Kilmer, Joyce Lead Bipartisan Call for the White House to Use More Local Workforces on Federal Construction Projects
WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, Representative Derek Kilmer (D-WA) and Representative David Joyce (R-OH) urged the White House to promote the utilization of local skilled workers on federal construction projects. The members led a bipartisan letter to Labor Secretary Tom Perez calling on the White House to renew its efforts to increase the number of Project Labor Agreements (PLA) on federal construction projects.
In the letter to Secretary Perez, the members noted that when President Obama first came to office he overturned a ban on PLAs and set up a task force to look at how to use them more widely. The members requested that the task force renew and increase its efforts to promote PLAs as a successful tool to complete quality projects in a timely manner.
“We are writing to urge the Administration to renew its efforts to promote and facilitate the use of Project Labor Agreements (PLAs) for federal construction projects,” the members wrote in the letter sent today. “PLAs are successful project management tools that support the cost effective and timely completion of high-quality federal projects.”
PLAs are used to negotiate a contract between project managers and labor unions before workers are hired for a job. The agreements establish quality worksite conditions and aim to ensure construction finishes on time. Typically, priority is given to local workers on federal projects when PLAs are utilized. In 2012, the Department of Defense announced that a PLA would be used to build a second explosives handling wharf at Naval Base Kitsap-Bangor. Since that time, hundreds of local construction trade workers from across the Kitsap and Olympic Peninsulas have been employed as a result of this agreement.
Full text of the letter follows.
Dear Secretary Perez,
We are writing to urge the Administration to renew its efforts to promote and facilitate the use of Project Labor Agreements (PLAs) for federal construction projects. PLAs are successful project management tools that support the cost effective and timely completion of high-quality federal projects.
In 2009, as one of President Obama’s first official actions in office, he overturned a ban on PLAs and signed Executive Order 13502, encouraging executive agencies to consider requiring the use of PLAs on large-scale construction projects.
As the President noted at the time, project labor agreements can help the federal government complete construction projects in an efficient and timely manner by clearly establishing the terms and conditions of employment for a specific construction project.
One year later, the Annual Report of the White House Middle Class Task Force found that agency contracting offices had limited capacity working with PLAs. The Task Force convened an Inter-agency PLA Working Group, bringing together representatives from a variety of federal agencies and providing greater technical assistance to fully realize the intent of the executive order. Since that time, however, there has been little information available about the progress of federal agencies in encouraging the use of PLAs on federal construction projects.
We therefore request that you reconstitute the Working Group and then convene a White House meeting with representatives of the federal agencies that conduct major construction projects, to enable the Working Group to report its findings and, if necessary, provide the agencies with additional guidance toward realizing PLAs.
We stand ready to work with you to continue encouraging the use of project labor agreements by federal agencies and the private sector. Thank you for your consideration and we look forward to hearing from you about how we can support broader adoption of this management tool.
Sincerely,
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