The president signed an executive order in February requiring project labor agreements (PLAs) on construction projects that receive federal money and cost more than $35 million. PLAs are collective bargaining agreements between employees and employers that set wages, employment conditions, and dispute-resolution processes. The agreements generally require contractors to hire local workers and to compensate them with prevailing wages.

The PLA requirement applies to millwright work involved in construction, maintenance, and upgrades of nuclear sites, airports, and water infrastructure. It also will help level the playing field for the SSMRC’s signatory contractors who work on those projects.

Based on 2021 figures, the order is expected to improve job quality for 200,000 workers and affect $262 billion in federal government projects. Having a PLA requirement during the next decade is especially important because it ensures projects funded by the $1 trillion Bipartisan Infrastructure Law will create good jobs with fair wages and benefits.

Thanks to the PLA executive order, there could be more work for SSMRC members and more money in members’ pockets.

But governors of nine states in the SSMRC’s 11-state jurisdiction wrote a letter to the federal government in April demanding that the PLA provision be eliminated. Working in concert with low-wage, anti-union employers, the governors of Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Florida, Mississippi, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, and Texas are standing against fair wages and benefits.

If you live in one of these states, please take a minute to send a letter to your state legislators telling them why project labor agreements are good for working people and communities in your state.