On February 6, 2009 President Obama signed Executive Order 13208, which reverses a Bush Administration policy that prohibited PLAs on federal constrution projects. Further, the Executive Order directs the Office of Management and Budget, and the Department of Labor to present to the President, within 180 days, recommendations....."about whether broader use of project labor agreements, with respect to both construction projects undertaken under Federal contracts and construction projects receiving Federal financial assistance, would help promote the economical effcient and timely completion of such projects."
Project labor agreements generally set wages and establish work rules and methods of settling grievances on large multi-contractor construction projects. For more than 70 years before the Bush order, PLAs benefitted communities, employers and workers by ensuring fair wages and benefits and on-time completion of projects. Project labor agreements provide maximum benefit to construction users, union and non-union workers; union and non-union contractors; lenders and insurance companies; and most of all the taxpayer. They are fequently negotiated to address a wide range of local and social needs, including the assurance of hiring local residents, and outreach programs designed to offer local residents the opportunity for a career in the skilled trades.
Today's action follows Obama's 3 executive orders that reversed a trio of Bush-era orders governing the way federal contractors deal with union workers. They are:
1) Require federal service contractors to offer jobs to current workers when contracts change.
2) Reverse a Bush order requiring federal contractors to post notice that workers can limt financial support of unions serving as their exclusive bargaining represenatives.
3) Prevent federal contractors from being reimbursed for expenses meant to influence workers deciding wether to form a union and engage in collective bargaining.
AFTER EIGHT YEARS, WE ARE INDEED SEEING CHANGE IN WASHINGTON!!!! |
