Currently Scheduled Seminars

AEC-IEC Member Meeting & Luncheon

December 11, 2008 ...... 11:30 a.m.

Guest Speaker - Ron Mason, Labor Attorney

Topic: Effectively Dealing with Extreme Challenges

This isn’t about Republicans or Democrats … It's about who controls YOUR business

Election 2008: The Big Government Agenda: The National election has given the American people a President, a U.S. Senate, and a U.S. House of Representatives beholden to the special interest of the union bosses in Washington. It is important that you and all IEC members understand what this means to your business.

Employee Free Choice Act: Card-Check Organizing and Binding Arbitration: The number one priority on the union legislative agenda will be imposing card-check organizing on you and your employees. That means your shop could be organized once a majority of your field employees simply sign a union card. The card-check process is open to fraud and abuse, and could subject your employees to intimidation and coercion at the hands of professional union organizers. These organizers have a success rate of more than 80% when they use card-check, and now they’ll make it the law of the land.

While they’re at it, they’ll impose binding arbitration on your business should you have to negotiate a collective bargaining agreement.

Basically, if you are unable to reach a labor contract once your shop has been organized, a federal bureaucrat could impose the labor standards on your business for 2 years through a contract arbitration process that is binding and non-negotiable.

Other Pending Issues That Will Negatively Affect Your Business

• Executive Order that mandates project labor agreements for all federal contracts.
• Legislation to make your business a target for pay discrimination suits without a statute of limitations.
• Legislation to mandate 7 days of paid sick leave on top of your existing policies while also forcing businesses with only 15 or more employees to comply with FMLA.
• The continued expansion of Davis-Bacon prevailing wage rate on federal contracts.
• Legislation that expands the definition of who can join the union to include jobsite supervisors.

This is just the beginning of what the Big Government types in Washington want to do. This isn’t about Republicans or Democrats … this is about who controls YOUR business.

The next two years we will see legislation in Washington that will radically alter the way American small businesses operate. Most of these bills and regulations will be a direct threat to the freedom that you currently enjoy to run your business in a profitable manner.

As we stand on this precipice, some may wonder whether there is anything we can do; and IEC wants to assure you---the contractor members---that we are prepared to stand with you in the fight for your business.

Now is not the time to wallow in what might have been or wonder how we got here. It's the time to stand up for your business and your rights as an entrepreneur and an American.

You and your employees will be kept apprised of the legislative issues that will be confronting your industry, and will be provided with the tools necessary to fight back against the special interests who want to run your business.

In order to win these important issues,a collaborative effort is needed that includes the resources and efforts of contractor members, AEC-IEC, all IEC chapters, and IEC National. Working together, we can educate Congress and the public about the negative impact card-check, and other legislative initiatives, would have on small business owners and the merit shop.

To be successful, speak up loudly with letters to the editor of your newspaper. Fax, email and call your Representatives and Senators. IEC National and AEC-IEC will provide you with the information on the bills and legislation on Capitol Hill. Along with your fellow AEC-IEC contractors, and IEC members across the nation, you must speak up to the tidal wave of government encroachment and work with your fellow merit shop contractors, and all of IEC in fighting for your business.