'It's Embarrassing': Glenn Grothman Slams Biden Admin Labor Rule He Says Infringes On Workers Rights

4 months ago

During a House Oversight Committee hearing prior to the Congressional recess, Rep. Glenn Grotham (R-WI) questioned witnesses about the impacts new labor rules put forth by the Biden Administration.

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00:00Thank you. Um, I'd like to apologize, although sometimes members of the other party, they

00:04get so used to talking about union jobs, it implies nobody in Congress cares about non-union

00:10jobs. Uh, I've got a lot of good friends in the unions, but, uh, I, I, uh, I think it's

00:16embarrassing that we're getting to the point, the hatred of diversity is so intense that

00:21they can't say we want to expand the government by all jobs. They just, you're not a union,

00:26they don't count. But, uh, I got a, got a question here for you. A new Biden administration,

00:32this is for Dr. or for Mr. Brubeck, a new Biden administration rule mandates the contractors

00:37and subcontractors sign under a project labor agreement to be eligible to perform work on

00:42large scale federal projects, 35 million and up. This discriminates against merit shop

00:47contractors in what ways to PLAs potentially infringe on the freedom of choice for workers

00:53who may prefer not to join a union. Yeah, like I mentioned before, typical PLAs will

00:59force contractors to hire most or all their labor from union hiring halls and leave their

01:03own employees who are non-union workers, um, on the sidelines and they can't work on those

01:08projects. Um, they have to follow union work rules and they have to pay into union pension

01:11and benefits programs. So, um, it's effectively telling non-union workers you can't participate

01:17on the projects. And if there is a exception that allows them to participate, the non-union

01:22workers have to pay into these pension and benefit plans and they will never receive

01:26the benefits that they pay into those plans unless they join a union and become vested

01:29in those programs. Some of these PLAs are in, are in non-right to work states. They

01:33may require union membership, uh, but ones in, in right to work states typically do not

01:38require union membership, but they do require the payment of agency shop fees and other

01:41support of the union programs that may, they may disagree with as a condition of working

01:45on a taxpayer funded project. You talk about work rules and this is kind of going off script

01:50here a little, but you talk about work rules and I think there's a perception that the

01:54only difference between union and non-union is maybe how much people are paid. Could you

01:58elaborate on how work rules may raise the cost of a project or make it more inefficient?

02:04Sure. Um, a number of contractors that are union are signatory to their collective bargaining

02:09agreements with specific unions. What that means is that they have to follow the work

02:13rules outlined in those collective bargaining agreements for any of the work they perform.

02:16For example, if they are building a sidewalk, um, they have to hire a carpenter to do the

02:21car, to do the carpentry forms around the sidewalk. They'll have to bring in someone

02:24from a different trade to do other aspects of that sidewalk. On the non-union side, a

02:29lot of contractors are able to do something called multi-skilling, where they're able

02:32to bring in one or two people who can do the job tasks across multiple trades and that'll

02:38allow them to be more efficient and have more skills overall in the life of the project

02:41and for the careers of the actual construction workers too.

02:44Okay. Um, Mr. Dreher, since 2009 under policy initiated by the Obama administration, federal

02:51agencies have been encouraged to consider mandating PLAs on federal construction projects,

02:57but they've rarely done it. Why do you think that's so?

03:02Because it was the contractor's choice, right? I, I, um, you know, 12 out of 3,210 contracts

03:10had PLAs, so I think that that tells us that there, there wasn't a lot of interest during

03:14that 14 year period. Left to their own devices.

03:16Correct. People wouldn't do them.

03:17Let the people decide. Let the contractor decide. Create fair and open competition.

03:23Okay. Any, uh, any studies indicating PLAs increased the overall cost of public construction

03:30projects? Yes. Yeah. The overall cost increased 12 to

03:3415 percent. I think that's statistics day. And, and, and the result then of course is

03:40more infrastructure undone, not as good infrastructure.

03:44Yeah. Yeah. We're slowing up projects and, and right now the, the industry is so saturated.

03:50Um, we're short workers. There's a lot of projects to do and this is just adding again

03:55another hurdle that's, that's going to prevent us from achieving that mission.

03:58Okay. Final question for Mr. Brubeck. The IRS and Treasury Department have finalized

04:03prevailing wage and apprenticeship requirements for certain incentives contained in the Inflation

04:08Reduction Act, which is a big climate bill that President Biden signed into law in 2022.

04:14Will the administration characterize the rule as rule as a win for labor unions? Uh, they

04:20will, uh, for blue collar workers, they will most likely give a significant advantage to

04:25labor unions. Can you explain to me this weaponization of the IRS to push labor policies and project

04:32labor agreements on the Inflation Reduction Act, clean energy tax credits? Is, is this

04:38in the statute?

04:39The prevailing wage and registered apprenticeship requirements on these clean energy projects

04:44seeking enhanced tax credits, that is in the statute. What's not in the statute is a new

04:48provision by the IRS that says developers would be exempt or get a get out of free jail

04:54card for the willful and extreme penalties in the new statute if they sign a project

05:00labor agreement, if they require all the contractors to sign a PLA. So they're getting

05:05an exemption through regulation to the actual statute if they sign a PLA. And this is going

05:10to create a lot of problems. A lot of developers and a lot of, um, people seeking these tax

05:15credits are trying to understand the confusing rules behind prevailing wage and registered

05:19apprenticeship requirements. And so they're going to be basically pushed and coerced into

05:22requiring project labor agreements. So this is they're weaponizing the IRS and the tax

05:27system to develop, uh, more union jobs and unionized contractors get in.

05:31And hatred of non-union jobs. It might be hatred is too strong, but they don't want

05:35people having non-union jobs.

05:37We're not welcome.

05:38Yep. Okay. Thank you.

05:39All right. I would now like to recognize Mr. Fitzgerald for five minutes.

05:43I want to thank the Chairwoman for allowing me to, to wave on to the committee. It's an

05:48important topic and when I saw it was coming up in, in the subcommittee, uh, definitely

05:54wanted to participate, uh, as my, uh, many years in the Wisconsin State Senate, along

05:59with Congressman Grothman, by the way, um, we did do some PLA reforms and I think, uh,

06:06one of the things that was always missed, and I'm glad you're reiterating again and

06:10again that, um, you know, what you're talking about

'It's Embarrassing': Glenn Grothman Slams Biden Admin Labor Rule He Says Infringes On Workers Rights

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