More Evidence Shows Project Labor Agreements Injure Competition
On Jan. 19, 2011, ABC’s weekly electronic publication, Newsline, conducted an electronic poll of Newsline subscribers about the impact of government-mandated project labor agreements (PLAs) on bidding for public construction projects. The poll remained open until Jan. 26, 2011 and readers were asked to respond to this question:
‘”Would you be more likely or less likely to bid on a public construction project that requires your firm to sign a government-mandated project labor agreement (PLA)?”
Of the 569 respondents respondents, 98 percent (558 respondents) indicated that they would be less likely to bid on a PLA project. Just 11 respondents (less than 2 percent) indicated they would be more likely to bid on a PLA project.
ABC National conducted two similar surveys in 2009. Results found that 689 unique contractors would be less likely to bid on a public construction project containing a PLA requirement while just seven contractors said they would be more likely to bid on a PLA project.
These surveys add to the overwhelming body of existing evidence that PLAs injure competition from nonunion contractors who employ 86.9 percent of the U.S. construction workforce.
One wonders why President Obama and federal procurement officials would want to implement a government policy that discourages competition from such a large segment of the construction industry via President Obama’s pro-PLA Executive Order 13502 and related regulations.
One wonders why state and local officials would implement anti-competitive and costly PLA mandates on state and local construction projects funded by taxpayer dollars.
Learn how and why PLAs cut competition from qualified contractors and their skilled workforce here.
One Response to More Evidence Shows Project Labor Agreements Injure Competition
Great write-up, I