State of the unions: Not good

Additions to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid’s 383-page manager’s amendment had aimed to require construction contractors with just five full-time employees and $250,000 or more in payroll to provide employee health insurance benefits or pay a fine. Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.) introduced it on behalf of his union patrons. The amendment would have treated the construction industry differently than all others. For small businesses in every other field, the exemption applied to companies with less than 50 employees: a tenfold difference. The move would have imposed astronomical costs on small construction employers who simply can’t afford to provide insurance, and heaped more job-loss on an industry already seeing 24.7 percent unemployment.

Even cutting those losses, it’s clear that, like most businesses, Big Labor isn’t without an emergency response plan. It has prepared for a time to call its favors and that time is now. Hopefully Congress and the White House won’t deliver what they’ve promised.

Brett McMahon is vice president of Miller & Long, a concrete construction subcontractor, based in Bethesda, Md., and a member of the Associated Builders and Contractors.