Curb Discriminatory & Wasteful Spending in Stimulus Package, ABC Says

Although 84% of all U.S. construction workers have elected not to join a union in their careers, the stimulus package now being drafted in Washington stipulates only union workers receive contracts for government-related projects. This is why the Associated Builders and Contractors (ABC) today voiced its strong support for the Government Neutrality in Contracting Act (H.R. 983), a measure that would prohibit federal agencies from requiring discriminatory and wasteful union-only project labor agreements (PLAs) on federal construction projects. Rep. John Sullivan (R-Okla.) introduced the legislation.

“All hardworking Americans in the construction industry need a fair shot at economic recovery,” said Jerry Gorski, 2009 ABC national chairman and president of Gorski Engineering, Inc., Collegeville, Pa. “The Government Neutrality in Contracting Act ensures that all contractors and all workers – both union and merit shop – have a fair and equal opportunity to participate on federally funded and federally assisted construction projects. Passage of this legislation is critical as the construction industry has lost more than 858,000 jobs since January 2008.

“When President Obama signed Executive Order 13502, encouraging federal agencies to award taxpayer-funded construction contracts under PLAs, he signaled that he cares more about politics than good policy,” Gorski said.

“Executive Order 13502 is a special interest handout to organized labor that will limit competition and raise construction costs by as much as 20 percent. This means that an estimated $30 billion of the proposed $150 billion in construction spending in the stimulus package before Congress will be wasted. Union-only PLAs drive up costs for American taxpayers while unfairly discriminating against the 84 percent of U.S. construction workers who choose not to join a labor union,” Gorski said.

A union-only PLA is a contract that requires a federal project to be awarded only to contractors that agree to recognize unions as the representatives of their employees on that job; use the union hiring hall to obtain workers; and obey the union’s restrictive work rules.

On another note, President Obama's economic advisor Robert Reich has called for federal criteria excluding white males and skilled workers from receiving any government contracts. You can see this on youtube.com Here's the link: