VTCA Advocacy: How PLAs Discriminate Against Local, Minority, and Woman-Owned Businesses

It’s hard to conceive of a more self-defeating economic development policy for supporting local Virginia businesses than government-mandated Project Labor Agreements (“PLAs”). By and large, local Virginia construction firms are non-union firms that cannot participate in PLA projects. Similarly, over 95% of Virginia construction workers are not members of a union and therefore unlikely to be placed on PLA job by a union hiring hall, which typically prioritize seniority within the union when selecting who gets to work on a PLA job and who doesn’t.  

There is another aspect to PLAs, however, that makes them even more pernicious. PLAs discriminate against minority and woman-owned construction firms which, according to the National Black Chamber of Commerce, are overwhelmingly non-union. As such, these firms would largely be excluded from working on the projects their tax dollars support. If policymakers wish to exclude minority and woman-owned businesses from participating on publicly funded infrastructure projects, a mandatory PLA is an effective tool to ensure these firms have no opportunities on a project. For this reason, both the National Black Chamber of Commerce and Women Construction Owners and Executives have gone on record in opposition to PLAs in the past.  

Today, women and minorities continue to be underrepresented in construction unions. Mandating a PLA on a project almost guarantees that the workers on the project will not reflect the diversity of the industry. A 2022 examination by reporters at the Philadelphia Inquirer focused on diversity within Philadelphia’s construction unions found the following:  

The local building trades have refused to share demographic data on the workers they represent. But the most recent available data shows that the industry’s union workforce was more than two-thirds white in a city that is nearly 44% Black, and where other major labor unions are predominantly African American. Data from the federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission show that among 40 Pennsylvania unions that refer workers to contractors, 91% of their more than 39,000 members were white in 2018 and 5% were Black. 

The late Harry Alford former President & CEO of The National Black Chamber of Commerce called PLAs, “a locking out of most black-owned firms” and “a license to discriminate against black workers.” Alford added: “Show me a PLA and I will show you Jim Crow employment plus a locking out of most Black-owned firms that happen to be nonunion most of the time. A Project Labor Agreement is a license to discriminate against Black workers.” 

Virginia small business depend on their elected leaders to support fair contracting. But PLAs ensure that Virginia construction projects are anything but fair for minority- and woman-owned construction firms. PLAs perpetuate racial and gender disparities and harm Virginia’s small businesses and their workers.