GOVERNMENT AFFAIRS 

ABC San Diego Helps Protect The Merit Shop by Promoting Open Competition 

Voters prefer charter cities because they offer more accountability, putting greater control of the taxpayer dollars used for services in the hands of locally elected officials, rather than some anonymous centralized bureaucracy.  The people of Vista recognized this, and voted accordingly.

--
George W. Hawkins
, President & CEO of ABC-San Diego (North County Times).

 


In 1960 almost eighty percent of the contractors doing commercial, industrial and even service work were union firms. Open shop contractors who tried to enter the market were burned out, beaten up, picketed by hundreds (in some cases, thousands) of chanting, threatening union workers.


ABC and its members in those days were under constant threat. But they stuck with it. In the very early seventies, after violence had become epidemic, the association filed a nation wide charge against every national union and most of the union locals. The charges were before the National Labor Relations Board and they were unprecedented. The result was a dampening of the violence.

Before this and other significant legal and legislative actions, merit shop projects were bombed and burned with terrible regularity. Yet ABC and its members persevered.

Now, the unions tend to be less violent, less obtrusive and in large part due to the efforts of ABC and its members, much less successful. Today only about fifteen percent of commercial and industrial construction work is performed by union contractors.

But the unions have not quit; they are still there, still demanding that work be all union, still pressing on law makers and regulators to limit the rights of merit shop contractors. And ABC and its members are still fighting the good fight.

The stronger ABC is, the better it is at helping you defend the right to run your businesses as you chose – as merit shop contractors.

The Role of ABC San Diego's Legislative and PAC Committees


Get into politics or get out of business!

ABC San Diego Legislative Committee guides the government affairs actions of the chapter. This committee is gathering strength, having grown in response to the continuing merit shop struggle against a small 'special interest' group which believes it has the inherent right to dictate how ABC members run their businesses.

The ABC legislative committee consists of a wide cross section of members from general to specialty contractors and other industry associates. The committee focus is to fight for the rights of the merit shop. It remains an up-hill battle with organized labor controlling so much of the politics impacting our industry - and the politicians who push through laws that favor union over merit shop. For years we have been on the defensive. Today we are fighting back with equal or greater resolve. Our fight isn't pro- or anti-union. Rather, it's about what is right and fair based on our founding fathers philosophy of freedom, dignity, and the innate rights of citizens throughout the free world.

Join the Legislative and PAC Committees!

Contact Bill Baber or George Hawkins if you would like to know more about the Legislative and PAC committees, or how to get involved.

"The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy."
-Martin Luther King Jr.-







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