BILLS WOULD END PROVEN CONSTRUCTION CONTRACTING METHOD IN TEXAS BEFORE IT HAS A CHANCE
A bill that would forbid publicly funded Project Labor Agreements (PLAs) in Texas will be heard Thursday in the House Economic and Small Business Committee.
HB 648 by Rep. Tan Parker, R-Flower Mound, is identical to SB 452 by Sen. Kelly Hancock, R-North Richland Hills, which was heard Tuesday in the Senate Business and Commerce Committee. The panel will meet at 8 a.m. in Room E2.010.
PLAs have never been used on a public project in Texas, reports Leonard Aguilar, Executive Director and Secretary-Treasurer of the Texas Building and Construction Trades Council. Aguilar said preemptively prohibiting such agreement would remove a valuable tool for getting large projects done. If a local government wants to utilize a PLA on a public project, they should have the freedom to do so, Aguilar said.
“Not only is this legislation a waste of time, but prohibiting PLAs on future public projects hurts taxpayers and construction workers,” Aguilar said. “PLA projects have a track record of coming in on time and on budget. They save taxpayers money and they protect wages and working conditions.”
“There’s a reason even anti-union companies like Wal-Mart use PLAs on their construction projects. They work,” Aguilar said.
Texas AFL-CIO President John Patrick said, “We should want our future schools, roads, and bridges to be built by highly trained, productive Texas workers, and PLAs help ensure those skilled workers are on the job. The truth is, the opponents of PLAs are unscrupulous contractors who want to cut corners and build our public projects with an easily exploitable workforce.”
Click here for background on what PLAs are and why they have an excellent track record: http://bit.ly/2nFEH7f
The Texas AFL-CIO is a state labor federation consisting of 237,000 affiliated union members who advocate for working families in Texas.