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Dive brief:
- A day after President Joe Biden announced he would no longer seek re-election, Associated Builders and Contractors endorsed Republican candidate Donald Trump.
- In a letter to the Trump campaignABC President and CEO Mike Bellaman and Buddy Henley, the organization’s board chairman and owner of Gaithersburg, Md.-based Henley Construction Co., criticized the Biden administration’s actions as bad for businesses, while praising Trump’s policies during his time in office.
- “Instead, your support of fair and open competition, job creation, small business and expanded workforce development initiatives during your first term helped ABC members grow their businesses, improve their workforce and create career-enhancing jobs,” Bellaman and Henley wrote. .
Diving knowledge:
In 2021, Biden signed the Jobs and Infrastructure Investment Act, earmarking $1.2 trillion to be spent over five years on rebuilding the nation’s roads, bridges and other critical infrastructure, which has led to a boom in the sector
When Trump was in the White House, he failed to pass an infrastructure plan. But the ABC supported his plan and “would like to support a similar plan again,” Kristen Swearingen, ABC’s vice president of legislative and policy affairs, told Construction Dive.
ABC’s endorsement does not mention the IIJA, but the organization’s qualms with the strings attached to it, such as obligation of the project’s labor contracts in federally and federally aided projects. The group claims the policy prevents non-union workers and companies from working on major projects funded by the federal government.
“The unnecessary exclusion of small and diversely skilled businesses, and their hard-working employees, from building taxpayer-funded construction projects because they are not unionized must end,” Bellaman and Henley wrote. “If America is serious about building quality infrastructure with union and non-union trades professionals and contractors, this change is necessary, regardless of who the Democratic Party nominates for president.”
Non-union workers, in fact, can still find work on projects with PLA without joining a union, although they may have to pay dues associated with the costs of the union representing the workers in this project. Non-union builders can also gain work on PLA projects, although they would have to agree to a pre-employment collective agreement.
ABC too supported Trump in 2020similarly citing his support for open competition and activities such as opposing legislation, including the Protection of the Right to Organize Act.
In April, the North American construction unions endorsed Biden in one of his first endorsement ads. Sean McGarvey President of the NABTUhe praised Biden’s work in passing laws like the IIJA and his pro-labor policies.
“We haven’t had a president in my lifetime who prioritized the value of America’s skilled workers and the work they do,” McGarvey said at the time.
Although Biden approved Vice President Kamala Harris as the Democratic nominee on Sunday, the party has yet to officially nominate her.
