ABC Sept. 28 applauded the United States Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) for removing a project labor agreement (PLA) from the bid solicitation for the construction of a $25 million to $100 million Army Reserve Center in Los Alamitos, Calif. The USACE also removed in August PLAs from projects at the Patrick Air Force Base in Brevard County, Fla. and the Armed Forces Reserve Center in Camden, N.J.
A project labor agreement is a special interest scheme that discourages competition from nonunion contractors and their nonunion employees by requiring a construction project to be awarded only to contractors and subcontractors that agree to recognize unions as the representatives of their employees on that job; use the union hall to obtain workers; obey the union’s restrictive apprenticeship and work rules; and contribute to union pension plans and other funds in which their nonunion employees will never benefit unless they join a union.
After issuing a
request for information (RFI) about the feasibility of using a PLA on the Army Reserve Center, USACE procurement officials received a strong response from the construction community opposing the PLA mandate. The solicitation for the USACE project in Los Alamitos, which contains an amendment cancelling the PLA, can be read
here.
“We applaud the USACE’s decision to remove the anti-competitive and costly project labor agreement mandate on the Army Reserve Center in Los Alamitos, CA,” said Ben Brubeck, ABC national’s director of labor and federal procurement. “Taxpayers and the USACE will be better served by more competition from qualified contractors and their skilled employees who simply want a fair opportunity to deliver the best possible construction product at the best possible price. Now that the PLA was wisely removed by the USACE, nonunion craft professionals and their families will have a real chance to benefit from jobs created from this investment of federal tax dollars in this important project.”
The USACE has also announced they will be soliciting comments on the potential use of PLAs for large scale construction projects exceeding $25 million in the state of Hawaii. ABC members and the construction community can respond to this RFI
here and are encouraged to tell the USACE that a government-mandated PLA on Hawaii USACE projects will injure competition, increase costs and will not advance economy and efficiency in government contracting. All comments must be submitted by Oct. 18.
For more information about PLAs, please visit
www.TheTruthAboutPLAs.com,
www.Facebook.com/TheTruthAboutPLAs or
www.abc.org/pla.