Documents confirm White House pushing pro-union contracting policies

When contacted with regards to the documents, some of which are dated August 2009, a spokesperson for Vice President Biden sent the following:

“We are not certain of the origins of this memo, but it appears to be a broad examination of the landscape surrounding these issues; it is out of date and not reflective of the current policy review ongoing in the administration. The president made it clear that he is committed to reforming government contracts to save taxpayers money while protecting workers and the environment. The administration is currently gathering data and examining the best ways to do this.”

Several observers have pointed out that the measures appear to be aimed at boosting organized labor, which has been dealt a series of setbacks in recent months. Union membership is at its lowest point in decades, making the $500 billion federal contracting market attractive grounds for expansion.

“Would it be advantageous for unions? That depends,” Eisenbrey said. “Yeah, I think it’s possible that union firms could benefit. I would hope that they would, that they’re winning contracts that provide paid sick leave and health benefits and so forth.”

The Service Employees International Union is one of the groups most actively lobbying on behalf on the proposals but has declined multiple requests for comment in recent weeks. Spencer said organized labor is pressing for the administration to take action on this and other labor issues without involving Congress.

“Unions have had a hard time advancing some of their issues through Congress,” Spencer said. “They’ve found some of their ideas they’d like to implement are not all that popular on the Hill. Right now they’re not that popular on the Hill. They’re trying to work every angle they can to get some of this stuff done.”

The documents also confirm that a central office would be responsible for collecting and evaluation the labor practices of all companies bidding on federal contractors. The office would then assign a score that contracting officers would have to take into account during the award process.

Every agency would also have a labor standards advocate that would “have the authority to vary this score to a reasonable extent, taking into account bidders’ credible commitments to implement good labor standards on the contract in question.” Critics contend the process would become a de facto screening for unionized companies.

“The implications are not just for federal contractors across entire work force, but also state and local governments,” Spencer said. “It does appear to be an effort to impose some fairly ambitious social policies across wide swaths of the economy without having to resort to legislation.”