Labor pacts boost construction costs
Re “Watching a hole in the ground fill with money,” column, Jan. 10
What was not mentioned by the city engineer about why only one company bid on this job to build the new Los Angeles Police Department headquarters is that this project is covered by a project labor agreement. This essentially makes the project union-only. If you want to know why other construction companies didn’t bid, ask them if the agreement had anything to do with it.
I could write pages about how this payoff to union bosses is making all the projects they cover in L.A. true money pits. Perhaps The Times could take a long-overdue look into these wasteful and discriminatory agreements.
Project labor agreements also cover all L.A. Unified School District construction work and city work. L.A. is a real mess thanks to these sweetheart deals, and it is time that elected officials quit bending over backward for union bosses and start thinking about taxpayers (even the non-union ones) for a change. Billions of dollars will continue to be wasted otherwise.
ERIC CHRISTEN
Executive Director
Coalition for Fair
Employment in
Construction
Sacramento
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