On Sept. 6, President Joe Biden signed Executive Order 14126 on Investing in America and Investing in American Workers, a new effort by the Biden-Harris administration to utilize federal policy to favor unions that is likely to undermine competition to build taxpayer-funded infrastructure projects.

In response to the White House EO fact sheet released Friday morning prior to Biden signing the EO at a union hall in Michigan, ABC immediately issued a press release condemning the EO and its impact on fair and open competition that was picked up in multiple media outlets, stating in part:

“This gift to unions is discouraging for the overwhelming majority of the U.S. construction industry workforce—nearly 90%—that works for nonunion employers,” said Ben Brubeck, ABC vice president of regulatory, labor and state affairs. “It also will hurt taxpayers and the overall construction industry, as both benefit from inclusive, win-win policies that welcome all contractors and workers to rebuild America, even if they decide not to affiliate with labor unions.

“The executive order will undermine the efficient and economical delivery of taxpayer-funded infrastructure, clean energy and manufacturing projects and is consistent with the Biden-Harris administration’s politically motivated policy schemes,” said Brubeck. “These policies steer taxpayer-funded infrastructure contracts to unionized businesses and create jobs exclusively for union members at the expense of everyone else and the rule of law.”

The EO, which claims to be an effort to promote high-quality jobs on federally funded construction projects, steers contracts to unionized firms and creates unions jobs by directing agencies to prioritize the distribution of federal financial assistance to applicants that (among other provisions listed in Section 3 of the EO):

• Utilize project labor agreements or other union agreements.
• Require union neutrality agreements and deprive workers of secret ballot elections when choosing union representation of its workplace, which will increase the growth of union membership.
• Pay wages based on inaccurate, government-determined prevailing wages or union wage scales.
• Focus workforce development efforts on union-affiliated training programs and government-registered apprenticeships.

The EO directs agencies to implement this prioritization through application evaluation criteria on notices of funding opportunity. Already, ABC has identified over $271 billion in federal funding since President Biden took office subject to language and policies promoting PLA mandates and preferences that will increase costs and reduce competition on federally assisted construction projects.

The EO establishes a new Investing in Good Jobs Task Force within the Executive Office of the President, co-chaired by the secretary of labor and the director of the National Economic Council, with the responsibility of ensuring the EO is implemented across the federal government.

It is unclear when the Task Force recommendations will be released for public review, whether there will be a public notice and comment period for any new regulations or if this will be done administratively with no public input.

Of note, it is unclear if this new policy is something that a Harris or Trump White House would support, eliminate or modify.

it is more likely that a Trump White House would eliminate additional red tape undermining taxpayer investments in infrastructure, as the Trump administration previously repealed an Obama administration rule imposing a controversial pro-labor blacklisting regulation  on federal construction projects that is similar in nature to the Good Jobs EO.

On Sept. 10, Brubeck joined Labor Relations Radio to discuss the new EO in greater detail.

ABC will continue to oppose and monitor this issue and forthcoming Task Force recommendations, policies and rulemakings.