Labor Agreements (PLAs) —local hiring goals—through an assessment of projects developed by three public agencies in Los Angeles County: the Los Angeles Community College District (LACCD), the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD), and the City of Los Angeles.” (Quoted from www.labor.ucla.edu/programs/construction-academy.html)

www.labor.ucla.edu/programs/pdfs/ConstructionCareersForOurCommunitiesFullReport.pdf


Los Angeles Port Construction Careers Policy
“Building Opportunity:  Investing in Our Future through a Port Construction Careers Policy.”  Jackie Cornejo, Los Angeles Alliance for a New Economy, June 2009. 

This meticulously researched report by Jackie Cornejo compiles relevant research to lay out the best case for a Project Labor Agreement on the Port of Los Angeles.  The report also features a foreword from leading scholar Peter Philips, who is Professor and Chair of the University of Utah Department of Economics.

http://74.10.59.52/laane/images/projects/Construction/Building%20Opportunity-June%202009.pdf


California State Library Study
“Constructing California, A Review of Project Labor Agreements'' Johnson-Dodds, Kimberly.  California State Library.  Prepared at the request of California State Senator John Burton. (2002).

PLAs are arguably the most important change in labor-management relations in the construction industry in recent years. They have become a fairly common part of the organization of major construction projects in California. This California State Library report, compiled for California State Senate recounts the history of PLAs in California, surveys the features found in California PLAs for both public and private projects, includes case studies of recent PLAs that are breaking new ground, and reviews the state of the President's PLA executive orders. Kimberly Johnston-Dodds, Prepared at the request of Senator John L. Burton, President Pro Tempore of the California State Senate, October 2001.

Not available online.


United States Government Accountability Office report
Project Labor Agreements: The Extent of Their Use and Related Information. U.S. General Accounting Office, GAO/GGD-98-82, May 1998.

The U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) issued a report on PLAs noting an overall lack of data but reporting that both “proponents and opponents of the use of PLAs said it would be difficult to compare contractor performance on federal projects with and without PLAs because it is highly unlikely that two such projects could be found that were sufficiently similar in cost, size, scope, and timing.” In conclusion, the GAO said, “drawing any definitive conclusions on whether or not the PLA was the cause of any performance differences would be difficult.”

www.gao.gov/archive/1998/gg98082.pdf


Jolie Siegel, University of Pennsylvania Journal of Law
Jolie M. Siegel, University of Pennsylvania Journal of Labor and Employment Law, Volume 3, No. 2, Winter 2001, pp. 295-331. 

In the landmark 1993 Boston Harbor Case, the United States Supreme Court unanimously upheld the use of Project Labor Agreements on public projects. In the University of Pennsylvania Journal of Law comment entitled "Project Labor Agreements and Competitive Bidding Statutes", Jolie Siegel outlines the arguments on either side of PLAs and evaluates the state of the law since this decision. Through her analysis, she shows that Project Labor Agreements are valid and often desirable under competitive bidding statutes because of the benefits they confer. However, she finds that PLAs present risks and should only be allowed on projects where they will further the goals of competitive bidding statutes, namely timely, efficient, high quality, and inexpensive construction. She also discusses how PLAs actually allow non-union contractors to bid freely on public construction projects and identifies the public benefits that the agreements confer.

Not available online.  Please contact your local library.


Daniel Rounds, UCLA
Project Labor Agreements: An Exploratory Study, Daniel Rounds, UCLA Institute for Labor and Employment (2001).

“To assess the claims of PLA proponents and opponents, project managers involved with these three projects were interviewed about their experiences working under the terms of a PLA.  The information they provided tends to support the arguments advanced by PLA proponents.  PLAs on each of these projects facilitated labor peace, fostered workplace cooperation, and insured an adequate supply of skilled labor.  The arguments offered by opponents of PLAs, on the other hand, were not well supported by the interviews with managers.  Claims that PLAs reduce competition and increase labor costs were roundly rejected by those who were interviewed.

