On February 21, NFIB joined a broad coalition of business groups in taking Gov. Tina Kotek to court over her recent executive order mandating union-only project labor agreements on state construction projects.

According to a jointly issued news release announcing the legal challenge, “studies have shown that union-only PLAs needlessly increase construction costs by 13 to 20 percent, while not increasing wages or worker benefits. The Willamette Week newspaper uncovered an analysis by the Oregon Department of Transportation (ODOT) that found that requiring PLAs on the agency’s projects would increase taxpayer costs 10-20%.

“Last month a federal court ruled against the Biden Administration’s attempts to require PLAs on many federal construction projects, determining that they violate the principals of fair and open competition.  That ruling by the United States Court of Federal Claims overturned several project labor agreements issued on federal construction projects during the former president’s administration.”

According to the 2024 NFIB Tax Survey, small-business-owning members in the construction industry accounted for the third most amount of NFIB members (15.8%), just behind agricultural businesses (16.6%) and services (23.4%).