Alabama Governor Robert Bentley (R) March 4 signed legislation which says that government entities within the state cannot require contractors to sign a project labor agreement (PLA), or any other agreement with labor unions, as a condition of performing work on taxpayer-funded construction projects in the state. This bill marks Alabama as the 19th state to adopt PLA reform.

A Southwest Missouri school district was the first local government entity in the state to take advantage of the changes made to Missouri’s prevailing wage law in an effort to lower construction costs on potential new construction projects.

Ten members of Ironworkers Local 401, Philadelphia, Pa., were indicted and have been arrested for allegedly participating in a conspiracy to commit criminal acts of extortion, destruction of property, and assault in order to force nonunion construction contractors to hire union ironworkers. In addition, the indictment included the $500,000 in damages at ABC member E. Allen Reeves, Inc.’s Chestnut Hill Friends Meeting House project in 2012 as one of the crimes allegedly committed by the defendants.

Associated Builders and Contractors (ABC) commended a complaint filed in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of California seeking declarative and injunctive relief against an unnecessary and discriminatory new statute (S.B. 54) recently enacted in the California Legislature. SB 54 is special interest legislation that would force private refineries in California to award construction and maintenance work predominately to contractors who sign contracts with Building Trades unions.  

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) and the Naval Facilities Engineering Command (NAVFAC) are soliciting comments from the construction community about the potential use of a government-mandated project labor agreement (PLA) on federal construction projects in six states including North Carolina, Virginia, Louisiana, Maryland, Kentucky and Texas.

ABC Nov. 27 praised the 6th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals for upholding Michigan’s 2011 law that prohibits government-mandated project labor agreements (PLAs) on construction projects paid for by Michigan taxpayers. 

According to a recent study by the Lansing, Mich.-based Anderson Economic Group (AEG), Michigan’s prevailing wage law costs taxpayers and the state’s public schools millions each year in higher construction costs—adding up to more than 315 elementary school buildings that could have been built in the past decade with the money lost to prevailing wages.

ABC of California expressed their concern and opposition for two bills signed into law Oct. 13 by Gov. Jerry Brown (D) that will expand prevailing wage requirements and drive up the costs of local public and private projects.

An economic study organized by the Associated Builders and Contractors (ABC) Alabama chapter found commercial construction’seconomic impact exceeds $9.6 billion, making it the largest industry in the state. 

ABC National and ABC of Michigan Sept. 6, celebrated a victory when the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 6th Circuit upheld a law that banned government-mandated project labor agreements (PLAs) on taxpayer-funded construction projects.