Dear Editor:
On Tuesday, October 18 the Parsippany-Troy Hills Township Council will vote on mandating Project Labor Agreements (PLAs) for town construction projects.
State prevailing wage laws, which mandate that the contractors on all significant municipal construction projects pay prevailing wages, interpreted to mean union wages, already make all government construction jobs more costly than similar jobs in the private sector. Now our Council is looking to go beyond that and require workers actually belong to a union.
That violates the freedom of contractors and workers. On an ad hoc basis, the bid specs for a particular project could still provide for a PLA if special circumstances justify it, but a blanket requirement is uncalled for and will reduce competitive bidding and drive up costs.
If you want to learn more about the issue click here.
I urge all taxpayers to contact our Council members and urge them to vote NO on PLAs.
Kenneth Kaplan
Parsippany
