The Biden administration just issued a proposed regulation mandating that every general contractor and subcontractor engage in negotiation or agree to project labor agreements (PLAs) on federal construction projects valued at $35 million or more with limited exceptions.
WHY IT MATTERS: The Biden Administration seeks the construction industry’s feedback. Tell them to withdraw this proposed regulation and how it would impact your construction business.
OUR POSITION: AGC of America 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. The association is committed to free and open competition for publicly funded work and has long maintained that the federal government should not mandate PLAs.
THE DETAILS: Using government-mandated PLAs hurts union contractors, open-shop contractors, and fails to promote economy and efficiency in federal procurement.
In fact, AGC's recent PLA survey showed that nearly three-quarters of federal contractors would stop bidding on federal projects if the administration followed through on its plans to impose government-mandated PLAs.
Moreover, an AGC analysis of data obtained via a Construction Advocacy Fund-financed lawsuit found that the Department of Defense federal construction agencies—which perform the lion’s share of federal construction—rejected PLA mandates 99.4% of the time even when encouraged to do so under the Obama-Biden Administration. The data AGC obtained disproves and undermines the reasoning set forth by the Biden Administration that government-mandated PLAs promote economy and efficiency for federal construction projects.
WHAT TO DO: Tell the Federal Acquisition Regulation Council to withdraw this proposed rule and to stop government-mandated PLAs. Taking action is easy. Click the above button or this link to send prewritten comments and letters as is, or customize them to include information on how this issue affects you and your company.