Associated Builders and Contractors (ABC) has praised the Wyoming legislature and Gov. Mark Gordon for enacting SF 147, the Fair and Open Competition Act, which protects Wyoming taxpayers by ensuring all of the state’s skilled construction workforce can compete on a level playing field for contracts to build state, state-assisted and local public works projects.
Once in effect on 1 July 2023, Wyoming will be the 25th state with an active policy restricting the use of government-mandated project labour agreements.
Introduced by state Sen. Jim Anderson, R-District 68, this measure prevents the state and its localities from mandating controversialPLAs on any taxpayer-funded construction project, thereby ensuring all Wyoming construction workers, including the approximately 97% of the state’s construction workforce that has chosen not to belong to a union, can build their communities.
“As the Biden administration continues its all-out assault on merit shop contractors, Wyoming has chosen to protect their construction workers and taxpayers by ensuring all projects in the state will be procured via fair and open competition, even if the project receives federal dollars,” said Ben Brubeck, ABC vice president of regulatory, labour and state affairs. “State leaders have sent the message that Wyoming doesn’t do business through political favouritism and discriminatory policy and that all of Wyoming’s construction workforce is welcome to compete to rebuild their communities.”
Government-mandated PLAs typically force contractors to recognise unions as the representatives of their employees and hire most or all employees from the union hiring hall and union apprenticeship programs. Employers must also follow union work rules and pay into union benefit and multiemployer pension plans, in addition to any existing benefit plans, putting them at a significant competitive disadvantage.
Research indicates that government-mandatedPLAs can raise costs by 12% to 20% compared to non-PLA projects, which results in fewer infrastructure improvements and reduced construction industry job creation.
Government-mandated PLAs also effectively cause many nonunion construction workers to experience wage theft. Workers lose an estimated 34% of wages and benefits earned on a PLA project unless they accept unwanted union representation, join a specific union, pay membership dues and meet the union benefits plans’ vesting requirements.
The construction industry awaits a controversialfinal rule from the Federal Acquisition Regulatory Council implementing President Joe Biden’sExecutive Order 14063, which requires federal agencies to mandate PLAs on federal construction contracts of $35 million or more. In addition, the Biden administration ispromoting PLAs on more than $250 billion worth of federal agency-administered grant applications for state and local government infrastructure projects.
