The Clinton administration may be on the verge of issuing a politically charged pro-union revision to an obscure but crucial federal procurement regulation.
Last February, Vice President Gore promised the AFL-CIO's executive council that he would fight to amend section 9 of the Federal Acquisition Regulation to make the government consider companies' labor relations histories when granting federal contracts. The change that could disqualify many companies from a market worth about $200 billion annually.
Other changes might include a ban on reimbursing companies for costs incurred defending themselves against unfair labor practice complaints or for actions that oppose union organizing efforts.
The proposal awaits the go-ahead from the Office of Management and Budget. But neither the proposal's backers in the labor movement nor its critics in the business community have seen current drafts, and there are whispers--unconfirmed by OMB, which did not return calls--of disagreement within the Clinton administration on how far the new rules should go. After a draft of a new rule is published in the Federal Register, interested parties will have 60 days to comment, after which the final rule may be issued.
"We understand that they are in some kind of drafting stage, and we sure hope they publish it for public comment quickly," said Laurence E. Gold, the AFL-CIO's associate general counsel. "We expect they will follow through on what they publicly announced they were going to do."
Business lobbyists--who fiercely oppose the changes--say they think the issue may be heading toward a climax, one way or another, sometime after Thanksgiving. "The information I have is that the guidelines are drafted and very close to being issued," said Carla Sola, a director of employment policies at the National Association of Manufacturers (NAM).
Some business lobbyists speculate that procurement policy may have become a pawn in the acerbic debate over the renewal of President Clinton's fast-track trade authority. Gore, they say, needs the procurement revisions to even the score with his likely presidential rival, House Minority Leader Richard Gephardt of Missouri, who scored big points with unions for helping kill the fast-track legislation that Gore supported.
On the other hand, another business lobbyist counter-speculated that President Clinton "might be so pissed off" about labor's opposition to fast track "that he would stick it to" AFL-CIO president John J. Sweeney by killing or stonewalling the new procurement regs.
For the AFL-CIO and its allies to prevail in the fight, they must overcome the opposition of a broad alliance of business interests that earlier this year quashed a less-expansive executive order concerning federal construction projects. The administration withdrew the order to assure the confirmation of Secretary of Labor nominee Alexis M. Herman.
More than 700 companies and trade associations--a combination of small businesses and such heavy hitters as NAM, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the Business Roundtable--have aligned in a group called the National Alliance Against Blacklisting to fight the procurement proposal.
"We're not aware that [the administration] has talked to the trade associations that are affected by this to ask what's really necessary, so we think it has to be political payback [to the unions]," Sola said. "Obviously, we've been communicating our position to the administration, and we've had some good response from the leadership of the House and Senate, and with members of both congressional labor committees and the government affairs committees, who are knowledgeable in procurement law."
One management attorney said privately that labor may have bitten off more than it can chew by seeking such wide-ranging procurement changes. The debate, he said, has mobilized opposition from groups representing organizations that are usually not anti-union, such as non-profit hospitals, charitable organizations, and colleges and universities. Each of the groups, according to the proposal's critics, have members among the 300,000 contractors doing work for the federal government.
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