Proposed PLA project canceled

Published: November 6, 2009
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By Sean Ryan

sean.ryan@dailyreporter.com

The federal government on Thursday canceled a project that would have been the first federal job to have a project-labor agreement since former President George W. Bush banned them on U.S. contracts.

President Barack Obama in February ordered that PLAs are allowed on federal contracts worth more than $25 million. So far, the Job Corps Center project in Manchester, N.H., is the only one to have a PLA requirement. The Department of Labor on Thursday canceled the contract and did not publish the reasons behind the decision.

Project-labor agreements would prohibit strikes and lockouts, dictate procedures to resolve labor disputes and create other forms of labor-management cooperation.

The PLA drew a protest from C of Concord, N.H, a nonunion contactor and member of the Associated Builders and Contractors. The association argues PLAs discriminate against nonunion builders, while unions that support the agreements say they lower projects costs.

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