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ABC endorses Presidential candidate John McCain!

ABC was the first business group to
endorse Presidential candidate John
McCain. That’s because Senator McCain
best represents the free enterprise
values of ABC.”
— Bill Fairchild, 2008 ABC Chairman

You have a stake in the upcoming elections -

Read what ABC attorney Jim Pease, Melli, Walker, Pease and Ruhly, S.C., has to say here.

The Union Agenda

The Wall Street Journal just published an article about unions and the democratic party. This is information you should read. For the article please go here. To learn more about how the unions will be going after you, make sure you attend one of the ABC RoadShows that will be held in Wisconsin in the 2nd and third quarters. Keep your eye on the Upcoming Events/Training page for more information.

Douglas County recently passed an ordinance encouraging the use of Project Labor Agreements

The ordinance contemplates Douglas County using Project Labor Agreements on public works projects in the county in excess of $150,000.  

Project Labor Agreements typically contain provisions that require:

• Merit Shop companies pay their workers’ health and welfare benefits to union trust funds, even though those companies have their own benefit plans. Thus companies have to pay benefits twice: one to the union and once to the company plan.
• PLA’s require Merit Shop companies to obtain their workers from union hiring halls. This means the Merit Shop company has to send its workers to the union hiring hall and hope that the union sends the same workers back.
• Non-union workers are required to pay union dues or join a union.
• Many other provisions that exclude or discourage Merit Shop companies from bidding on these projects.

In a Daily Reporter article reporting on the action of the Douglas County Board, a labor official was quoted as saying “We’re entertaining the idea of sending it to all the city and county governments to make their competitive-bidding process more competitive”.

Only 20% of the nation’s construction workers are represented by a union. The vast majority of workers are not union. So how can elected officials adopt policies that discriminate against the vast majority of people they were elected to represent?

 Local elected officials are often sold a bill of goods by union officials regarding all the “benefits” of Project Labor Agreements. Without input from Merit Shop contractors and their employees, local elected officials may enact these discriminatory policies effectively locking your company out of public works projects in your county. By the way, union activists argue “that if PLA’s are good for public projects, they are good for private projects too. So don’t relax just because you don’t work on public works projects.

What Can Merit Shop Contractors Do?

1. Visit www.opencontracting.com to educate yourself about Union-only Project Labor Agreements.
2. Use information on that website to draft a letter to your County Board Representative and City Council member.
3. Copy this article and share it with other Merit Shop contractors in your area asking them to do the same. Ask them to join in the fight against Project Labor Agreements by becoming a member of Associated Builders and Contractors of Wisconsin.

Make no mistake. Organized labor is actively seeking policies that will prevent your firm from competing in marketplace. If Merit Shop contractors don’t act, these policies will spread rapidly.