A Message from the ABC Keystone Chair of the Board

BY: KEITH ELDREDGE, CPA, RKL, ABC KEYSTONE 2022 CHAIR OF THE BOARD

Who is tired of hearing “elections have consequences?” I know I am, but after spending several days in Washington D.C. at the ABC National Legislative Conference, I get it.

ABC National has been tracking several issues and waiting for some of the rules from the current administration to determine the next course of action. Several of these steps include preparing to file suit. The list of items from this administration that ABC opposes is extensive, and I suggest you visit the ABC website to review the list in detail. There are two items that I would like to highlight as they are of great importance to ABC members.

First, there are changes happening at the NLRB. This is extremely frightening as non-elected officials are making changes that will have an impact on many of our businesses. There was a memo issued by the general counsel for the NLRB changing many of the rules and cases that have been around for over 70 years. What this means is that several practices that the current administration’s NLRB wants changed, can now be changed by them. This is an end run around the PRO Act that has not passed the Senate. Since the Senate cannot get over the filibuster, the NLRB has taken it upon itself to start the implantation of several rules.

The second item on the ABC opposition list is Executive Order 1406. This order requires a PLA (Project Labor Agreement) on all Federal jobs over $35 million. When congress passed the Infrastructure Bill, PLAs were removed to get approval. President Biden put it back in through Executive Order. It is not bad enough to have this requirement simply on federal jobs, but they are now pushing to require PLAs on federally funded jobs as well. They intend to accomplish this by giving priority to jobs that have PLAs as a requirement for funding. Those that are not including PLAs are less likely to get funded. States are in a bind when they need money to get projects done, and they are forced to include PLAs to receive the funding. For PA, this means 87% of the workforce will not be able to work on these jobs. The current administration says union jobs come in on time and on budget. However, ABC’s statistics show that union jobs are 12-20% more costly and almost never finish on time.

These two list items, the NLRB changes and Executive Order 1406, are two examples where elections truly have consequences. We currently have a governor’s race that will have significant consequences. If Josh Shapiro gets elected, I believe we could be looking at similar PLA rules here in PA on all jobs and a complete attack on open shop contractors.

Participation in STEP is a great way to specifically address the safety claims by the unions against the merit shop. We have not seen a great influx in STEP applications this year, and we need your STEP data to help advocate for the merit shop contractors. Your data is essential to ABC to help fight for your rights, and to fight against the misinformation the unions have been spreading about merit shop contractors. As explained by the ABC National staff during Leg Con, this data will go a long way to show how safe merit shop contractors are and helps provide the factual data they need. Please help by completing your applications.

Now, for some good news. On June 14, the ABC National Board of Directors approved a plan to consolidate the ABC Central PA Chapter into the ABC Keystone Chapter. This newest region has 23 new counties and brings our membership to 626 and growing. We want to welcome our newest members from the former Central Chapter. We are excited to show you the value that ABC Keystone brings and how we can be a valued partner to all members.

Eldredge_Keith_Cropped
Keith Eldredge, CPA, RKL
2022 Chair of the Board
ABC Keystone
keldredge@rklcpa.com
(717) 843-3804

Posted June 30, 2022