"It has been reported that Rep. William Keller, D-Philadelphia, introduced a bill in the General Assembly to amend the state's Mechanics' Lien Law to classify union benefit fund trustees as subcontractors allowed to pursue claims for nonpayment against employers and property owners. This action followed a Pennsylvania Supreme Court ruling that unions and benefit fund trustees do not qualify as subcontractors as a result of collective bargaining agreements with employers. There is one small problem with this bill: the Employee Retirement Income Security Act ... [which] sets forth the procedure for fund trustees to collect for nonpayment, and would seemingly preempt such a state law."  MORE >>