Arlington County Quietly Paves Way for More Project Labor Agreements
What are they hiding?
The Arlington County Board of Supervisors is working to ensure Arlingtonians pay more to get less on local infrastructure projects.
Last month, the Arlington County Board of Supervisors quietly amended its Purchasing Resolution, effectively authorizing the use of Project Labor Agreements (PLAs), without any meaningful public input or transparency.
On June 11, 2025, the amended purchasing resolution was quietly posted on the Board’s website. Just three days later, on Saturday, June 14th at 9:30 am, the amendment was approved in bulk with other bills on the “Consent Agenda.” To be sure, there was no legitimate public discussion about the change, which will have far reaching consequences for local taxpayers, businesses, and residents.
In fact, in order to have an appropriate debate about the downsides of PLAs, an Arlington resident would have needed prior knowledge of the Board’s intentions and to show up early on a Saturday morning to request that the item be removed from the “Consent Agenda” and made subject to public discussion. The likelihood of this was further diminished because the Board’s agenda made no mention of the PLA change. Perhaps intentionally, no request came on time and the amendment passed with no discussion. This sneaky procedural move now gives the County justification to mandate PLAs under Article 4 – 104 of the amended purchasing resolution.
Almost immediately after adopting the revised resolution, the County is putting this new authority into action. On July 15, 2025, the County issued a Request for Qualifications (RFQ) for the renovation of Gateway Park that included a PLA mandate, the first such mandate in the County’s history. Specifically, the RFQ states:
“The construction services resulting from the subsequent [Request for Proposals] are subject to Project Labor Agreement (PLA) under Article 4-104 of the Arlington County Purchasing Resolution. All employees of any contractor or any subcontractor working on the resulting contract shall be subject to the terms of a pre-hire agreement to be negotiated between the contractor and one or more construction unions.”
Let’s be clear: This was not a transparent process. It wasn’t publicized. It wasn’t debated. And the County is moving forward with a highly detrimental public policy with no public discussion or consideration of the negative ramifications of PLAs.