Virginia’s Big Dig? Union Protesters Disrupt Congressman’s Press Conference
April 18th 2011 · 1 Comment
On Monday, members of the Laborers International Union of North America (LIUNA) protested a press conference held by Rep. Frank Wolf [R-VA] due to his opposition to the building of an underground Metrorail station at Dulles Airport that he says will cost $300 million more than an above ground station.
The press conference was scheduled to urge the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority to overturn their decision to build the underground station as well as to urge the Authority to reverse its decision to build using a discriminatory, union-only Project Labor Agreement* (PLA).
Back in December, Wolf stated that he did not want the Dulles rail project to become “Virginia’s version of the ‘Big Dig.’”
On Monday, union militants interrupted Wolf’s press conference almost from the outset:
In what was supposed to be an afternoon press conference focused on a call to reverse plans to construct an underground Metrorail station at Dulles Airport, attention instead was turned to the more than 100 protestors who showed up at Rep. Frank Wolf’s (R-VA-10) Herndon office to make their voices heard.
With chants of “Cut Wolf’s pay,” protestors representing the Laborers’ International Union of North America objected to the congressman’s criticism of a Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority board vote to require Project Labor Agreement bids on Phase 2 of Metrorail construction to Dulles. A PLA is a type of pre-hire collective bargaining agreement that establishes the terms and conditions of employment for a specific construction project. While contract terms for the Phase 1 project had similar language, Wolf pointed out in a letter to MWAA board chairman Charles Snelling, “it was entered into voluntarily by Dulles Transit Partners and Bechtel after the contract was signed, and expressly exempted merit shop contractors from agreeing to the PLA.
Previously, Wolf had called for the inspector general of the U.S. Department of Transportation to audit the Dulles Metrorail project and the U.S Government Accountability Office to conduct a comprehensive review of MWAA’s operations.
MWAA had a chance to cut more than $600 million from the project and chose not to. I am disappointed and share the concerns of state and the local partners.
At this point, watching construction unions protest to spend more taxpayer money, while discriminating against union-free workers, is becoming an almost everyday occurrence.
This was only Monday.
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“I bring reason to your ears, and, in language as plain as ABC, hold up truth to your eyes.” Thomas Paine, December 23, 1776
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Loud and unruly “members” of Laborers Union (LIUNA) Local 657 were bused in from Washington, D.C. to shout down U.S. Representative Frank Wolf and other speakers at the press conference yesterday concerning $3.5 billion worth of construction on Phase 2 of the Dulles Metro Rail project in Virginia.
Rep. Wolf called the press conference to object to the Metropolitan Washington Airport Authority’s (MWAA) recent decision to build an underground metro station at Dulles Airport that will cost Virginia, Fairfax County and Loudoun County taxpayers and Dulles tollway users an additional $330 million and threatens the financing of Phase 2 construction under current funding models and agreements with MWAA and Virginia, Fairfax County and Loudoun County financial stakeholders.
Rep. Wolf and other speakers also opposed MWAA’s union-favoring project labor agreement (PLA) mandate, which will give construction labor unions a virtual monopoly building Phase 2 of the project. The PLA will increase Phase 2 construction costs by an estimated 12 percent to 18 percent, discourage competition from Virginia construction firms, and discriminate against 96 percent of the Virginia construction workforce that chooses not to belong to a union. The anti-competitive special-interest PLA will bust budgets and lead to out-of-state workers (like LIUNA local 657 “members”) taking jobs from Virginia construction workers and taxpayers.
MWAA board member Dennis Martire is the Vice President and Mid-Atlantic Regional Manager of the Laborers’ International Union of North American (LiUNA). Martire pushed for the PLA on Phase 2, which will result in his employer, LIUNA, and his members and LIUNA pension plans and other union slush funds receiving a significant financial windfall.
This is corrupt self-dealing that needs to be exposed. The LIUNA members at today’s press conference were sent by the very MWAA member –Dennis Martire– that pushed for this union-favoring scheme on $3.5 billion worth of publicly-funded construction.