Contact Your Members of Congress and the President
The AGC-supported “Fair and Open Competition Act” passed the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee this week. The legislation would prohibit federal contracting agencies from mandating that contractors and unions enter project labor agreements (PLAs) on direct federal projects. In addition, the bill would preserve the right of contractors and unions to voluntarily negotiate and execute project labor agreements on federal projects, if they so choose. There is no timeline for if or when the full House would consider the legislation, or if the Senate would consider its companion bill. AGC is committed to full and open competition for all public projects and urged the Committee to support the legislation. Contact your members of Congress and urge them to support passage of the “Fair and Open Competition Act” and petition President Trump to repeal President Obama’s Government-Mandated PLA executive order.
On February 6, 2009, President Obama issued Executive Order 13502, which encourages government agencies to use PLA’s in large-scale federal construction projects where the total cost to the government is $25 million or more. AGC strongly believes that the choice of whether to adopt a collective bargaining agreement should be left to the contractor-employers and their employees, and that choice should not be imposed as a condition to competing for, or performing on, a publicly funded project. Government mandates and preferences for PLAs can restrain competition, drive up costs, cause delays, lead to jobsite disputes, and disrupt local collective bargaining. In cases where use of a PLA would benefit a project, the construction contractors otherwise qualified to perform the work would be the first to recognize that fact and to adopt a PLA voluntarily.
For more information, contact Jim Young at youngj@agc.org or (202) 547-0133.
