Posts tagged innovation
California’s War on Autonomous Trucking
May 14, 2026 // As structural economic factors push costs for the freight industry and consumers higher, the American public has three options. It can accept higher prices for all transportation services; it can enlarge the labor pool through immigration; or it can embrace new technology that improves transportation productivity and resolves the Baumol dilemma. Becerra, Steyer, and Khanna have followed the path prescribed by FreightWaves’ Fuller, promising to force higher freight costs onto the public. While the Golden State’s coalition politics might require genuflecting to the Teamsters, Californians are bound to notice before long that they’re paying higher prices than people in other states while also lagging behind them technologically.
Bid Protests Offer a Way Around PLAs, But Will a Slow, Steady Precedent Win the Day?
June 25, 2025 // The OMB memo instructs federal agencies to maintain the labor pact requirements but also points to a Federal Acquisition Rule provision that provides an exception to the PLA requirement for large construction projects when its use would substantially reduce the number of bidders and impact the price. But it has left neither contractor groups nor NABTU happy. "To that extent this isn’t what we hoped for, it is definitely better than what was in place with the Biden administration,” Brian Turmail, vice president of public affairs and workforce at AGC told ENR. “In addition, given the recent court decisions, it is hard to see how the administration will be able to impose a mandated PLA without facing successful bid protests."
Opinion: Time for a Law That Puts Workers, Not Unions, First
March 25, 2022 // The Employee Rights Act of 2022, unlike Biden’s PRO Act, encourages innovation and job flexibility.