April 11, 1997

It's Political Pay-Back Time At 1600 Pennsylvania Ave.

"If properly implemented, these initiatives [i.e., Clinton's forthcoming regulations and executive order] will affect the expenditure of hundreds of billions of dollars every year. In any given year federal contracts total as much as $200 billion..."

(John Sweeney, President AFL-CIO, March 25, 1997 memo to Union presidents)

For 'The Right Price' Clinton Scraps Competitive Bidding

Despite a 50-year old federal right to work law, President Clinton will soon take the unprecedented step of issuing an executive order that in practice would screen out non-union businesses from participating in federal construction projects.

In a direct assault against fair and open bidding for government construction contracts, the Clinton order will allow federal agencies to "require that every bidder on the project agree to negotiate or become a party to a project labor agreement [i.e., union-only agreement] for the project with one or more appropriate labor organizations." Under the Clinton order, even those businesses whose employees have voted overwhelming to reject union representation can be forced to work under a labor agreement as a precondition of even entering into a "competitive" bidding process.

Through his executive order, Clinton will bypass Congress and the regulatory process to establish as official policy the federally sanctioned discrimination against non-union businesses and their employees. By executive fiat, Mr. Clinton will have effectively barred 89 percent of the private sector workforce, who have chosen not to be represented by a union, from participation in federal construction projects. This is especially alarming since, according to the National Labor Relations Board, when workers are given the choice (in secret ballot elections), 54 percent of the time they vote against union representation in their workplace. The Clinton order will render employee choice and employees' votes meaningless.

The "Solicitor-in-Chief" Keeps His Promises

In describing the high stakes "quid pro quo" at work in the White House-Big Labor project, Tommy Preuett, an organizer with the Plumbers and Pipefitters Union, stated that support for Al Gore (in the 2000 presidential race) will depend "on what he can deliver between now and the end of the term." (Houston Chronicle, February 19, 1997)

Recent events have made it abundantly clear that Vice President Gore fully intends to "deliver" exactly what organized labor is demanding. On February 18, 1997, in Los Angeles, Mr. Gore delivered a speech to the AFL-CIO Executive Council in which he outlined two major new White House initiatives targeting federal construction projects and federal contracting procedures. These initiatives are just the first installment in a long series of repayments for labor's generous support in the 1996 election cycle.

Special Treatment For Special Interests

The next phase is the Clinton executive order (already mentioned) making special treatment for special interests official federal government procurement policy. Currently, the law provides that the federal government procurement process be open to all bidders without discrimination based on their status as union or non-union employers. The Clinton order will tilt the balance in the awarding of federal construction contracts clearly in favor of union shops. The executive order will mandate that:

• "Executive departments or agencies authorized to implement or fund a project for the construction of a facility to be owned or used by a federal department, agency or other entity shall determine on a project-by-project basis (a) whether a project labor agreement will advance the government's procurement interest in economical, efficient, and timely high quality project performance by promoting labor-management stability and project compliance with applicable legal requirements governing safety and health, equal employment opportunity, labor standards and other matters, and (b) whether laws applicable to the specific construction project preclude the use of the proposed project labor agreement."

Given the vast array of considerations (like the somewhat vague if not completely arbitrary "labor standards and other matters") that could be used to justify an agency's determination that a project labor agreement will advance government interests, i.e., option "(a)", the prospects of fair and equal treatment of non-union participants appear extremely remote. In any case, once an agency makes a determination that a project labor agreement would advance government interest, the door to the bidding process is completely shut to non-union businesses and their employees. Specifically, the executive order states that a federal department or agency:

• "may either (a) enter directly into such an agreement with one or more appropriate labor organizations, or (b) require that every bidder on the project agree to negotiate or become a party to a project labor agreement for the project with one or more appropriate labor organizations."