TAKE ACTION: Tell Congress and the President to Oppose Government-Mandated PLAs
Take action now and tell your members of Congress and President Biden to oppose government-mandated project labor agreements (PLAs). On February 4, President Biden signed E.O. 14063 that will require—with limited exceptions—every federal prime contractor and subcontractor to engage in negotiation or agree to project labor agreements (PLAs) on federal construction projects valued at $35 million or more. (For more, see this AGC Memo).
Rest assured, AGC of America will rigorously explore every possible avenue—including legal options—to push back against this EO. The association neither supports nor opposes contractors’ voluntary use of PLAs on government projects or elsewhere but strongly opposes any government mandate for contractors’ use of PLAs.
According to an AGC of America analysis of data obtained via a Construction Advocacy Fund-financed lawsuit under the Freedom of Information Act, the Department of Defense federal construction agencies rejected PLA mandates 99.4 percent of the time even when encouraged to do so under the Obama Administration.
AGC is committed to free and open competition for publicly funded work. And the association has long maintained that the federal government should not mandate PLAs. The use of government-mandated PLAs hurts union contractors, open-shop contractors, and fails to promote economy and efficiency in federal procurement.
Take Action now and tell President Biden to withdraw this EO and Congress to pass the Fair and Open Competition Act (H.R. 1284 / S. 403). The Fair and Open Competition Act would ensure open competition and federal government neutrality in contracting.
For more information, contact Jordan Howard at Jordan.Howard@agc.org or (703) 837-5368.