FEATURED

Survey: ABC Members Strongly Oppose Government-Mandated Project Labor Agreements

0 January 30, 2019  Featured, Federal Construction, Open Competition Works, State & Local Construction

ABC members overwhelming reported that government-mandated project labor agreements harm their businesses, hiring and workforce development practices and ability to complete work safely, on time and on budget, according to the results of a December 2018 membership survey published today. Ninety-eight percent of survey respondents said they were less likely to bid on a taxpayer-funded construction contract […]

READ MORE

DOL Website Shows Some Construction Industry Pension Plans Remain in Financial Trouble

0 January 30, 2019  Featured, Federal Construction, State & Local Construction

Following this week’s post at TheTruthAboutPLAs.com about pensions and government-mandated project labor agreements, The Project Labor Agreement and Troubled Union Multiemployer Pension Plan Nexus, ABC’s Newsline published this article Jan. 30, 2019, Some Construction Industry Pension Plans Remain in Financial Trouble, about multi-employer pension plans. Merit shop contractors are typically wary of competing for taxpayer-funded construction […]

READ MORE

USACE Baltimore District PLA Survey Due Feb. 1 – US Army War College

0 January 29, 2019  Federal Construction

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) has issued a survey soliciting comments from the construction industry about the potential use of a government-mandated project labor agreement (PLAs) for the construction of a General Instruction Building at the Carlisle Barracks of the U.S. Army War College in Carlisle, Pennsylvania. TheTruthAboutPLAs.com, a project of ABC National, encourages the merit shop contracting […]

READ MORE

USACE Louisville District Project Labor Agreement Survey Due Feb. 1

0 January 28, 2019  Federal Construction

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) has issued a survey soliciting comments from the construction industry about the potential use of a government-mandated project labor agreement (PLAs) for construction of an aircraft maintenance hangar at the Westover Air Reserve Base in Chicopee, Massachusetts. TheTruthAboutPLAs.com, a project of ABC National, encourages the merit shop contracting community to respond to this […]

READ MORE

The Project Labor Agreement and Troubled Union Multiemployer Pension Plan Nexus

0 January 28, 2019  Featured, Federal Construction, State & Local Construction

Construction unions attempt to entice merit shop craft professionals and new construction industry workers and apprentices into joining a union with promises of generous retirement benefits via multiemployer pension plans. Construction unions lobby elected officials in charge of procuring taxpayer-funded construction projects with arguments on why union contractors and union workers deserve special treatment through various […]

READ MORE

New Illinois Governor Signs Pro-PLA Executive Order

0 January 25, 2019  Uncategorized

In enacting a series of executive orders, newly elected Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker signed Executive Order 2019-02 requiring all state agencies to immediately comply with the state’s Project Labor Agreements Act. The state’s Project Labor Agreements Act requires state agencies to consider on a case-by-case basis whether PLA should be utilized on public works projects. […]

READ MORE

BLS: Just 12.8 Percent of U.S. Construction Industry Is Unionized

0 January 24, 2019  Featured, Federal Construction, State & Local Construction

According to data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics annual Union Members Summary report published January 18, 2019, union membership in the construction industry decreased in 2018. Just 12.8 percent of wage and salary workers were members of unions in the U.S. private construction industry. That’s a decrease from 14 percent in 2017. According to BLS, 1.048 million out of 8.169 million (12.8 percent) […]

READ MORE

Pennsylvania Court Strikes Down PLA Mandate

0 January 22, 2019  Featured, Open Competition Works, State & Local Construction, Transportation & Infrastructure

ABC members Allan Myers and J.D. Eckman Inc. recently won a court case challenging the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation’s project labor agreement mandate for the Markley Street reconstruction project in Montgomery County. Tried in the Commonwealth Court of Pennsylvania, the court ruled on Jan. 11 that PennDOT’s PLA mandate violated the state’s competitive bidding laws and discriminated against nonunion […]

READ MORE

USACE Wilmington District PLA Survey Due December 14

0 December 6, 2018  Federal Construction

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE)  has issued a survey soliciting comments from the construction industry about the potential use of a government-mandated project labor agreement (PLAs) for a large scale construction project (exceeding $25 million) within the Southport, North Carolina area. TheTruthAboutPLAs.com, a project of ABC National, encourages the merit shop contracting community to respond to […]

READ MORE

USACE New England District PLA Survey Due October 29

0 October 23, 2018  Uncategorized

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) has issued a survey soliciting comments from the construction industry about the potential use of a government-mandated project labor agreement (PLAs) on the construction of a new Compound Semiconductor Laboratory and Microelectronics Integration Facility on the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Lincoln Laboratory campus. TheTruthAboutPLAs.com, a project of ABC National, encourages the merit shop contracting […]

READ MORE