While perhaps not well known, existing federal policy established during the Obama Administration strongly encourages the use of union-friendly “project labor agreements” (PLAs) on large-scale federal construction contracts. That said, PLAs rarely have been required in actual contracting practice. Now, with scant prospects of Congress acting anytime soon to advance organized labor’s agenda, President Biden has exercised his executive authority in an effort to establish a presumption that PLAs have to be used on major federal construction contracts.
On February 4, 2022, the President signed new Executive Order (E.O.) 14063 that is intended to strengthen the policy set during the Obama Administration to ensure that PLAs are in fact used on qualifying federal construction projects. According to President Biden, under the new E.O., “every single project that we’re talking about that’s paid for with federal dollars and is a federal project, it’s going to be union jobs.”
Members of the Center for Workplace Compliance (CWC) can read more here.