San Diego News Site Labels Anti-PLA Op-Ed ‘Huckster Propaganda’
March 5, 2010
Web site Voice of SanDiego.org has called out anti-union spokesman Eric Christen for being less than honest about project labor agreements in an op-ed he penned for the San Diego Tribune.
PLAs are project-specific, pre-hire collective bargaining agreements that set out terms and conditions of employment on construction sites.
Christen, executive director of the anti-PLA Coalition for Fair Employment in Construction, wrote:
PLAs deny nearly 85 percent of California's construction workforce the ability to do public work projects ... PLAs put special interests ahead of the public interest by restricting the bidding process to ONLY contractors backed by big labor unions.
On the news site’s Fact Check blog, its editors found Christen’s claims lacking any basis in reality.
According to the blog:
(B)oth of those assertions are wrong, and Christen knew it.
PLAs allow both union and nonunion companies to bid for work, and they allow both union and nonunion workers to be employed under certain conditions. For example, workers may be required to go through a union's hiring hall or pay union fees.
In an interview, Christen acknowledged that nonunion contractors can enter bids on PLA projects and nonunion workers can work them. He said his statement was an effort to convey how the labor conditions may deter contractors from PLA projects as an "implicit form of discrimination."
On a five-point scale, the site gave Christen’s allegations its worst rating: “Huckster Propaganda,” meaning his statement is:
(N)ot only inaccurate but it is reasonable to expect the person or organization making it knew that and made the claim anyway to gain advantage.
Last year President Barack Obama issued an executive order that overturns a ban on project labor agreements on federally funded-projects put in place eight years ago by his predecessor, George W. Bush, making it easier for signatory contractors to fairly compete for government work.
To find out the real truth about PLAs go to www.plaswork.org.
Photo used under a Creative Commons License from Flickr user luigioss.
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