AKRON, OH.—Today, over 100 construction craft persons picketed the Akron Schools’ Joint Board of Review and School Board meetings to protest what they call a “blatant, political giveback to union bosses.”

For months, the Akron Schools’ Joint Board of Review (JBR) has considered imposing a union-only Project Labor Agreement (PLA), which mandates that all craft persons be union members in order to work on public projects.

Ryan Martin, President and CEO of Associated Builders and Contractors (ABC) says that a PLA is discriminatory, and ABC has opposed it by supporting the protesters’ efforts and financing a direct mail campaign to residents in the Akron School District.

“Considering that nearly three-quarters of all workers in Akron and the surrounding areas are not union, the union-only PLA is nothing more than a political giveback to unions at the expense of the majority of working men and women, and the taxpayers of Akron,” said Martin.

Until now, all Akron schools have been built without a PLA, with 41% of the work going to union firms. But that is not good enough for unions which desire more.

Martin said this is typical. “What the union bosses cannot earn, they are just shameless enough to ask to be given. Their thirst for exclusivity results in their trampling over working men and women who don’t belong to their club.”

The Joint Board of Review is expected to take action, perhaps, at its meeting this evening. If successful, the JBR recommendation would then go to the full Akron School Board for a vote.