New Jersey Project Labor Agreements are not for everyone’s benefit | Opinion

With New Jersey set to bring in $17.5 billion in benefits from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, and expectations running high for the Biden Administration’s long-awaited infrastructure package, it’s no surprise that everyone’s gearing up to get their piece of the pie.

But a piece of legislation is making its way through the New Jersey State Senate that will allow some people to feast while other, hard-working New Jersey union workers are shut out through anti-competitive labor work rules that play favorites.

That bill, sponsored by State Senate President Stephen Sweeney, would greatly expand the number of publicly-funded construction projects subject to Project Labor Agreements (PLAs), which restrict, and plays favorites, by picking exactly who has an exclusive on a given public project.  

Under current state law, public works projects that include construction, reconstruction, demolition, or renovation of buildings; that are subject to the New Jersey Prevailing Wage Act; and that have a total value of $5 million or higher, may be subject to PLAs.

Under this new legislation, the same rules would expand, like Pac Man, to gobble up many more job classifications, including highway, bridge, pumping station, water, and sewage treatment plant work.

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Contrary to popular belief, PLAs don’t actually protect all members of organized labor, and they certainly don’t save the taxpayers’ money.

They unfairly divide union groups into the haves — those certain hand-selected union groups who get the work — and the have nots —  the union workers left adrift with zero opportunity.

PLA rules say any project bidders can only recruit workers from select union hiring halls.  The “most favored union status” instantly eliminates 75% of potential project bidders, regardless of skills, ethnic or gender diversity, or competitiveness of bids. 

Some in government have been misled to believe that PLAs are about protecting ALL union workers and providing quality wages and benefits. That is not true. Instead, it’s about protectionism and the affiliations of these 15 elite unions.

The result equals anti-competitiveness, plus inflated project costs, driving up costs for municipalities and taxpayers.

A 2019 study from the Beacon Hill Institute looked at this issue, examining the 107 schools built in New Jersey since 2002, when then-Gov. Jim McGreevey mandated PLAs be used in public school construction, which turned out to be quite a costly debacle .

The study, which examined the construction costs and other variables related to these projects, showed that PLAs raised the final school construction costs by an astounding 16.25%. By their estimates, Garden State taxpayers would have saved $565.1 million, or over $7.1 million for each and every school, if PLAs had not been used.

Just imagine what the state could have done with that extra half-billion dollars. 

Because of favoritism — some call it patronage — insiders got fatter gorging on those taxpayer dollars and only got about half of the work done.

Not only has New Jersey been here before in terms of using, and losing out to, PLAs, but the state has even tried to enact the same project expansion criteria.

Former Gov. Chris Christie vetoed it, and even last year, current Gov. Phil Murphy gave a conditional veto to the idea, saying that the types of projects included in this bill are less complex and therefore “less likely to benefit from the efficiencies PLAs yield in bidding and project management.”

As the saying goes, doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result is the definition of insanity. So why are we back here again?  

Some advocates are attempting to suggest it champions minority- and women-owned businesses, but contracts for state projects already have provisions in place for minority and women’s business development.

The reality is, expanding PLAs will make it harder for women and minorities to get hired. Unless a women and minority owned contractor agrees to hire from one of the PLA-preferred union hiring halls — the alternative is to be cut down and shut out, along with the 75% of bidders who will be regularly excluded from NJ PLAs.

It is time to look past the empty promises and false, flowery language of PLAs, and those working behind the scenes to orchestrate who benefits from contracting.

This 2021 legislation is nothing more than an election year gift to the Building Trades, without any hint of benefitting the people of New Jersey.

It’s time to wake up and say no to expanding NJ-PLAs.

Kevin Barry is the director of construction for the United Service Workers Union/IUJAT in Hackensack.