Order Curtails Union-Only Federal Pacts

President Bush issued an executive order Friday that seeks to throw open federal construction contracts to non-union labor.

The order, distributed by the White House press office as Bush campaigned in Florida, was a blow to organized labor just 11 days before the presidential election.

It bans project agreements reached between a construction company and a labor organization that, the White House said, “discriminate against open shop contractors and their employees in one or more ways.”

The White House said the order “merely prohibits any agency, contractor or construction manager from imposing a union-only requirement on any other contractor or subcontractor seeking to perform federal work.”

The White House said the order could drive down federal construction costs by as much as 21%.

Steven Westra, president of Associated Builders and Contractors, which has challenged the legality of union-only agreements in several court cases, said in a statement that he was “delighted” with the President’s action.

He said the national organization and its 80 chapters nationwide would “throw their full support” behind Bush in his reelection bid. The Washington-based organization represents 16,000 member firms.

Rex Hardesty, a spokesman for the AFL-CIO in Washington, called Bush’s action a clear attempt to win the builder group’s backing. He said the association had tried to stop the state of Massachusetts from entering into a project agreement to use all union subcontractors on a project to clean up Boston Harbor.

The National Labor Relations Board and the Justice Department “came down on the side of the unions, saying project agreements are a normal part of business and no violation of federal law. (The Associated Building Contractors) threatened Bush with not supporting his reelection because of that case,” Hardesty said.

Bush’s order was seen as another restriction on provisions of the Depression-era Davis-Bacon Act, which requires government contractors to pay their labor wages equal to those in the community.

Recently, the White House suspended the prevailing-wage rules under that law on federal projects in hurricane-damaged areas of Florida, Louisiana and Hawaii. The new order goes into effect in 30 days.

According to the White House, even in those areas where Davis-Bacon sets wage rates for all workers, union and non-union, the new rules will allow competition from open-shop contractors who do not have union work rules.

The White House said the order targets agreements that preclude open shop contractors from bidding on subcontracts.

“Other agreements operate in practice to the same effect by requiring the open shop contractor to agree to . . . costly work rules and practices provided for in the collective bargaining agreement or in the project agreement itself,” the White House said in a fact sheet that accompanied the order.