Obama’s message to non-union workers – screw you!

“Last week, Obama quietly issued an executive order that, as The Associated Press described, “encourages federal agencies to have construction contractors and subcontractors enter project labor agreements. Those agreements require contractors to negotiate with union officials, recognize union wages and benefits and generally abide by collective-bargaining agreements,” according to the Minneapolis Star Tribune.

What does it all mean?  Here is an explanation from the same editorial in the Minneapolis Star Tribune:

It means the competitive bidding process for federal contracts, intended to protect taxpayers, is being undermined. It means the 84 percent of construction workers who don’t belong to labor unions will likely be discriminated against; they’ll be left to choose between joining a union and, essentially, not working. It means big labor – which spent millions of dollars helping elect Obama – is getting a huge payoff. It means we should prepare our pocketbooks for even more costly quid pro quo from Obama. Most disturbingly, though, it means exponentially higher labor costs for taxpayer-funded federal government projects at a time when our nation is trying to pull itself out of a fiscal ditch.

What it means is that only union contractors will be able to bid on big federal projects.  So non-union workers will get the shaft – even though they make up the great majority of the U.S. workforce.

Do you want to know more about project labor agreements?  Click here.

I am not anti-union, in fact I belong to a teacher’s union, but it is not fair to stack the deck against non-union companies and their workers.  In fact that is anti-minority as most minority workers are NOT union members.

Newly installed Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele summed it up well: “Federal contracts should go to the businesses that can offer taxpayers the best value – not just the unions who supported the Democrats’ campaigns last year. Quietly signing executive orders to payback campaign backers undermines Obama’s promise to change Washington.”


About Admin

"Admin" is just editors Vern Nelson, Greg Diamond, or Ryan Cantor sharing something that they mostly didn't write themselves, but think you should see. Before December 2010, "Admin" may have been former blog owner Art Pedroza.