Court Dismisses Challenge to Mandated PLAs at Virginia-area Airports

Originally published by Bloomberg Government on March 30, 2026. Click here to read it there.

A Virginia federal district court dismissed a suit alleging the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority unlawfully ignored a requirement to include project labor agreements in large construction projects at the area’s two major airports.

The court on March 26 held a hearing on motions from MWAA and plaintiff Baltimore-D.C. Metro Building and Construction Trades Council. Judge Patricia Tolliver Giles, of the US District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia, dismissed the suit the next day without prejudice for reasons stated from the bench.

The council sued Jan. 30, alleging the authority’s decision to forgo PLAs in $100 million-plus contracts to be performed at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport and the Washington Dulles International Airport violates a 2022 resolution under which the authority agreed to use PLAs.

“We are disappointed by the court’s decision, which allows MWAA to evade the court’s review of its decision to violate its own procurement policies by not requiring a project labor agreement on the Dulles Tier 2 Center project,” the council said.

“However, all the court has ultimately decided is that unions can protest MWAA solicitations,” it said. “We expect MWAA to continue requiring project labor agreements on all projects worth $35 million or more that are eligible for discretionary federal funding.”

Now-former President Joe Biden issued an executive order mandating use of PLAs—comprehensive prehire collective bargaining agreements—in federal construction projects worth at least $35 million.

MWAA declined to comment.

Sherman Dunn P.C. represented the council. In-house counsel and Friedlander Misler PLLC represented MWAA.

The case is Baltimore-D.C. Metro Building and Constr. Trades Council v. Metro. Wash. Airports Auth., E.D. Va., No. 26-cv-296, 3/27/26.