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Bush Alters PLA Order, But Still Faces Challenge in House

April 13, 2001

President Bush slightly revised his Executive Order banning Project Labor Agreements (PLAs) on jobs with federal funding three days after House members from his own party were joining a legislative effort to overturn the ban.

The revised version says the ban does not apply to projects currently underway - scarcely a "softening," unions said, since the alternative was chaos. AFL-CIO President John Sweeney called Bush's PLA change "a welcome down payment, but far from adequate. Even with this amendment, the executive order still undermines workers' rights and dismantles thoughtfully constructed and effective working relationships between labor and management," Sweeney said.

A new bill introduced in the House of Representatives would overrule Bush's PLA ban and allow state and local officials to make their own decision. Some federal funding should not stop them from signing "an agreement which will save money and improve efficiency," said Rep. George Miller (D-Calif.) who introduced the bill April 3 along with two Republicans, Peter King and Jack Quinn of New York.

In March, Quinn and King were joined by 31 other House Republicans in a protest letter to Bush pointing out that elected officials from numerous states and both parties had used the agreements since the 1930s to assure adequate skilled labor, fixed wage rates and no work stoppages.

They noted the success with PLAs on some of America's biggest public works projects, like the Grand Coulee Dam, and corrected two erroneous White House statements by pointing out that non-union contractors can bid under PLAs and that such projects do not cost more.

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AFL-CIO page separates rhetoric from reality. It tracks the actions of the Bush administration on working family issues.