The Truth About Project Labor Agreements

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 Standard Multi-Purpose Range Complex, National Training Center, Fort Irwin, San Bernardino County, CA. TheTruthAboutPLAs.com, a project of ABC National, encourages the merit shop contracting community to respond […]

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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 […]

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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 […]

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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 […]

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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 […]

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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 […]

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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. […]

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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) […]

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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 […]

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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 […]

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