By the time the meeting was over, the spirit of respect and mutual self-interest was so thick you could have cut it with a welder’s torch. While not a lovefest, four union presidents–the operating engineers’ Frank Hanley, the carpenters’ Douglas McCarron, the laborers’ Terence O’Sullivan and the ironworkers’ Joseph Hunt–pleased many contractors who crowded a hotel conference room in Washington, D.C., Sept. 15. All expressed a determination to help union contractors compete.

PRAGMATIST O’Sullivan emphasized the fight for market share. (Photo by Richard Korman for ENR)

The meeting was part of the Associated General Contractors’ midyear legislative meeting, and the good feelings generated by the union leaders stood in contrast to the political landscape confronting the solidly Republican construction association.

Most notably, the Bush administration and Republicans are vulnerable in coming elections, pollsters and pundits told the contractors, because of problems in rebuilding Iraq and a ballooning budget deficit. AGC wants to let Congress and President Bush know that public works spending is vital for an economic resurgence and can’t be sacrificed.

AGC President John F. Kelley III noted that some members in the past believed "that sending money for lobbying and calling your congressman was enough." A more hands-on effort now is needed to help sway close elections that could return Bush to the White House, keep the Republican majority in Congress and maintain needed levels of public works spending.

The four union presidents could not agree more with the last point and their presence represented a turnaround from the late 1990s, when the building trades’ dialogue with the AGC national office died out. One union president didn’t want to talk to AGC in those years because AGC includes nonunion firms, said an association source. "We weren’t pure," he said.

Pragmatism, rather than purity, is now the order and contractors told the union chiefs their concerns. Jurisdictional disputes that occur on a small fraction of projects are growing in number. The building trades’ new policy on settling them, adopted at the end of last year by unions and signatory contractors, did not go far enough in giving contractors preference in who does the work, says Stephen T. Kimball, senior vice president of Kimball Construction Co. Inc., Baltimore.

The union chiefs all had different opinions on settling the disputes. McCarron won applause when he said he favored contractor preference. But Hanley believes that step could create chaos and advocated pre-job conferences. Hunt worried that contractors would always go for the lower price, and O’Sullivan said the current policy doesn’t adequately address local practices.