The Federal Acquisition Regulatory (FAR) Council July 14 issued proposed regulations as part of a continuing effort to implement President Obama’s Executive Order 13502, which encourages the use of government-mandated, union-only project labor agreements (PLA) on federal projects costing more than $25 million, including those funded by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009. In advance of the proposed rule, the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) released a policy memorandum encouraging federal department and agency heads to immediately consider the use of PLAs on upcoming federal construction projects.
“We are troubled that the Office of Management and Budget has directed federal agencies to start considering union-only mandates without even waiting for the proposed rule to become final,” said 2009 ABC National Chairman Jerry Gorski, president of Gorski Engineering, Inc., Collegeville, Pa.
“Executive Order 13502 and the FAR Council proposed rule will lead to an increase in costly and discriminatory publicly funded project labor agreements on federal construction projects procured by federal agencies,” said Gorski. “More than 84 percent of the construction workforce consists of hardworking taxpayers that choose not to be represented by a union. However, government mandated project labor agreements will create a monopoly for unionized contractors on federal construction projects at taxpayers’ expense. Forcing PLAs onto federal projects violates longstanding federal procurement laws that require free and open competition, without favoritism.”
The proposed rule is subject to a regulatory process that includes a 30-day public comment period that began on the same day the regulations were released. ABC will submit comments to the FAR Council opposing the regulations, but is also encouraging all members to participate in the comment period by expressing their opposition to this policy and highlighting the negative impact it will have on their businesses. ABC will assist by providing templates and filing the comments on behalf of members. For additional information or to submit comments opposing the proposed PLA rule, visit
www.abc.org/plaaction.
“America’s construction workforce stands to lose the most from these politically motivated actions. Thousands of workers will have part of their wages taken by union pension plans, from which the workers will receive no benefits,” said Gorski.
To read the executive order, the proposed regulations, OMB’s memo and ABC’s analysis of the regulations, along with ABC’s position on PLAs, visit
www.abc.org/pla.
To learn more about PLAs and Executive Order 13502, visit
www.thetruthaboutplas.com.
For more information, email Ben Brubeck at ABC,
brubeck@abc.org.