Below is an initital statement from ABC National on the final rule.

TheTruthAboutPLAs.com will provide additional analysis on the final rule this week.

Obama Administration Issues Policy that Discriminates Against 85 Percent of the Construction Workforce

Final Rule Comes as Construction  Industry Unemployment Rate Hits 25 Percent

Statement For Immediate Release
April 12, 2010

Washington, D.C.– Associated Builders and Contractors (ABC) 2010 National Chairman Jim Elmer, president of James W. Elmer Construction Co., Spokane, Wash., today issued the following statement in reaction to the final rule, to be issued April 13 by the Obama administration, that would establish a policy of encouraging federal agencies to impose government-mandated project labor agreements (PLAs) on federal construction projects exceeding $25 million:

“Anti-competitive project labor agreements are special interest kickback schemes that end open, fair and competitive bidding on public projects,” said Elmer. “Government-mandated PLAs are a handout to a politically connected special interest group and come at the taxpayers’ expense.

“PLAs can drive up the cost for public construction by nearly 20 percent, while unfairly discriminating against the more than 85 percent of the U.S. construction workforce that chooses not to join a union.

“With the construction industry facing a staggering unemployment rate of 25 percent, this is the worst possible time for politics to trump sound public policy. This final rule shows that the Obama administration is more concerned with paying back its political allies than putting America’s entire construction workforce back to work.

“ABC believes this final rule implementing President Obama’s Executive Order 13502, issued February 6th last year, exceeds his statutory authority and violates the Competition in Contracting Act, as well as other procurement laws and regulations. We will exhaust every opportunity to challenge this policy, which is effectively a federal government endorsement of union set-asides,” Elmer said.

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 Associated Builders and Contractors (ABC) is a national association with 77 chapters representing 25,000 merit shop construction and construction-related firms with two million employees. Visit us at www.abc.org.  For more information about government-mandated PLAs, visit www.TheTruthAboutPLAs.com or www.abc.org/pla.

Contact:   Gerry Fritz, (703) 812-2062 or Gail Raiman, (703) 812-2073

April 13 update from www.TheTruthAboutPLAs.com:

From the Federal Register

RULES
Federal Acquisition Regulation:         

Use of Project Labor Agreements for Federal Construction Projects

• Text: http://edocket.access.gpo.gov/2010/2010-8118.htm
• PDF: http://edocket.access.gpo.gov/2010/pdf/2010-8118.pdf
• Effective Date: May 13, 2010.

Below is a news release from ABC National.

New Release

ABC Defeats Unlawful and Discriminatory New Hampshire Construction Contract

 Move Comes in Response to ABC Member Protest

Washington, D.C. – Associated Builders and Contractors (ABC) today announced that the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) has cancelled its solicitation for bids to construct a new Job Corps Center in Manchester, N.H. under a government-mandated project labor agreement (PLA). The cancellation came in response to a protest filed with the Government Accountability Office (GAO) by ABC member North Branch Construction of Concord, N.H., with ABC support and representation. North Branch Construction challenged the PLA as unlawful and discriminatory.

“This is a real win for the principle of fair and open competition in government procurement,” said North Branch Construction attorney Maurice Baskin of Venable LLP, ABC’s General Counsel. “It is no coincidence that the Department of Labor cancelled its unlawful PLA mandate the day before the agency was required to file a response to our bid protest. We demonstrated that there was no justification for imposing a PLA on this project and that the PLA mandate violated the Competition in Contracting Act and other longstanding federal procurement requirements.”

“There is no justification for playing favorites in the government procurement process,” said ABC President and CEO Kirk Pickerel. “We hope that other federal agencies will heed this example and recognize that PLAs only result in delayed construction and harm to taxpayers. ABC will continue to protest any attempt to impose PLAs on federal construction projects in violation of competitive bidding laws.”

“The Department of Labor can still move this project forward by abandoning this illegal PLA,” said Ken Holmes, president of North Branch Construction. “Our company and other New Hampshire businesses deserve a fair opportunity to provide the public with the best construction product at the best price and we hope the Labor Department will build this project without a PLA in early 2010.”

A PLA is a contract that discourages competition from nonunion contractors and their nonunion employees by requiring a construction project to be awarded only to contractors and subcontractors that agree to recognize unions as the representatives of their employees on that job; use the union hall to obtain workers; obey the union’s restrictive apprenticeship and work rules; and contribute to union pension plans and other funds in which their employees will never benefit unless they join a union.

The bid protest challenged the legality of the federal government’s recent shift in federal procurement policy concerning the use of discriminatory and costly PLAs. On Feb. 6, President Obama signed Executive Order 13502, which repealed a 2001-2008 prohibition on federal PLAs and encourages agencies to require PLAs on federal construction projects whose total costs exceed $25 million. The Federal Acquisition Regulatory (FAR) Council is in the process of reviewing public comments on its controversial July 14 proposed rule that would implement Executive Order 13502 into federal procurement code. ABC filed detailed comments challenging the implementation of Executive Order 13502.

The DOL’s Job Corps Center PLA was believed to be the first government-mandated PLA on a federal construction project since Executive Order 13502 was issued.

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Media Inquiries: Gail Raiman, (703) 812-2073 or Gerry Fritz, (703) 812-2062

TheTruthAboutPLAs.com on this development: Rather than build this project without a discriminatory and costly (and probably illegal) PLA – and generate the related economic benefits this project would create for New Hampshire taxpayers - the DOL has inexplicably cancelled this project. 

This unfortunate decision also stopped the bid protest pending before the Government Accountability Office (GAO) that would have addressed the legality of federal government-mandated PLAs and Executive Order 13502.

Justice delayed, is justice denied.