Full text unavailable.  For a summary, see: http://www.buildri.org/stuff/contentmgr/files/e82237e741344387505f41b08dfbcfa1/pdf/full_text_cockshaw__s_nov_2001.pdf


University of Utah
Losing Ground: Lessons from the Repeal of Nine "Little Davis-Bacon" Acts.  Peter Philips, Garth Mangum, Norm Waitzman, and Anne Yeagle, Working Paper, Economics Department, University of Utah, (1995). 

This study examines the effects from the repeal of Nine states’ Davis-Bacon Laws, in an attempt to reduce construction costs at the expense of workers incomes:  The study finds that this resulted in “significantly lower construction wages, slightly higher construction employment, a tripling of cost overruns on public works, an across-the-board 15-percent increase in construction injuries, a 40 percent decrease in apprenticeship training, and an even further decline in minority apprenticeship training. All this was sacrificed to save an estimated 1.7 percent in state construction costs. Even that savings was squandered by the loss in state tax revenues from an impoverished construction labor force—a poor bargain indeed.

www.faircontracting.org/NAFCnewsite/prevailingwage/new/losingground.pdf


The Benefits of Unions for Low-Wage Workers, Center for Economic and Policy Research
The Center for Economic and Policy Research (CEPR) finds that unionization raises wages, health care and pension coverage for all workers, and provides the most benefits by far to the lowest-paid workers.

www.cepr.net/documents/publications/benefits-unions-low-wage.pdf


The Beacon Hill Institute
Three reports by the Beacon Hill Institute at Suffolk University in Boston, Massachusetts concluded that PLAs increase school construction costs in Massachusetts, New England, and Connecticut. Beacon Hill, a “free-market-oriented think-tank” founded in 1991 by Massachusetts Republican politician and millionaire Ray Shamie, is categorically opposed to the use of PLAs.
Subsequent studies criticize Beacon Hill’s study for faulty methodology and conclusionary assertions.  See, for example: the two Belman, Ormiston et al studies below, and the Belman, Bodah and Philips and the Cornell studies, above.

www.beaconhill.org/govtaccountability.html


Belman, Ormiston et al, PLA Effect on School Construction Costs in Massachusetts

“Project Labor Agreements’ Effect on School Construction Costs in Massachusetts”. Dale Belman, Michigan State University School of Labor and Industrial Relations; Russell Ormiston, College of Wooster Department of Economics; Richard Kelso, University of Tennessee, Knoxville School of Architecture, William Schriver, University of Tennessee, Knoxville Construction Industry Policy and Research Center; and Kenneth A. Frank, MIchigan State University College of Education.

This paper re-examines the impact of Project Labor Agreements on school construction cost in Massachusetts, after the Beacon Hill Institute published a study concluding that PLAs raise construction costs.  They find that while the simple models, such as those used by BHI, show a large correlation between PLA use and cost, this was absent from more completely-specified models.  The schools built with and without PLAs were too dissimilar to distinguish cost effects of PLAs from the cost effects of factors that underlie use of PLAs, such as increased project complexity and local conditions, and availability of labor and materials.

www.sandi.net/props/icoc/2009/0422/exhibit_3_1_att1.pdf


Belman, Ormiston, et al, Effect of PLAs on School Construction Costs in New England
“The Effect of Project Labor Agreements on the Cost of School Construction in New England.” Dale Belman, Michigan State University; Russell Ormiston, Michigan State University; William Schriver, University of Tennessee Knoxville; and Richard Kelso, University of Tennessee, Knoxville. 

We do not find evidence that the presence of a project labor agreement increases school construction costs in cost models that account for school complexity and differences in location. "The current research finds no statistically significant evidence that PLAs impact the actual cost paid by taxpayers for school construction projects.”

www.ohioconstructioncoalition.org/research/docs/pla_docs/PLA_Belman_EffectPLANewEngland.pdf


University of Maine
"Project Labor Agreements and Construction in Maine" University of Maine Bureau of Labor Education (2005).

“Project Labor Agreements are a useful mechanism in any construction project involving a contractor and a range of skilled workers in different trades, by providing a collective bargaining structure and arrangement that will maximize efficiency, stability, predictability, and productivity. Their purpose “is to facilitate the completion of the project by getting all the participants to agree to certain ground rules.”18 They benefit everyone involved: the employer (whether public or private sector), developers, contractors, workers, unions, local and state economies, and the public.”

dll.umaine.edu/ble/PLA.pdf


Bradford W. Coupe
Legal Considerations Affecting the Use of Public Sector Project Labor Agreements: A Proponent’s View.  Bradford W. Coupe, Esq., Morgan, Lewis & Bockius, New York.

