The Associated General Contractors of America issued the following statement in response to the release today of final federal rules governing the use of government-mandated project labor agreements on federal construction projects:
"We appreciate that the Administration accepted our counsel to avoid retroactively imposing government mandated labor agreements once contracts have already been awarded. However, we continue to strongly oppose any effort by government officials, who often have little or no experience in construction labor relations, to undermine existing relationships between contractors and construction workers by imposing project labor agreements. Any comprehensive review of existing construction worker benefits and current federal contracting guidelines will prove that government mandated labor agreements are as unnecessary as they are costly and counterproductive. That is why we will continue to encourage agency officials to exercise the broad latitude provided by these rules to avoid imposing these agreements," said Stephen E. Sandherr, the association's chief executive officer.
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