The following editorial by Senator Gerald Cardinale (R-Bergen) to urge the state Assembly to vote against a costly and destructive expansion of Project Labor Agreements was published in the Bergen Record on Sunday:

ON JAN. 14, many of my colleagues and I voted against an expansion of project labor agreements, which allow elected officials to funnel more public projects to labor unions of their choice.

Both the motivation and consequences of this bill are equally destructive to bipartisan Sandy recovery efforts. Senate Democrats called a vote on this measure because Governor Christie recently received a labor union endorsement that they felt entitled to, and that union justly opposes this bill.

I oppose this bill because it tilts the playing field in favor of 14 percent of the workforce that is unionized and against 86 percent of non-unionized workers struggling in the aftermath of the Great Recession and superstorm Sandy.

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