Washington, D.C. – December 18, 2023 – North America’s Building Trades Unions (NABTU) President Sean McGarvey issued the following statement applauding the announcement of regulations that will implement President Biden’s Executive Order requiring project labor agreements (PLAs) on federal construction projects costing $35 million or more:

“North America’s Building Trades Unions applaud today’s announcement. This final step for the executive order on project labor agreements is welcome news for the responsible use of taxpayer dollars. Project labor agreements ensure that large-scale projects are completed on time, with the highest quality, efficiency, and safety. Time and again, PLAs have proven to address labor supply issues, prevent work stoppages, protect workers’ classification, strengthen health and safety standards, and achieve substantial, direct cost savings by standardizing contract terms for highly skilled craft workers. PLAs also boost community economies through local hiring goals and recruitment of workers into apprenticeship and pre-apprenticeship job training programs that uplift historically marginalized communities into middle-class construction careers.

“With this latest action to strengthen economic security, labor-management relations and family-sustaining job opportunities, President Biden is yet again demonstrating his rock-solid commitment to American taxpayers and all workers – union and non-union – across the country.”

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Media Contact:  Betsy Barrett | bbarrett@nabtu.org | 202-997-3266

About NABTU:  North America’s Building Trades Unions is an alliance of 14 national and international unions in the building and construction industry that collectively represent over 3 million skilled craft professionals in the United States and Canada. Each year, our unions and signatory contractor partners invest almost $2 billion in private-sector money to fund and operate over 1,900 apprenticeship training and education facilities across North America that produce the safest, most highly trained, and productive skilled craft workers found anywhere in the world. NABTU is dedicated to creating economic security and employment opportunities for its construction workers by safeguarding wage and benefits standards, promoting responsible private capital investments, investing in renowned apprenticeship and training, and creating more construction career pathways to the middle class for women, communities of color, indigenous people, veterans, and the justice-involved. For more information, please visit nabtu.org.