Construction Informer

From Massachusetts to Washington, DC to Kansas City and beyond, the construction world is abuzz with an acronym. PLA, or project labor agreement, has re-surfaced in the wake of the large government spending that is about to take place for stimulus-funded construction projects. This is nothing new as whenever massive federal spending on construction is going on, PLAs get more than their share of press.

According to one account, Bush issued an executive order that forbade PLAs on federally funded projects. More recently, Obama attached PLA requirements to government construction spending that exceeds $25 million.

The arguments for and against PLAs go on forever. One opponent sites Massachusetts Big Dig as an example of why PLAs don’t work as advertised, while a proponent names off other projects as evidence that they do work. Needless to say the unions are for PLAs, while others are against them.

Some states and municipalities claim PLAs help to ensure the workforce on projects remains local. Many project managers no doubt see real value in PLAs as they standardize work pay rates, hours and conditions on large jobs where managing conflicting issues like those could become onerous.

A study, recently announced by a group of unions and completed by a professor at Cornell State University in New York, claims there is no evidence that PLAs drive up the costs of projects, as is claimed by some opponents who say PLAs limit the available pool of bidders.

But you know, everybody is right in this argument, regardless of the side they take. PLAs on some projects do drive up costs without guaranteeing any better quality. PLAs on other projects don’t drive up costs and do actually help with maintaining quality construction. It can also be said that PLAs help to keep local labor employed, and anyone who considers it would have to concede that PLAs are bound to simplify managing labor on large, complex, projects that depend upon labor from many contractors.

Perhaps it’s just time for everybody to get over it. The amount of fighting and rancor raised by these endless debates that accomplish absolutely nothing in the long run, is energy that might better be directed at things like creating successful projects regardless of the acronyms involved.