The Daily Reporter – WI Construction News & Bids Wisconsin's Construction Authority
By Sean Ryan
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.
