Feds Investigating Pay-to-Play AND Pay-to-PLA

Although the federal investigation into Allentown and Reading certainly encompasses pay-to-play, it also extends into pay-to-PLA.. Here in the Lehigh Valley, Project Labor Agreements are fairly common for municipal projects. But they are far more controversial in Berks County, where the Republican Commissioners passed a measure last year to ban them.

Before his sudden departure on a midnight train to Georgia, Miked Fleck was one of the area's biggest advocates of PLAs. In Easton, where he was a member of City Council, he promoted legislation requiring them for any municipal project over $250,000. His companion, Allentown Mayor Edwin "Fed Ed" Pawlowski, has boasted that "I led the charge to have every major project in Allentown done using a PLA. They contribute to the local economy and give back so much to the community. Using a PLA really is an easy choice for any community that cares about local business and local jobs.”

In addition to these arguments in support of PLAs, they tend to make construction sites safer. The chief argument against them is that they drive up construction costs.

At this time last year, Fleck and Reading Mayor Vaughn Spencer were pushing an ordinance that would require a project labor agreement for all city projects costing over $5 million. Unions, which donated $18,950 to Spenser in 2014, with more to come this year, wanted in on a $150 million renovation of the sewage treatment plant, the $330 million BioNitrogen fertilizer plant and other projects like the former Reading Outlets, owned by developer Alan Shuman. Fleck, who incidentally was working for the trades unions, organized a jobs rally to pressure Reading's City Council, which is less of a rubber stamp than the one in Allentown.

Developer Alan Shuman, who was opposed to being forced into a PLA, spoke forcefully against it at Reading City Council meetings.

He would see his $14 million reconstruction of The Reading Outlet Center go up in smoke. The property was torched on October 18, 2014. The feds have declared it an arson, and are offering an $85,000 reward for information that will lead them to the culprit. Interestingly, most of this reward money has been pledged by the Associated Builders and Contractors Inc., Keystone Chapter. That group is strongly opposed to project labor agreements. Obviously, their reward and the federal involvement are indications that trades unions are under suspicion.

"We don't do that sort of thing anymore," one union official told me. There's certainly no need for it in The Lehigh Valley, and it's extremely difficult to get an arson conviction. But let's be realistic. Just a few months ago, former Ironworkers union boss Joe Dougherty was convicted in Philadelphia, City of Brotherly Love, of racketeering, arson and extortion.

Would the feds move Miked Fleck out of town because he dimed the Penguin? Not likely. But if he did something that really pissed off the unions, like implicate them in an arson after taking all their money and even screwing union leaders out of a Sky Box at the PPL Arena, well that's different. The criminal charges filed against LV Building Trades Prez Jim Reilley for an assault on Fleck's brother-in-law is an indication that unions are angry about something.