Maine Gov. Paul LePage Criticizes Private PLA Mandate
Last week, Maine Gov. Paul LePage (R) strongly came out against a project labor agreement (PLA) mandate proposed by Summit Natural Gas on the Kennebec Valley natural gas project, which is slated to cost more than $100 million. Gov. LePage’s office released a statement on March 21. Here are the highlights: Governor Expresses [...]
Virginia Construction Industry Supports Legislation Ensuring Fair and Open Competition On Public Construction Contracts
Yesterday, ABC Virginia issued a press release supporting the Fair and Open Competition in Government Contracting Act (HB 33) pre-filed this Monday in Richmond (see the full release below). HB 33 prohibits Virginia and recipients of state funding or assistance from requiring or prohibiting contractors to enter into union agreements, such as a project labor agreement (PLA), as [...]
WSJ Editorial: Government-mandated PLAs “Deserve to be Outlawed”
The title says it all and we completely agree! The editorial board at The Wall Street Journal has again come out against wasteful and discriminatory government-mandated PLAs. Here are the highlights from the editorial (“Project Labor Revolt: The states ban union political bid-rigging. Obama demurs,” 7/19/11): One benefit of the squeeze on state and local [...]
Maine Governor Signs Open Competition Bill into Law
Maine is the land of good lobster, fine mustard and now open competition for taxpayer funded construction! Maine Governor Paul LePage (R) has signed L.D. 1257, which will keep government-mandated project labor agreements (PLAs) off state construction through October 2015. In Maine, more than 9 out of ten construction workers choose not to join a [...]
Breaking: Michigan and Maine Legislatures Pass PLA Bans
Today is a huge day for those who think free enterprise and open competition should determine how taxpayer-funded construction contracts are awarded in America. Lawmakers in Maine and Michigan passed bills that ban government-mandated PLAs on state funded construction. Once they are signed into law, they will ensure that taxpayers get the best construction at the [...]
Louisiana Bans Government-Mandated PLAs on State Funded Projects
The wave continues! With Gov. Bobby Jindal’s signature yesterday of S.B. 76, Louisiana is now the fifth state to ban government-mandated project labor agreements (PLAs) to some degree in 2011 and the ninth state to do so nationwide. This is a huge development for taxpayers in Louisiana. This bill guarantees that free enterprise – not Big Labor [...]
State Lawmakers Show U.S. House the Way Forward
Despite a setback at the federal level, the drive for taxpayer value on public construction continued at the state level last week with several key states taking important actions. First, the Louisiana Legislature approved legislation that would ban government-mandated PLAs on all state and local construction in the state. This bill, S.B. 76, received bi-partisan [...]
PLA Legislation on the Move – Mid-May Edition
Tennessee Legislation to prohibit wasteful and discriminatory project labor agreements (PLAs) on state and local construction projects is on its way to Gov. Bill Haslam (R) for his signature or veto. We urge Gov. Haslam to take quick action on this bi-partisan legislation, HB1498, which will protect taxpayers from these Big Labor handouts on public [...]