Businesses speak out against project labor agreements for Hatboro-Horsham

A local business owner and a national construction industry trade association urged the Hatboro-Horsham school board Monday night to avoid a project labor agreement to build the $31 million Hallowell Elementary School.

“A PLA is an advantage to union workers, to union contractors,” said Brendan Stanton, owner of BSI Electrical Contractors in Montgomeryville. “There’s no advantage to school districts. ... I’m urging you to reject this PLA business. It will not benefit the students. It will not benefit the teachers. … There’s no upside to it.”

A project labor agreement is essentially a collective bargaining agreement for a single project. The workers come from union shops.

Proponents of PLAs claim they ensure that contractors meet deadlines, use skilled labor and comply with laws on workplace safety and health. Critics claim PLAs are union-friendly, increase costs and negatively impact nonunion companies.

The board voted unanimously last month to spend $12,000 on a Keystone Research Center study to determine if a PLA was in the district’s best interests.

On Monday night, critics of PLAs voiced their concerns. Mary Tebeau, president and CEO of Associated Builders & Contractors, Eastern Pennsylvania Chapter, said if Hatboro-Horsham establishes a PLA for Hallowell, it’s effectively cutting out 80 percent of the workforce, according to U.S. Labor Department statistics.

She said nonunion companies like BSI won’t even bid with a PLA because it would force them to use workers from a union hall rather than its own nonunion staff. That reduces competition, she said, which leads to higher costs.

“ABC believes construction contracts should be awarded to the safest, most responsible bidder regardless of labor affiliation,” Tebeau said.

Stanton, BSI’s owner, concurred. “If you want the best project, bid the job and let the chips fall where they fall,” he said.

The board, which plans to bid the construction project in May and award bids in June, did not give any hints as to which way it was leaning.

In March, Hatboro-Horsham Superintendent Curtis Griffin said the district “would like to see construction dollars come back to the community. We’re looking at ways to include provisions for veterans. We also want to have smooth labor relations across the board, whether it’s union or nonunion. So we want to consider what’s the best way to achieve these goals.”

Stephen Herzenberg, KRC’s executive director and a supporter of PLAs, said the analysis he’s putting together “evaluates whether or not a project labor agreement can help a public entity achieve its objective on a construction project, where on-time completion and on-budget completion are often two of the most important considerations.”

Source: The Intelligencer