Coupe makes the case the PLAs are an effective tool for labor relations:  “There is nothing inherently wrong with PLAs in the public sector. They have a well-established place in the law and in the effective performance of the projects to which they have been applied. The use of legal process should be saved for the bona fide abuses of the competitive bidding laws and not become the vehicle for waging a campaign rooted in the wholesale elimination of public sector PLAs.”

www.lecet.org/Clearinghouse_Public/LECET/PLA/Project%20Laborers%20Agreement%203.pdf
   

Washington Nationals Stadium Project
The Washington Nationals Stadium Project: A Model for the Future. LiUNA! and LiUNA Local 657, January, 2008.

LIUNA released this on the DC Stadium Project, which cites the benefits and traces the project's opposition.  "For a community that has historically struggled with high unemployment and too few economic opportunities for minorities, the stadium construction has created hundreds of family-supporting jobs with health-care coverage," the report states.  "The project has opened the doors to future advancement with free construction skills training and cleared the layoff benches of already experienced construction craft workers.”

www.webuildthestadium.org/downloads/KeepaGoodThingGoing.pdf


PLAs in Iowa
Project Labor Agreements in Iowa: An Important Tool for Managing Complex Public Construction Projects, Ralph Scharnau & Michael F. Sheehan, The Iowa Policy Project (2004);

“Public-sector construction projects in Iowa serve three important public functions. They provide direct services through the building of schools, hospitals, police stations, highways and similar projects. Second, spending on these projects stimulates economic development and creates jobs. And third, they improve the ability of the public infrastructure to deliver services that help to generate income for other Iowa producers. This makes those producers more productive and competitive.”

www.iowapolicyproject.org/2002-2004docs/041201-PLAs-xs.pdf


Center on Policy Initiatives
“[CWAs] guarantee: Good jobs with healthcare, Local hiring—for jobs and paid apprenticeship programs, Career ladders for disadvantaged workers—that target at-risk groups to paid apprenticeship programs, Uniform terms and conditions of employment for all contractors and craft workers on the construction project, [and] a plan for project workflow and coordination between the various construction crafts to be sure the projects are completed on-time, on-budget, safely and with a properly trained workforce”

Construction Careers Project Stabilization Agreement Q&A
www.onlinecpi.org/downloads/CCPSA%20FACT%20SHEET.pdf

CPI Memorandum: Project Stabilization Agreements provide community benefits
www.onlinecpi.org/downloads/CPI-Memo-to-PropS-ICOC-4-29-09.pdf

 
John Dunlop, Harvard University Joint Center for Housing Studies
Project Labor Agreements, John T. Dunlop, Harvard University Joint Center for Housing Studies (2002). 

In this academic paper, Dunlop lays out the history, extent, features, and public policy issues surrounding Project Labor Agreements.

www.jchs.harvard.edu/publications/industrystudies/W02-7_dunlop.pdf


Cockshaws:  Evaluating PLA Performance
Cockshaw, Peter. 2001. Evaluating PLA Performance? Studies find project labor agreements offer many benefits supporters claim.’ Cockshaw’s Construction Labor News+Opinion 31(11): 1

Cockshaw’s Construction Labor News notes the controversy in the PLA debate and summarizes studies addressing the issue, including Daniel Rounds’ UCLA study. 

www.ohioconstructioncoalition.org/docs/Cockshaws%20PLA%20nov2001.pdf


Powers & Waites
"Project Labor Agreements: The State of the Law", December 1999, by Brian A. Powers and Gerald M. Waites.  Lists PLAs, surveys and studies that prove the benefits of PLA built construction projects.

“Given the substantial benefits PLAs provide, the failure of their opponents to articulate or prove any sustainable challenges, and current market conditions driving an increased reliance on prudent, common-sensed based project planning – PLAs will continue to serve as a productive and stabilizing force in the construction industry.”