Judge upholds Biden project labor rule for federal work

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A federal judge ruled the U.S. Department of Defense continue a Biden-era project labor agreement mandate for large-scale federal projects.

U.S. District Judge Rudolph Contreras ruled a preliminary injunction against the DOD and Pete Hegseth, the national secretary of defense, for not following an executive order requiring project labor agreements worth $35 million or more. Former President Joe Biden issued the order in February 2022.

Contreras on May 16 sided with North America’s Building Trade Unions and the Baltimore-D.C. Metro Building and Construction Trades Council, who challenged a DOD memo that pulled PLAs from big federal projects, including for different branches of the U.S. military.

The Wisconsin Law Journal has reached out to the Department of Defense for comment.

Sean McGarvey, the president of North America’s Building Trade Unions, praised the ruling, Construction Dive reported. In a statement, he said PLAs were “proven workforce development tools that undergird strong economic growth in communities across the country.”

Both the Trump administration and contractor groups are opposed to the project labor mandate, which is still in place after Biden’s order. But how project labor agreements will be issued with federal projects moving forward is unclear.

In February, the office of the Secretary of Defense directed military branches to end the rule for federal contractors to sign labor agreements with unions on certain defense projects. Contracting officers were told to change their solicitations and remove labor agreement requirements from their bids.

The memo followed a federal judge’s order that project labor mandates for federal projects were illegal after contractor organizations staged a bid protest, which stated the PLA order was anti-competitive and “arbitrary.”

Both the Associated Builders and Contractors and the Associated General Contractors want the Trump administration to revoke the mandate.

“ABC respectfully disagrees with the court’s reinstatement of illegal and costly project labor agreement mandates on a wide range of federal construction projects critical to America’s national security,” said Kristen Swearingen, ABC vice president of government affairs, said in a statement.

Swearingen argued project labor mandates discouraged competition and excluded non-union contractors from infrastructure contracts.

Brian Turmail, AGC’s vice president of public affairs and workforce, said the courts had already ruled the former president’s executive order was “unlawful,” referring to the judge’s ruling in February. “Leaving the measure on the books while having most agencies announce they won’t follow it is clearly not a viable approach,” he added.