Joint MCAA & UA Investment Pays Off in Support for Project Labor Agreements

Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren and Massachusetts AFL-CIO President Chrissy Lynch published an August 6 op-ed in the Boston Globe. In it, they refute criticism of Project Labor Agreement use on federally-sponsored construction projects, citing some $20 billion in Biden Administration construction investments within the state over the past three years. Their argument relies heavily on the Independent Project Analysis (IPA) report, Quantifying the Value of Union Labor in Construction Projects, commissioned by  MCAA and the UA, acting through the Mechanical Industry Advancement Fund, in December 2022.

The op-ed cites the  basic findings of the IPA analysis, which was conducted independently from the UA and MCAA, that:

• Union-only projects are 14% more productive than all open shop projects and are consequently some 4% more cost effective overall.
• There is a 40% reduction in the risk of substantial cost overruns or schedule slippages on union-only jobs as compared with non-union projects.
• The labor turnover rate on union-only jobs is one-third less than is prevalent on non-union projects. 

After analyzing project performance on some 1,550 industrial projects ranging in size from $200,000 to $6 Billion going back to 2002, the IPA report concludes that the union/non-union project comparison substantiates the very significant union project advantages, saying, “The overall findings indicate the combination of better skills, more reliable sourcing of sufficient skilled labor, and better labor stability (e.g., less labor turnover) all contribute to better productivity and better project outcomes.”