A Non-Union Contractor Comments on Project Labor Agreements

In an October 27, 2009 interview with Ken Holmes, president of North Branch Construction in New Hampshire, by Craig Smith of the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, Holmes offered his candid observations as a non-union contractor about Project Labor Agreements (PLA).

Holmes has filed a bid protest with the federal Government Accountability Office (GAO) about a PLA requirement on a $30 million Job Corps Center in Manchester, NH. Click here to read my previous blog post on the bid protest.

In the interview, Holmes accurately described a PLA as "an agreement that mandates using union-only labor, or meeting all the work rules and paying into the benefit programs of the unions, even if the workers are not union members."

He goes on to state that "ninety-one percent of the construction workers, private construction workers in New Hampshire, work for non-union companies." The result, he contends, is that neither the contractors or workers for this project will be from New Hampshire. "The only effective thing this will do is bring in union contractors and union labor from out of state."

To read the complete interview with Holmes, visit the website of the Tribune-Review by clicking here.