Why Join ABC? The Reasons to Join ABC 50 Years Ago Are the Same Today People often ask, “Why should I join ABC?” “How does ABC help me?” The answer is: there are at least three basic ways in which ABC helps. ABC’s lobbying helps shape the laws which govern your business, its educational programs help you to understand those laws and its strategy committees help you apply those laws to your business problems. Shaping the Law ABC brings to legislators and regulators a point of view that many of them have never heard before. The voice of the merit-shop contractor was almost completely silent before ABC. Many legislators didn’t even know they existed — and legislators certainly didn’t think merit-shop contractors had any political clout. ABC has changed that. ABC’s lobbying efforts have provided legislators and regulators with information that helps those officials understand the problems, the wants and the needs of the merit-shop contractor — and that means all employers, whether they are union or nonunion, who share the Merit Shop Philosophy. ABC has demonstrated, particularly in the fight against the Common Situs Bill, that it does represent a broad segment of the construction industry and that it does have great political clout. That helps employers. Understanding the Law I am greatly disturbed by how little most employers know about their legal rights and about the legal limitations on unions. If employers don’t know what their rights are, they won’t use those rights. If they don’t know what limitations there are on unions, they will allow unions to use unlawful conduct to accomplish the unions’ objectives. That makes employers weaker and unions stronger than the law intended. That hurts employers. ABC understands the problem and has developed educational programs to help provide employers with knowledge of the law. That knowledge gives employers power — the power to insist on their rights and to prevent the union from using unlawful tactics. That helps employers. Applying the Law Employers need help most when they have a problem, they can’t find a solution to all by themselves. They need help in applying the law to their particular problem. Here again, ABC is there to provide that help. A team made up of the ABC chapter executive director, the Strategy Committees and legal counsel work with the employer to define the problem, explore possible solutions and assist in achieving the solution the employer selects. This is front line help from people who have been there before. That helps employers. ABC Helps Employers Help Themselves Don’t misunderstand me — ABC doesn’t do it all. You have to solve your own problems. That’s what free enterprise is all about. But, ABC helps you to help yourself. It provides you with an opportunity. What you do with that opportunity is up to you. By JIM PEASE, ABC MEMBER AND ATTORNEY This article is a reprint from 1975. 16
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