RPLG has decades of experience drafting, negotiating, administering and defending Project Labor Agreements (PLAs) on behalf of all types of public entities, and nonprofit affordable housing developers. Our team has successfully negotiated and administered agreements covering more than $10 billion in project work – with billions more currently under negotiation – and has a proven track record negotiating with building and construction trades councils and their affiliated unions. We deliver agreements that achieve our clients’ objectives, including policy objectives such as local and disadvantaged hiring and training, including apprenticeship and pre-apprenticeship programs – as well as cost-control and ease of administration.

The RPLG team enjoys negotiating PLAs because they are an opportunity to work collaboratively with local unions to achieve critical goals for government and the community, helping deliver crucial public projects and new affordable housing units. At the same time, PLAs present certain challenges: legal constraints concerning the application of such agreements; unique requirements of various craft unions and their training and referral systems; concerns of small and non-union contractors related to compliance and operations; general cost and operational challenges in the construction industry; and complex issues involved in developing hiring policies that will reach and benefit diverse populations. Our decades of experience working on PLAs have taught us the value of working closely with policymakers, management and operational staff to produce PLAs tailored to the particular needs of a project or projects and the needs of a particular public agency and its governing body. We engage policymakers and staff early in the process and communicate regularly with specifically designated individuals throughout the drafting and negotiation of the agreement, building our clients’ expertise as we move through negotiation and into implementation.

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