Project Labor Agreements Part II

On May 13, 2022, we released Part One related to President Biden’s Executive Order 14063 mandating Project Labor Agreements (“PLA”). Our Labor Law Insiders, Tom Godar, Rufino Gaytán and Michael Schrier, began to explore the requirement that contractors and sub-contractors on large federal construction contracts “negotiate or become party to a project labor agreement with one or more appropriate labor organizations.”In Part Two of this discussion regarding the impact of the Executive Order, we explore how this requirement of PLAs for construction agreements greater than $35 million may indeed be another avenue that unions might use to organize construction employees. Our Insiders tackle the potential use of publicly available information mandated under the new PLA regulations, and how, in combination with wages dictated by the Davis-Bacon Act, unions might identify and target union-free employers for organizational activity. This disclosed information may be one more helpful piece of information for unions, courtesy of the Biden administration and its effort to be the most union-friendly administration ever.The guests also explore when we might expect publication of the regulations, and how they might resemble or differ from those already in place under the current Obama-era PLA Executive Order. The Federal Acquisition Regulation Council may issue such new regulations as soon as June 4th of this year.Importantly, attorneys Gaytán and Schrier will discuss possible legal challenges to these regulations, as well as cautions for those non-union entities who might seek the benefit of large government contracts and in so doing, become entangled in the PLA’s with various unions. For contractors inexperienced in such matters, engaging in PLA work may have hidden trap doors wholly apart from potential union entanglement for union-free companies.We invite you to listen to this interesting presentation, not only for the specifics of the PLA impact, but to assess the breadth of impact that a seemingly simple expansion of regulations can have on both union and non-union federal contractors alike.