James M. Jeffords: “I rise to express my continuing and growing concerns regarding the efforts of President Clinton and his administration…”

“I rise to express my continuing and growing concerns regarding the efforts of President Clinton and his administration to bypass Congress and impose the ultimate in top-down union organizing--union organizing by the President of the United States--on Federal construction projects. I am speaking, of course, of the widely circulated draft of a proposed Executive order that would result in most, if not all, federally funded construction being performed under a union project labor agreement. A project labor agreement would deter a major portion of the contractor universe--open shop or nonunion contractors--from bidding on construction work paid for by American taxpayers. Because the project labor agreement adopted pursuant to the proposed Executive order would require a contractor to enter into an agreement with a labor union as a condition of bidding on the Federal project, most open shop contractors, unwilling to impose a union on themselves and their employees, simply would not submit a bid. Thus, the union-only project labor agreement not only eliminates open competition for Federal contracts, an anticompetitive effect that would result in increased costs of Federal construction to the taxpayers, but also discourages open shop contractors from bidding on work that they are paying for with their own tax dollars.”