Associated Builders and Contractors, Eastern PA Chapter, Inc. et al v. County of Northampton

Posted by National Alliance for Fair Contracting on

“Four municipalities recently passed responsible contractor ordinances which specify certain criteria that a contractor must satisfy to be eligible to perform work valued over a certain monetary threshold for those municipalities. … the ordinances’ require… that all bidders on qualifying public works projects participate in a so-called “Class A Apprenticeship Program” … expense of their nonunion competitors and taxpayers. The plaintiffs … arguing that the apprenticeship-program-participation requirement is not rationally related to any legitimate government purpose.

…

…the court agrees with the defendants that ERISA does not preempt the ordinances because they do not “refer to” or have a “connection with” ERISA-covered plans … and even if they did, the market participant exception would preclude preemption here.

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3d_money_construction_dreamstime_xxl_21903206

Workers’ Pay Should Not Fund ABC Sham Labor Compliance Committee’s

Posted by National Alliance for Fair Contracting on

Anti-union contractors deduct earnings from workers’ paychecks. They use the money to fund committees that falsely claim to be about labor compliance, but actually exist solely to further the anti-union contractors’ political interests. Then they claim that expense as a fringe benefit to the worker, which they use to reduce the amount they are legally required to pay the worker under California’s prevailing wage law.

Unfortunately, a loophole in current law allows that deceptive and unfair scenario to happen. And the Associated Builders and Contractors (“ABC”) and their friends are all too happy to exploit it.

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