Merit Shop Firms Dominate ENR’s Top Contractors List

0 January 10, 2014  Featured, Open Competition Works

ABC member contractors took the top 10 spots on Engineering News-Record’s 2013 Top Contractors list, which ranked companies according to 2012 construction revenue.

Best of the Best

Additionally, 35 of the top 50, 56 out of the top 100, and 99 out of the top 200 contractors are ABC members.

Proponents of government-mandated project labor agreements (PLAs) and their cronies in government often erroneously claim PLAs are needed to ensure quality construction and protect the public from shoddy and inexperienced contractors.

However, the truth is PLAs discourage competition from qualified merit shop contractors and their skilled employees like those on ENR’s list.

In addition, PLAs serve as an artificial barrier to new jobs for more than 86.8 percent of the construction workforce (those who have chosen not to belong to a union) and research demonstrates PLAs needlessly increase costs between 12 percent and 18 percent compared to similar non-PLA projects.

While protecting the public from unscrupulous contractors is an important public policy objective, it is a shame special interests promoting PLAs utilize deception and political power to distort the free market and stifle fair competition from great contractors.

Why should lawmakers and special interest deny competition from simply the best contractors in the industry, especially when they can provide taxpayers with the best product at the best price?

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