The Minnesota Vikings have approved a union-only Project Labor Agreement (PLA) in cooperation with labor unions to limit employment to union workers to build the proposed Vikings stadium.
These PLAs are bad public policy. In Minnesota, three out of four construction workers are employed by contractors not affiliated with any union.
Since PLAs effectively preclude open-shop companies from working on a stadium project, they discriminate against the majority of workers who choose not to join a union but whose hard-earned tax dollars may go toward funding this project.
Organizations like the Associated Builders and Contractors would never advocate a public policy that says "union contractors should be banned from doing public work." That would be as offensive to us as it is when the unions advocate policies that shut out merit shops.
If the unions really are as efficient as they claim, they wouldn't need to advocate for public policies that give them an artificial competitive advantage in projects like stadiums.
Several minority and women's groups have been vocal opponents of union-only agreements
. The National Association of Women Business Owners, National Black Chamber of Commerce and the Latin Builders Association are among the groups that have gone on record opposing PLAs. The National Black Chamber of Commerce described PLAs as anti-free-market, noncompetitive and, most of all, discriminatory.
Basically, the PLA deal was sold to the Vikings on the basis that they could reduce costs and ensure "labor peace." Both propositions are erroneous.
