'Smooth Out Labor Contracts And Costs': Gerry Connolly Touts New Project Labor Agreement Rules
During a House Oversight Committee hearing prior to the Congressional recess, Rep. Gerry Connolly (D-VA) questioned witnesses about the Biden Administration's new project labor agreement rules.
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NewsTranscript
00:00and his company, Chanborough, belonged to the Associated General Contractors of America,
00:05which actually filed a lawsuit to try to prevent this new rule from coming into effect.
00:14The judge presiding dismissed the case. He was appointed by none other than Donald J.
00:20Trump. And let me read what he said. None of the individual plaintiffs can specify what
00:27those projects are that might be harmed, where they'd take place, or the basis for
00:31their certainty, which we've heard here today, that such projects will require a PLA. Furthermore,
00:37the individual plaintiffs' declarations are belied by their histories of actual federal
00:43contracting practices. And without such a showing, he said, there is no basis to believe
00:50the PLA rule would impact their businesses. That's the ruling of the judge under a lawsuit
00:58brought by that group, including well, your company, Mr. Dreher, is a member of that group.
01:06Mr. Snyder, you heard the gentleman next to you say, with this rule in place, we're going
01:12to be prevented from actually bidding on federal work, and we've got a long history of doing
01:17just that. Then I heard your testimony, and you gave a long list of federal work you've
01:22done, and you've done it with PLAs. Why how come you can make it work and others apparently
01:29speculate they can't?
01:33I certainly can't speak for any other business, but we have found through the process of doing
01:38this that there is a step that goes into this collective process of finding out what works
01:43best for the project and working with partners that are going to be representing employees
01:49in the workforce to come in and weigh in on what those issues are that are going to make
01:55that successful. I'm not sure why it would be more difficult for someone else to go and
01:59do the exact same thing. There are thousands of other employers that do what we do. I just
02:04happen to be the one sitting here talking with you today.
02:08So I think the numbers of cost and schedule and the ability to staff projects speak for
02:15itself.
02:16And just to be clear about your testimony here today, it's your testimony that your
02:22company, going back to 1901, has in fact used PLAs as an effective tool successfully, and
02:29you have found it to be a felicitous relationship facilitating business. Is that accurate?
02:35Sure. We compete on a daily basis with open shop contractors. That doesn't prevent us
02:42from bidding. We compete in right-to-work States and work in them every day. It is our
02:47preferred method of performing work. We have found it to be the most efficient and cost-effective
02:51way to do work.
02:52And are you aware, in fact, of the OMB letter, for the record, with respect to the implementation
02:59of this, that says makes clear that union and nonunion workers will be considered for
03:05and work on Federal PLA projects?
03:07That's correct. Our understanding is that the Federal Government cannot exclude nonunion
03:12workers from participation in the process. In fact, they are prohibited from doing so.
03:18I ask unanimous consent to enter that letter into the record.
03:24Without objection.
03:25And is it further your testimony, if I heard you correctly, independent of your own company,
03:31though your experience would mirror this, that there is actually compiled data empirically
03:37demonstrating that PLA projects actually tend to come in lower in the cost estimate than
03:46non-PLA projects in terms of labor especially? Is that correct?
03:50There are studies that indicate that. And the broadest, most widely recognized study
03:56was not specific to project labor agreements but collective bargaining agreements in general.
04:02And that was commissioned by the Mechanical Contractors Association through IPA.
04:06So not just your company, but industrywide, that's what they found?
04:10That's correct.
04:11And would you say that PLAs, in your experience, tend to smooth out both labor contracts and
04:22costs and come in in a better time frame? Certainly that was my experience. I mean,
04:30I literally had the experience of the Silver Line. It was bifurcated. We had Phase I. We
04:34had Phase II. Phase I was a PLA project, and it came in pretty much on budget and on time.
04:40Phase II was horribly delayed by years with lots of cost overruns. And it was a deliberate
04:46political decision, not an economic decision, to do that in Phase II because we had a change
04:52in the governorship in Richmond, Virginia.
04:56Your comment.
04:58My experience, and from the IPA study, projects that are short on skilled labor are twice
05:02as likely to have 10 percent or higher cost overrun and more likely to have schedule slip
05:07of 25 percent or more.
05:08Thank you.
05:09Madam Chair, I would ask unanimous consent to enter into the record the U.S. District
05:15Court ruling from the Western District of Louisiana, to which I made reference earlier.
05:19Without objection.
05:20I thank the Chair.
05:21And, finally, I would ask unanimous consent to enter into the record the letter from the
05:25Association of Union Constructors and more than 1,700 members in support of project labor
05:32agreements.
05:33Without objection.
05:34I thank the Chair.
05:35And I yield back.