Obama Admin Weighs Proposal to Give Unions Even More Power

Image credit: American Power

Andy Stern’s visits to the White House sure are paying off. But no, we’re not supposed to believe he’s not a lobbyist.

The Obama administration is considering a proposal for the Department of Labor to weigh the “labor practices” of contractors before awarding contracts.

Daily Crawler: The Obama administration is considering a proposal that would heavily favor government contractors that implement policies designed by organized labor.

The “High Road Contracting Policy” would give preference to companies that adopt practices above and beyond existing labor laws. Multiple sources have confirmed the discussions, which are part of the White House’s attempt to spur economic growth through procurement reform and are driven by the Center for American Progress and the Service Employees International Union.

The proposal would advantage contractors that provide hourly workers with a “living wage”, health insurance, an employer-funded retirement plan and paid sick days. Contracting officers would weigh a company’s labor policies as a criteria for awarding the contract, along with the standard metrics: price, past performance and the ability to meet the contract’s requirements.

As part of the implementation, the Department of Labor would be responsible for collecting and scoring the labor records of all federal contractors, giving the department an unprecedented amount of influence in deciding who receives federal contracts. Each agency would be required to establish a labor advocate, who would have the discretion to increase a bidder’s labor score based on the company’s commitment to implementing the new labor standards. Professional Services Council Vice President Alan Chvotkin said such an arrangement would effectively make the Department of Labor the gatekeeper to the $523 billion federal marker.

What a boneheaded thing to even consider during a recession, and when our national debt has reached an historic, dangerous high. Speaking of high, you’d have to be high to believe this is a wise fiscal decision, or to buy the spin coming from big labor.

Neil Gordon, investigator at the Project on Government Oversight said his organization is favor of the policies, pointing out companies that employ better labor practices are inherently at a disadvantage without such regulations.

“We’re of the opinion that federal contractor has to be judged on its responsibility,” Gordon said. “We think labor practices should also be factored in as they have very important consequences. Employees who are not treated as well aren’t going to do as good a job. Also, they exact a cost on society through things like public assistance and food stamps. We think that should be considered when awarding a contract.”

“Employees who are not treated as well aren’t going to do as good a job.” What a ridiculous argument. Unions have institutionalized mediocrity, and that’s the upside. What about the weakest performers who can’t be fired? To argue that collective bargaining somehow creates better workers than a meritocracy is completely disingenuous.

Furthermore, the argument that unions keep people off food stamps and public assistance is even more inane. Government employee unions (and in this case, government sponsored employee unions) have made it a certainty that more Americans will be on public assistance in the future. They take money from the private sector, thereby destroying private sector jobs and growth.

If this policy is enacted the federal government will pay more of our money for lesser quality than we would get otherwise. But Obama knows where his bread is buttered, and he certainly won’t be caving to the pressure of his most frequent White House visitor.

This entry was posted on Friday, February 5th, 2010 at 7:38 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.