(We’ve talked about PLAs in the past and here is a good piece with an update on the issue from The Bulletin of Philadelphia)

By Bradley Vasoli, The Bulletin

An executive order issued by the Obama administration poses a significant challenge to nonunion contractors, right-to-work advocates and, those groups assert, American taxpayers.

Issued in February, it has undergone several months of governmental review and enhancement and it could begin impacting federal contracting policy any day now. Nonunion outfits are weighing their options to oppose it.

On February 6, President Barack Obama signed an executive order recommending that federal agencies enter into project labor agreements (PLAs) every time they hire a contractor for a construction project costing at least $25 million. These documents are accords between labor organizations and an agency that typically insist that unions gain bargaining rights for the duration of a project.

In practice, this means that 84.4 percent of construction workers – those who are not union-affiliated – are highly unlikely to be considered to work on a federal project in the next several years.

Opponents of this measure, such as the Associated Builders and Contractors (ABC), say cutting out so many nonunion companies reduces competition in the bidding process and leads to higher project costs…

Go read the rest at The Bulletin.

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