Read Our Letter to the Prince William County School Board
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Dear Board Members:
The Virginia Coalition for Fair Contracting & Employee Protection (“Virginians for Fairness”) is a 501c(4) organization dedicated to advocating for open, competitive bid processes on public procurements in the Commonwealth. We are committed to fostering a construction environment that is free from restrictive mandates and beneficial to all Virginians. Our collective membership includes over 1,000 Virginia construction firms in multiple industry sectors.
We are writing regarding the Board of Education’s decision to require contractors involved in the construction of the County’s 14th school to sign a Project Labor Agreement (“PLA”). We are troubled by the lack of notice and public input prior to the Board’s decision to take such action at its April 2, 2025 meeting. Further, as the comments made during the discussion of the PLA make clear, a fuller public discussion is desperately needed. As such, we hope the Board will reconsider this issue, examine the evidence, listen to the public, and advance the interests of families, students, and taxpayers, not political interest groups.
The Independent Science is Clear: PLAs Add Significant Cost to Public Projects
The impact of PLAs on project costs is frequently debated, particularly in political settings like legislatures and elected boards. Admittedly, many of the so-called academic studies cited in these debates are sponsored by groups, including labor unions, with a vested interested in the debate. Perhaps not surprisingly, these studies reach pre-ordained conclusions that support the positions of those who paid for them. But independent research on this issue exists, and the findings are clear – PLAs add significant costs to public projects. Further, the extra costs associated with PLAs, reduce the amount of public benefit that could have otherwise been achieved with the same level of resources.
For example, in 2021 and 2024, the RAND Corporation examined the impact of government mandated PLAs on the construction of affordable housing.[1] RAND is a highly respected, non-profit research organization that is non-partisan and committed to the public interest. RAND’s seminal studies on PLA costs used data from Proposition HHH in Los Angeles, a voter approved effort to invest $1 billion towards the construction of 10,000 units of affordable housing. The Los Angeles City Council subsequently required a PLA for a portion of the units constructed.
After examining the data, the authors concluded that the PLA requirement increased project costs by an average of 21% and increased the time to completion by 27%, writing that, “A simple rule of thumb is that the use of a PLA incurs a cost equal to 1 of every 5 affordable housing units that could be produced through funding programs without a PLA.”[2] Put differently, that means the decision to impose a PLA on affordable housing projects deprives taxpayers of 20 units for every 100 units they pay for. Naturally, this same phenomenon is true of all types of projects, including school construction. Why do PLAs increase project costs? The answer is simple – PLAs dramatically reduce bid competition.
Most contractors, including nearly all Virginia firms, will not bid on PLA projects. The financial and operational risks associated with these projects is simply too great. Thus, PLAs effectively steer public contracts to a handful of unionized firms – nearly always out-of-state firms – that have no incentive to keep costs low.
PLAs on Schools in the Region Have Been Disastrous
PLAs are extremely rare in construction because they add little to no value to a project, and instead, introduce significant cost, complexity, and risk. This is why, as of yet, there hasn’t been a single project ever completed in Virginia with a mandatory PLA requirement.[3] In the area of school construction, only a few projects in the entire region have required contractors to sign a PLA. Those projects were in Prince Georges County and the District of Columbia, and the results were predictable.
In PG County, the County Council imposed a PLA requirement on the plan to build six new schools. That decision sent the project wildly over budget forcing the Superintendent to plead for relief from the PLA from the Council.[4] For what can only be assigned to political cowardice, the Council instead considered cutting student programming, including summer school.[5] The County was only relieved of this problem when the State of Maryland permitted them to use future fiscal years’ funds to pay for the cost overruns. As is obvious, however, this fiscal gimmick reduces capital funding in the future and is a highly irresponsible way to manage the County’s capital budget.
In the District of Columbia, the PLA added to the modernization of Benjamin Banneker High School, which was imposed after the original contract was awarded, increased the “guaranteed” maximum price of the project by over $20 million. The D.C. Council was forced to increase the budget for the project by 17.5% to pay for the additional costs associated with the PLA. That’s $20 million of school resources that could have funded classrooms, teachers, and other student needs.
The PLA Will Not Increase Worker Wages & Benefits
Pursuant to Section 100.12(M) of the Prince William County procurement regulations, construction projects over $250,000 in contract value are subject to a prevailing wage requirement.[6] As a result, the PLA imposed by the Board will not increase the wages or fringe benefits of a single construction worker on the future school project. Therefore, there is simply no added value for workers from requiring a PLA on the project.
In fact, nearly all local construction workers will be worse off under a PLA, which let union hiring halls dictate who gets to work on the project and who does not. Because approximately 95% of Virgina construction workers are not members union, they will lose out on opportunities to work on the jobs their own tax dollars pay for. This is not acceptable.
These are a few of the myriad reasons why government-mandated PLAs hurt Prince William County residents, taxpayers, students, workers, and businesses. We are happy to be a resource for the Board as it considers construction mandates on school projects in the future. Thank you!
Sincerely,
THE VIRGINIA COALITION FOR FAIR CONTRACTING & EMPLOYEE PROTECTION
[1] The RAND studies may be accessed here and here.
[2] Ward, Jason. “Project Labor Agreements and Affordable Housing Production Costs in Los Angeles,” Rand Corporation, September 2024, p. vii
[3] Several projects, including the Silver Line (Phase 2) and interstate construction projects contained voluntary PLAs, i.e., Contractors were not required to sign or adhere to the PLA requirements as a condition of working on the project. Another project in Fairfax County, the Accotink Wastewater Pump Station Rehabilitation, includes a mandatory PLA, but has not yet been completed. Notably, only 2 bids were received for this project and the contract was awarded to a construction firm based in New Jersey.
[4] Letter from Superintendent Millard House, II to the Prince George’s County Board of Education, January 17, 2024
[5] “Prince Georges County may cut programs after change to school construction plan,” WJLA, January 22, 2024.
[6]https://eservice2.pwcgov.org/eservices/procurement/Content/Amended%20Procurement%20Regulations%202024.pdf