The Truth About Project Labor Agreements

The Biden administration and U.S. Department of the Treasury have taken another unfortunate step promoting anti-competitive and costly government-mandated project labor agreements on taxpayer-funded construction projects. The latest effort to steer public works construction projects to unionized contractors and union labor at the expense of taxpayers and fair and open competition is sure to create […]

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On May 5, ABC and a coalition of 16 industry and employer groups sent a letter to President Joe Biden raising concerns about the administration’s direct expansion and support of legislative policies encouraging or requiring controversial government-mandated project labor agreements on federal and federally assisted construction projects. The Biden administration’s March 31 release of the American Jobs Plan, an outline of $2.25 trillion worth of government […]

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The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) Baltimore District has issued a survey soliciting comments from the construction industry about the potential use of government-mandated project labor agreements (PLAs) for large scale construction projects (greater than $25M) within the Baltimore-Washington corridor. These projects may consist of new construction as well as renovation, repairs, and upgrade […]

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The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) Los Angeles District has issued a survey soliciting comments from the construction industry about the potential use of government-mandated project labor agreements (PLAs) for a future procurement for the Design and Construction of a 24,000 SF single story Re-entry Vehicle Maintenance facility at North Base, Vandenberg AFB. ABC […]

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On March 31, the Biden administration released the American Jobs Plan, which proposes more than $2 trillion in federal spending over the next eight years to improve the nation’s infrastructure, including investments in transportation, broadband, energy, and drinking water as well as funding for schools and child-care facilities, affordable housing, workforce development and manufacturing. Of […]

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The construction industry needs to hire an additional 430,000 craft professionals in 2021, according to an analysis of U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data released March 23 by Associated Builders and Contractors. Yet federal, state and local lawmakers continue to push anti-competitive and costly policies promoting controversial government-mandated project labor agreements on taxpayer-funded construction projects, […]

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Some construction union lobbyists and bosses market anti-competitive and costly project labor agreements to public and private construction owners as a tool to guarantee labor peace on construction jobsites by prohibiting union-led strikes that can delay a project and increase the cost of construction. PLA advocates know that strikes, work stoppages, slowdowns and other labor unrest authorized […]

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In what should come as no surprise, New Jersey’s history of favoring costly and discriminatory government-mandated project labor agreements over sensible policies favoring fair and open competition has reared its ugly head once again. Pro-PLA lawmakers in the state legislature, including known PLA fanatic Senate President Stephen Sweeney, have shown they continue to value the granting […]

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The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has issued two surveys soliciting comments from the construction industry about the potential use of a government-mandated project labor agreement for multiple construction projects in Maryland and Virginia. The USACE Baltimore District is soliciting comments from the construction community addressing the potential use of a PLA for large-scale, general […]

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On March 11, President Biden signed the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 (H.R. 1319) into law, including a controversial provision providing a Congressional Budget Office-estimated $86 billion taxpayer bailout of struggling multiemployer pension plans. The COVID-19 relief bill’s sudden bailout of some MEPPs has been disheartening to some small businesses and firms not affiliated […]

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