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Unions Will Hog Stimulus

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The Tampa Tribune

Published: February 13, 2009

The construction industry has been hit hard by the recession. More than 1 million jobs were lost in our industry in the last year, with 110,000 industry jobs lost in January alone. The huge infusion of money promised by the economic stimulus package was good news for the industry, but an executive order signed by President Obama on Feb. 6 will funnel those funds to his political supporters (labor unions).

The president's executive order encourages federal agencies to award major federal construction contracts under what are known as project labor agreements. The agreement requires contractors and subcontractors on a given project to agree to recognize unions as the representatives of their employees on that job site, use the union hiring hall to obtain workers, pay union wages and benefits, and follow other union rules.

Essentially, if you are not a unionized contractor, you need not apply.

Those familiar with organized labor's highly funded and stridently political voice might be surprised to learn unions only represent 16 percent of the construction industry, with non-union workers comprising 84 percent of the total construction workforce. Per the Obama executive order, apparently the millions of construction workers who elect not to be represented by a union are not good enough to benefit from the potential boon of $150 billion in construction work included in the stimulus package.

STEVE CONA III

Tampa

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