ABC - ABC Member Testitfies Against Union Favoritism in the Construction Industry

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ABC MEMBER TESTITFIES AGAINST UNION FAVORITISM IN THE CONSTRUCTION INDUSTRY (01/21/2010)

Contact: Gail Raiman, (703) 812-2073                                 For Immediate Release
             Gerry Fritz, (703) 812-2062                                    January 21, 2010

Washington, D.C. – Associated Builders and Contractors’ (ABC) member Stephen Worth, president and CEO of Worth and Company, Inc., Pipersville, Pa., today testified at a forum in the U.S. House of Representatives that was examining the preferential treatment big labor is receiving by the Obama administration and its allies on Capitol Hill.

Led by Rep. John Kline (R-Minn.), ranking member of the House Education and Labor Committee, and attended by Republican members of the committee, the forum, “A Culture of Favoritism: The Obama Administration’s Labor Agenda,” looked at how this special interest group is being rewarded for its political support at the expense of hard-working Americans.

Worth testified about union-only project labor agreements (PLAs) and how his 400 employees are excluded from construction projects, even though their own tax dollars are being used to fund the projects. “Currently, only 15.6 percent of America’s private construction workforce belongs to a union. This means PLAs discriminate against more than 8 out of 10 construction workers, including all of my employees,” said Worth.

“In an industry facing an unemployment rate of more than 20 percent, we cannot afford to give some workers jobs simply because they carry a union card while forcing merit shop employees to be without work,” said Worth.

Joining Worth on the panel were Steve Forbes, president and CEO of Forbes and editor-in-chief of Forbes magazine; Elaine Chao, former Secretary of Labor, 2001-2009; and Marissa Cuellar, a nurse at the Cypress Fairbanks Medical Center in Houston, Texas.

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Associated Builders and Contractors (ABC) is a national association with 77 chapters representing 25,000 merit shop construction and construction-related firms with two million employees. To find out more about ABC, visit www.abc.org.