Five business groups and construction contractors filed suit against Oregon Governor Tina Kotek Feb. 21 asking that Marion County Circuit Court block her recent executive order mandating the use of project labor agreements (PLAs). Kotek’s Dec. 18 order directs all state agencies — when they award any construction contract or commit funds to a construction project — to require contractors and subcontractors to sign PLAs with building trades unions, committing to use union labor. The PLAs have to include a no-strike guarantee and binding procedures for resolving labor disputes and can’t exclude non-union firms from signing on temporarily. The order applies to all projects where labor is 15% or more of the total cost, but agency directors can ask the governor for exemptions for short-term emergency work and projects that involve only one trade.
Led by the Oregon-Columbia Chapter of Associated General Contractors, plaintiffs argue that the governor doesn’t have the authority to issue that order because the state constitution gives law-making power to the Legislature, not the governor.
