July-August 2014
| BusinessWorld |183
We also embarked on a long-range strategy
to make sure that at the state level, there
were laws in place protecting government
neutrality toward a contractors’ use of
project labor agreements (PLAs). We think
taxpayers get the best value if the
government nei ther prohibi ts nor
encourages the use of union/ non-union
labor. We support fair and maximum
competition in the marketplace free from
special interest set-asides, which is the only
way to guarantee taxpayers get the best
possible product at the best possible price.
Since we started this effort in 2011, 17
states have enacted these pro-taxpayer
measures. A total of 21 states now have
government neutrality laws and we will
continue this state-level campaign. We do a
lot at the federal level as well. In 2009,
President Obama issued an executive order
encouraging federal agencies to require, on
a case-by-case basis, the use of PLAs on
federal contracts exceeding $25million. An
interesting statistic: between FY 2009 and
FY 2013 there were 1,034 contracts over
$25 million. Only 10 of those projects were
subject to government-mandated PLAs or
PLA preferences. ABC members won
about $40 billion out of the $65 billion
worth of large-scale contracts, which
demonstrates the ability of our members to
compete and win work in a truly free
marketplace. We’ll continue these types of
efforts to defend free enterprise, promote
open competition and a level playing-field
for our companies, our members, and their
employees.
