Kirschner was responding to a February 14 State House news conference by State Senator Stephen Sweeney and Mercer County Executive Robert Prunetti supporting legislation that would authorize project labor agreements for public construction projects at all levels of government.

"Today is Valentine's Day and proponents of project labor agreements want to give the unions a sweetheart deal," Kirschner said. "But while they're offering flowers and candy to the unions, they're leaving taxpayers broken-hearted."

"While everyone else is being asked to sacrifice in these uncertain economic times, Sweeney and Prunetti want to gift wrap billions of taxpayer dollars and give it to the labor unions," Kirschner said. "This legislation will create a virtual monopoly for labor unions. It will effectively shut out hundreds of qualified contractors, many of them minority contractors, and thousands of nonunion workers from participating in the competitive bidding process. Every public works project impacted by this order will cost taxpayers more."

"This is just another sweetheart deal for the unions that would be funded on the backs of taxpayers," he said.

The negative impact of project labor agreements is well documented:

The New Jersey Supreme Court has struck down project labor agreements in the past for being in violation of competitive bidding laws. In 1994, the Court said, "bidding statutes are for the benefit of the taxpayers.... Their objects are to guard against favoritism, improvidence, extravagance and corruption; their aim is to secure for the public the benefits of unfettered competition." (George Harms Const. V. Turnpike Authority) Project labor agreements, as a practical matter, bar hundreds of qualified nonunion contractors from participating in public works contracts.
Project labor agreements deny jobs to thousands of nonunion workers whose firms will not get to participate in public contracts. These workers pay taxes to finance school construction projects and the Transportation Trust Fund, but will not be able to work on them.
Major construction projects undertaken with project labor agreements- from Boston's notorious Central Artery project to the San Francisco Airport expansion-have been severely over budget and behind schedule.

For information, contact Steve Wilson at 609-393-7707, ext. 245, or swilson@njbia.org.
 

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