Pennsylvania Gov. Shapiro Pushes Project Labor Agreement Schemes on Taxpayer-Funded Construction Projects
Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro issued a March 27 directive encouraging state agencies to require the use of wasteful and discriminatory project labor agreements on taxpayer-funded construction projects.
Effective April 1, 2024, the Pennsylvania Department of General Services will supervise executive agencies’ evaluation of all contract solicitations to identify projects requiring “prompt completion” and “qualified labor” for PLAs. Gov. Shapiro announced the directive before an audience of carpenters union members, touting his administration’s plans to “bolster the union workforce” by prioritizing state workforce development grant applications that support “projects subject to a project labor agreement.”
The content and context of the announcement belies assurances in the text of the directive that, contrary to PLAs’ plainly exclusionary function, “the bidding process [for covered projects] is open to both union and nonunion contractors without discrimination.”
Gov. Shapiro’s directive comes less than a year after a judicial ruling found that Pennsylvania law requiring competitive bidding and prudent expenditure of taxpayer funds prohibited a PLA on a transportation improvement let by an interstate commission. The court’s interpretation of Pennsylvania law appears much more consonant than Gov. Shapiro’s directive with the interests of Pennsylvania voters as self-reported in a survey conducted by the ABC Keystone Chapter; only 20% of respondents felt PLAs were “the best way for public construction projects to be awarded,” with 77% preferring awards based on price competition and safety rather than union affiliation.
If Gov. Shapiro looked beyond his announcement audience to Pennsylvania voters, Pennsylvania law, and the nearly 80% of Pennsylvania construction workers who choose not to belong to a union, he might understand why ABC and the Pennsylvania Chamber of Business and Industry oppose his directive.
The ABC Keystone chapter will continue to encourage rescission of Gov. Shapiro’s attack on competition, advocating contract awards “based on merit, qualifications, and safety records, not contractor classification.”
Likewise, we commend the Pennsylvania Chamber’s candid assessment that PLAs “force companies whose employees are not members of a union to either forgo bidding on a project or be forced to replace their own employees with a union,” with “no discernible benefit to safety, or keeping projects on-time and on-budget.”