Under the Biden-Harris Administration, the construction industry faced union-only executive actions and regulations that excluded 89% of contractors from bidding on federal work. Companies received tax incentives for using only registered apprentices on private work, and employers were mandated to pay Davis-Bacon wages. The Department of Labor has attempted to force employers to disclose sensitive information to the public that can easily be manipulated, mischaracterized and misused, subjecting employers to illegitimate attacks and employees to violations of their privacy.
The Harris-Walz ticket comes with the same playbook. In addition to the anti-competitive policies implemented during Harris’ term as vice president, Governor Tim Walz (MN-D) has a track record of his own. Walz and his legislative allies have been reliable partners to organized labor on several misguided efforts that hamstring small-business owners in their ability to run their businesses effectively and be nimble in delivering services to their public and private customers. While he may be a supporter of infrastructure spending in Minnesota, Walz shut out an overwhelming majority of construction workers from public work wherever possible and gave unfair advantages to unions in their quest to broaden their membership—sometimes at the expense of small business owners and taxpayers.
Sound familiar? Policies under these administrations, at both the state and federal level, cripple merit-shop contractors, preventing them from competing to build and rebuild our nation’s infrastructure and representing a poor investment of Americans’ hard-earned tax dollars. If past is prologue, it’s clear that a Harris-Walz administration will only bring more anti-competitive, inflationary and divisive policies that shut out the vast majority of the construction workforce.
President Biden may have left the ticket, but the pair that has taken his place threatens to bring forth the same exclusionary agenda the construction industry has seen for the past four years. Come November 5, merit-shop contractors around the country should remember that this new ticket has picked winners and losers in the past, and they are poised to do it again in the future.
