2019/10/16 Council Agenda Packet

The Anticompetitive Effects of Government- 14 HILL Mandated Project Labor Agreements on � �n- �� Construction in Washington State U�� Paul Bachman, MSIE,The Beacon Hill Institute for Public Policy Research �a D� William F. Burke, BS,The Beacon Hill Institute for Public Policy Research David G.Tuerck, PhD,The Beacon Hill Institute for Public Policy Research June 2019 Executive Summary A project labor agreement (PLA) is an agreement between construction unions and contractors employed on a building project under which the firms adhere to specified work rules and hiring procedures. Typically, PLAs require that all workers be hired through union halls, that non- union workers join a union and/or pay dues for the length of the project and that union rules apply to work conditions and dispute resolution. Construction unions actively lobby governments to require PLAs to the end of securing work for their members on projects funded by taxpayers. A Community Workforce Agreement(CWA),like a PLA,is an agreement between public owners of construction projects and construction unions. The terms of a CWA are virtually identical to those specified by a PLA but with the added purpose of promoting social equity, workforce diversity, and development of local workers for construction careers.1 The Beacon Hill Institute has completed an extensive statistical analysis of the effects on school construction bids and on construction costs of PLAs in Ohio,Massachusetts,Connecticut and the state of New York. In the Ohio,Massachusetts and Connecticut studies,our analysis found final construction costs to be significantly higher when a school construction project was executed We use PLA to mean both PLAs and CWAs. The Anticompetitive Effects of Project Labor Agreements on Public Construction in Washington State 1