Awesome! Rick Snyder got a spanking!!

[Hardhat]

Gianni...well done.
A little clarity here about Judge Thomas' ruling on project labor agreements.
It was 43 pages and well researched and will very likely stand up to appeal. In fact, a good argument could be made that the state attorney general is wasting resources appealing this, because of the high legal hurdle that will need to be climbed.
The primary high legal hurdle is this: In the 1990s, the U.S. Supreme Court voted 9-0[[!) to uphold the legality of municipally-backed project labor agreements in the Boston Harbor case. [[A PLA was employed, and challenged, in the Big Dig project in Boston). It's highly unlikely that Michigan's case is going to thread a needle and find a path to a successful appeal.

Here's what the Republican Legislature and Gov. Snyder were doing when they adopted the law banning PLAs: essentially they were telling local community leaders and school boards that state lawmakers, from their over-stuffed chairs in Lansing, knew better how to run the affairs of local yokels with the state PLA fiat.

[[Republican lawmakers in Washington D.C. are constantly harping on government getting out of the affairs of states and local communities, but that's an inconsistency for another thread).

The use of project labor agreements is simply a business decision. They've been around for years. Big companies use them. GM, Ford, DTE Energy often use them for their projects - even Toyota insists on using them down South when they build a new plant. Numerous cities and counties can use PLAs in Michigan, although they don't necessarily have to use them, even if they have a law in place that allows them.

When planning a construction project, a city, county, or business owner talks its needs over with its construction manager. Perhaps they decide it's in their best interest to hire a construction workforce that's already drug-tested, has undergone standardized safety training, has specific documented skills like welding or pipe fitting certifications, lives locally, and will work for a predetermined wage and benefit level and a proven track record of success on previous projects. Yes, that looks a lot like a union workforce. Those are some of the types of things a PLA might address, including hours, wages, shift premiums for holiday work, etc.
There is value to having these things in a contract, and many contractors and owners see that having those things balances out against any higher costs of hiring a unionized workforce. They know that skilled, safe labor adds value totheir bottom line.

It's true that organized labor is nearly always the beneficiary of a PLA, but that's an example of unions giving the customer what he wants. If you're a contractor who needs a dozen skilled electricians next week, IBEW Local 58 in Detroit likely has them available.

If PLAs are exclusionary, they exclude contractors who will not or cannot live up to the contractual terms set forth by potential employers. That's also a business decision on the part of those excluded contractors. If I were a construction contractor, I would think long and hard about what I need to do to adjust my business practices to serve the needs of local employers and owners, especially if I'm missing out on work opportunities. If work opportunities are lost because a contractor refuses to utilize a union workforce, then perhaps it would be beneficial from a business standpoint to adjust that strategy, rather than holding out hope that a lawsuit is going to change one's fortunes.

The Republican Legislature and Gov. Snyder did get a slapdown on this one, but I doubt if it will change anything in Lansing.

And I'm not sure where union "greed" comes into play here at all.

[noise]

I'm a public union member that's actually paid slightly below market wages. We do exist.

[Wesley Mouch]

<snip>

And I'm not sure where union "greed" comes into play here at all.

It would be 'greed' if PLA is being used to exclude certain workers or contractors because they are not members of a union, which therefore is an economic discrimination based on group affiliation.