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| Project Labor Agreements |
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| Greenmail |
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| Open Competition Language |
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CFEC Key Points |
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What you need to know
HOW DO UNIONS USE EXTORTION AND THE THREAT OF ENVIRONMENTAL LAWSUITS TO DRIVE UP TH COST OF CONSTRUCTION AND DENY THE MAJORITY OF CALIFORNIA'S WORKFORCE THE OPPORTUNITY TO BID ON WORK?
Greenmail is a union tactic to hijack construction negotiations by threatening costly, and often frivolous, environmental litigation unless all parties agree to impose a Project Labor Agreement (PLA) scheme on the project. PLAs impose discriminatory mandates on small business ensuring that projects are awarded to vendors preferred by big labor unions.
Often when union activists discover that a public entity or private development is seeking an open, fair and competitive bidding process, the only way to ensure that unions get the work is through this type of extortion. Unions will threaten to file environmental lawsuits that could prevent the project from moving forward unless the bidding process is restricted to union firms. In fact, the San Francisco law firm Adams, Broadwell, Joseph & Cardozo has devoted its entire practice to the pursuit of union-funded environmental greenmail lawsuits. Unions have had such success with tactic that is has routine business for them.
When new developments and projects are in planning stages, union groups take tremendous leverage in their contract negotiations by threatening environmental litigation. When unions are dissatisfied with the terms of their proposed project labor agreements, or otherwise come to find they are dealing with a developer or public entity wanting open competition and bidding from merit-shop contractors as opposed to higher-priced, union-only contractors, the unions threaten to file environmental litigation which would not only prevent the project from moving forward while the lawsuit is pending, but would cost the developer and the public hundreds of thousands of dollars in legal fees, regardless of how environmentally friendly the project may be.
The unions follow through with these threats often enough to make them very credible. In fact, the San Francisco law firm Adams, Broadwell, Joseph & Cardozo has devoted its entire practice to the pursuit of union-funded environmental blackmail – now commonly known as “greenmail.” Unions have had such success with greenmail that is now routine business for them.
The threat of project delay coupled with the potential costs of litigation is often enough to get a discriminatory PLA enacted - even when they drive up the cost of construction. While the union groups and their attorneys tout themselves as environmentalists, they quickly drop their environmental claims the moment their labor demands are met or, as was the case with the Chula Vista Bayfront, when the developer abandons the project altogether.
For more information on Greenmail and its affect on the construction industry please click here
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