Law Prohibits Government Entities from Requiring Contractors to Enter into PLAs
LITTLE ROCK, Ark. — Associated Builders and Contractors (ABC) and ABC of Arkansas (ABCAR) applauded Gov. Asa Hutchinson, R-Arkansas, for signing the Fair and Open Competition in Governmental Construction Act (S.B. 426). The bill codifies and strengthens a 2005 executive order issued by Gov. Mike Huckabee, R-Arkansas, that prohibits government entities from requiring contractors to enter into wasteful and discriminatory project labor agreements (PLAs) as a condition of performing work on publicly funded construction projects.
A PLA is a job-specific union collective bargaining agreement that effectively steers construction contracts to unionized firms and their all-union workforces. When mandated on publicly funded construction projects, PLAs make it nearly impossible for the vast majority of the construction workforce that chooses to join a union to compete fairly for projects funded by their own tax dollars. In Arkansas, more than 97 percent of the private construction workforce chooses not to join a labor organization.