A national construction contractors association is suing to stop the Biden Administration’s new mandate to require labor agreements on all federal infrastructure projects over $35 million.
The new rule would essentially require unions to be represented on all such projects prior to contract award. Current rules say federal agencies must “consider” requiring such agreements on projects over $25 million, but they are not mandated to do so.
The Associated General Contractors, along with its Louisiana chapter, filed the lawsuit, saying “Biden lacks the legal and constitutional authority to impose such sweeping labor policies that undermine current labor agreements for union firms and discriminate against open shop contractors.”
The mandated project labor agreements, or PLAs, require contractors, subcontractors and unions to negotiate terms such as pay and benefits on the large projects through collective bargaining, according to the Biden Administration.
The administration has said the rules could affect $262 billion in federal government construction contracting and nearly 200,000 workers.
Biden says requiring PLAs will make it easier to manage multi-million-dollar projects, including coordinating multiple contractors and subcontractors and their employees and preventing disputes between subs.
The PLAs will raise quality standards by weeding out contractors that pay low wages and have not properly trained their workers, he says. To be eligible for the project, such contractors would have to raise their standards.
