December 11, 2008

The Honorable Barack Obama
The President-elect
The Office of the 2008 Presidential Transition
451 6th Street, NW
Washington, D.C. 20001

Dear President-elect Obama:

On behalf of Associated Builders and Contractors (ABC) and our 25,000 general contractors, subcontractors, material suppliers and construction-related firms across the country, we would like to congratulate you on being elected the 44th President of the United States. We look forward to working with you and your administration in the coming years in formulating public policy pertaining to the construction industry and tackling issues important to both American employees and employers.

As one of the nation’s largest construction trade associations, ABC is eager to learn more about your proposal to invest significant federal funding into a major national infrastructure program. We believe that this program could be a vital step towards the recovery of our economy and that such an investment in our nation’s infrastructure would be instrumental in stimulating job creation and economic prosperity in our hard hit industry.

As your administration begins to embark on this ambitious undertaking, we would urge you to maintain free and open competition by not requiring that union affiliation be a prerequisite for working on any project funded by this or any other federal program. By mandating any manner of union-only requirements, the 86 percent of the private construction workforce that is not unionized will automatically be excluded from competing for this work. Denying those firms and their millions of employees the right to work on publicly funded projects is not good business or good budget sense and certainly not what our nation needs at this time of economic turmoil.

Over the last decade, more than 60 percent of the new jobs in our economy have been created by small businesses, according to the Small Business Administration. The fact that the vast majority of ABC’s 25,000 member companies are small businesses only highlights the importance of their inclusion in both the bidding process and execution of your ambitious infrastructure project. In these difficult economic times, limiting competition and precluding any facet of the construction industry from participation on any federal projects would not be in the best interests of our industry or the taxpayers.

We believe that the construction industry as a whole - both union and open-shop firms - is committed to assisting you in bringing our country out of this economic recession. The infrastructure plan you have outlined is a bold one, and our members are looking forward to bidding and working on these projects that will improve our country and stimulate our economy.

Thank you for your consideration of this issue. We look forward to the opportunity to discuss this matter further with the appropriate staff.

Respectfully submitted,

William D. Fairchild                                                                 M. Kirk Pickerel
2008 National Chairman                                                        President and CEO 
Associated Builders and Contractors                                     Associated Builders and Contractors

cc: Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell
Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi
House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer
House Minority Leader John Boehner

To view the letter in PDF with signatures, click here.