Last week, the North America’s Building Trades Union (NABTU) held its legislative conference, where speakers including U.S. Secretary of Labor Marty Walsh, U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-NY, highlighted efforts by the White House and Congress to ensure federal funds support only union jobs and cut out competition from merit shop contractors across the country.
In his comments to the group, Chuck Schumer stated that in his role as Majority Leader of the Senate he will fight to ensure that “every f’in federal dollar only pays for union labor” further adding “Davis-Bacon and PLA everywhere.” DOL Secretary Walsh echoed these comments, highlighting PLA requirements on federal grants and also focusing on the ABC-opposed, House-passed National Apprenticeship Act that would limit apprenticeship opportunities for many hardworking Americans in the construction industry and lauding the expansion of Davis-Bacon prevailing wage requirements in the America COMPETES Act/USICA currently being debated in Congress. Secretary Buttigieg also discussed the Transportation agency’s focus on implementing the bipartisan infrastructure bill through the promotion of union labor, and celebrated the President’s executive order mandating PLAs on federal construction projects over $35 million.
