By Dave Sload

Daily Caller News Foundation

Pennsylvania’s hardworking tradesmen and women — carpenters, plumbers, heavy equipment operators — aren’t asking for handouts. They just want a fair shot at the American Dream. However, Gov. Josh Shapiro’s administration is slamming the door on nearly 90% of the commonwealth’s construction workforce, all because they choose not to toe the union line. This isn’t getting stuff done, it’s a special-interest power grab that rigs the game for Shapiro’s big union handlers.

In April 2024, the governor, while schmoozing at a union-affiliated training center, ordered commonwealth agencies to “examine all contract solicitations to determine if the use of PLAs is appropriate.” A PLA, or project labor agreement, is a sweetheart deal between the government and labor unions that forces every bidder — including nonunion shops — to swallow union rules, hire from union halls and even fire their own skilled workers. It’s not negotiation; it’s coercion, pure and simple, turning public projects into union slush funds.

Despite a 2019 Commonwealth Court smackdown against the Wolf administration’s PLA push at PennDOT (ruling it a violation of Pennsylvania’s competitive bidding laws except in extraordinary circumstances) Shapiro doubled down. He directed agencies to evaluate every state construction project using fuzzy criteria like “particular need and urgency; complexity of the project; lack of available qualified labor.” Translation? Whatever helps Shapiro’s union buddies, no matter how it harms taxpayers and nonunion workers.

Fast-forward to March 2025: The state Department of General Services, or DGS, slapped a PLA on a $450 million joint laboratory facility.

The Associated Builders and Contractors, Keystone Chapter — champions of merit-shop contractors — sued to stop this nonsense. The Commonwealth Court granted a preliminary injunction this summer, blasting the administration in a fiery decision.

The court called out DGS for never proving union labor is safer, more skilled, or faster than nonunion crews and hammered how nonunion contractors were “not on equal footing” in the bidding war.

Shapiro’s bravado is causing delays, lawsuits and wasted taxpayer dollars — classic legal maneuvering tactics.

Businesses shouldn’t need an army of expensive lawyers to fight for a level playing field. Pennsylvania taxpayers deserve projects built fast and cheap, not held hostage by politicians rewarding their pals. Sadly, it’s not just Shapiro; municipalities across the state are falling for responsible contractor ordinances, or RCOs, fake “standards” that really just lock out merit-shop warriors.

Take Reading in December 2022. City Council rammed through an RCO demanding contractors join union-run apprenticeship programs. It sidelined proven nonunion firms — schools and safety pros in their own right — forcing the city to waive it later for a deadline crunch. Ironic? Absolutely. Counterproductive? Definitely, but politics over people is the establishment way.

That’s why we need the Freedom in Public Contracting Act (Senate Bill 961), which is championed by state Sen. Jarrett Coleman. This worker-focused lifeline bans PLAs and RCOs at every government level, ensuring bids go to the best, not the connected.

No more union status as a bidding checkbox, no more forcing nonunion shops to fund union agendas. Coleman makes it clear: Union contractors can compete if they deliver; so should merit shops, without the boot on their neck.

Union bosses might whine, but 90% of Pennsylvania’s construction workers — folks building our roads, homes, and future — deserve “real freedom” to bid without barriers.

Shapiro’s thumb on the scale isn’t progress; it’s tyranny lite, stifling competition and jacking up costs in a state already bleeding jobs outside of our communities.

Dave Sload is the president and CEO of the Associated Builders and Contractors Inc. Keystone Chapter. This commentary initially was published by the Daily Caller News Foundation.