Salt of the Earth: A blow for organized labor

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March 2001

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Bush orders bully organized labor

Bush orders bully organized labor
President Bush signed his name to four executive orders on organized labor last month, including one that cuts the money unions will have for political campaign spending. His action triggered vehement disapproval from Democrats and labor leaders and outspoken praise from Republicans and private workers’ groups.

According to White House spokesman Ari Fleischer, the orders will create “fair and open competition,” ensure neutrality in government contracting and efficient use of tax dollars, and most controversially, allow workers to control how their union dues are used.

Union officials don’t see it that way. “I am appalled and outraged at President Bush’s decision to issue four mean-spirited, anti-worker executive orders sought by his corporate contributors and by right-wing ideologues,” says AFL-CIO President John Sweeny. Democrats have argued the orders punish groups that supported Al Gore during the campaign and reduce the money unions will be able to spend in future races.

The four orders will:

Overturn the “project labor agreement,” which requires federally financed projects to hire union contractors.
End federal building job retention policies for low-level employees like janitors. The policies protected selected jobs when new contractors took over projects.
Abolish the National Partnership Council, a government agency designed to resolve labor-management issues.
Require government contractors to post a notice telling workers they have the right, under a 1988 Supreme Court Case, to withhold a portion of their union dues not used for collective bargaining. This money is often spent on political campaigns.

The Associated Builders and Contractors, a 23,000-member advocacy organization opposed to union-only labor agreements, supports the new orders. “The Bush executive order ensures that every American worker has equal opportunity regardless of labor affiliation— and that construction contracts will be determined by merit, and by full and open competition,” says Henry Kelly, the organization’s president.

Kelly says the Clinton administration’s policies discriminated against non-union workers. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics recently reported that union workers now make up only 18.3 percent of the construction workforce and 13.5 percent of the general workforce.

The AFL-CIO Building and Construction Trades Department has described the executive order against project labor agreements “a declaration of war on construction workers,” however.

Sweeny says Bush’s move “appears to be pure retribution for the growing voice of working men and women in our nation’s political life.”

Bush signed the four orders February 17. The president’s father originally issued both the order requiring posted notice of workers’ right to withhold dues and the order on project agreements. President Clinton rescinded them while in office.—Anne Graber
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