AGC Continues Successful Effort to Deter Federal Agencies from Using Project Labor Agreements

AGC is again attacking agency efforts to use Project Labor Agreements on federal construction projects.  AGC sent a follow-up letter to the Department of Labor (DOL) expressing strong concerns against DOL’s decision, to impose a project labor agreement (PLA) on contractors that will perform the construction of the Department’s new Job Corps Center in Manchester, New Hampshire. This is the second solicitation DOL has released for this project.  The original solicitation came out in September 2009, mandating the use of a PLA, and AGC sent a letter on Sept. 23, 2009 expressing concerns and asking for information regarding the Department’s determination that a PLA mandate was appropriate for the project. While AGC neither supports nor opposes PLAs in general, AGC strongly opposes government mandates for PLAs on publically funded construction projects.  AGC is committed to free and open competition in all public construction markets and believes that publically-funded contracts should be awarded without regard to the lawful labor relations policies and practices of the government contractor. For more information, please contact Marco Giamberardino at (703) 837-5325 or giamberm@agc.org.