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BCTD Loses
PLA Fight as Supreme January 29, 2003 In a major setback for organized labor, the U.S. Supreme Court declined to review a Building and Construction Trades Department, AFL-CIO, challenge to President Bush over the use of project labor agreements in federally funded projects. The decision allows a Bush executive order issued February 2001 to stand. That order, one of the first President Bush signed when he took office, banned the use of PLAs on federally funded construction projects. The Supreme Court decision ends the escalating two-year fight that wound its way through several courts, the last one affirming the Presidents action by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit Court. "This decision is a disappointment for the labor movement because it effectively disallows one of the best tools we have for completing projects," said IBEW International President Edwin D. Hill. "The president should not, with one stroke of his pen, override state and local decisions about how to conduct their construction projects." In July the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit Court reversed a lower court ruling in the BCTDs favor. That November 2001 decision said Bushs order illegally violated the National Labor Relations Act, "removing an economic weapon from labor organizations, federal agencies and the recipients of federal funding." In 1993, the U.S. Supreme Court unanimously affirmed the use of PLA's on public projects in a case involving the cleanup of Boston Harbor. In the original lawsuit challenging the executive order, the 15 unions comprising the BCTD were joined by the city of Richmond, California. The states of California, Maryland, New York, New Jersey and Massachusetts filed briefs in the support of the unions position, as did several national contractors associations. Thirty-two Republican members of the U.S. House of Representatives wrote letters of protest to President Bush following the executive order. PLAs are collective bargaining agreements permitted under the NLRA that establish common work rules for an entire construction site. They have been used in hundreds of projects in the private and public sectors to coordinate operations of construction contractors.
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BCTD To Take Bush to Supreme Court Over PLA Order...ABC PLA Watch Page... |
