Hope Pollard

Maine’s construction industry creates many jobs and is one of the most stable industries in the state.

From Caribou to York, and everywhere in between, the construction industry supports 49,000 jobs. In fact, more than 40% of Maine’s net job growth during the past five years has come from the 5,310 jobs we added to the job rolls.

For everyone in Maine, this context is vital because the industry faces a very real threat from Washington, D.C. This threat comes in the form of the chair of the National Labor Relations Board, Lauren McFerran, whose actions and mismanagement threaten the very policies that have enabled our industry to thrive.

As president of the Associated Builders and Contractors of Maine, I have a unique perspective on this very serious matter. I have watched firsthand as McFerran and the NLRB under her guidance demonstrate time and again a blatant bias in favor of union bosses at the expense of employers and workers.

First, let’s review what the NLRB does.

The board decides who can organize and when, whether union organizers can enter private properties, and when and how people can negotiate their own employment conditions. The board also holds elections for employees to decide if it wants union representation.

Under McFerran’s leadership, however, the NLRB routinely undermines workers’ and employers’ rights in favor of DC-based unions and their partisan agendas. Simply put, McFerran has overseen several decisions that contribute to a hostile business environment, handicapping businesses and industries.

Let’s start with McFerran’s Cemex decision, which lets the board impose a union even after a majority of workers voted against representation. Cemex makes it hard for unions to lose and takes away employees’ right to decide if they want a union. The McFerran Board also changed the longstanding joint employer standard for determining who’s responsible for shared employees. Under the law, joint employer status carries significant liability, but McFerran expanded the standard so broadly that nearly every contract would trigger it. Both a federal court and Congress nullified the rule before it went into effect because it was so deficient.

McFerran was renominated by President Joe Biden six months before her term ends in a strategic move by the president to keep control of the NLRB well into the next administration — regardless of who wins the election.

Maine’s labor market needs stability and fairness to function, and this blatant politicization of the board hurts it. It also means these policies will get so entrenched that it’ll be almost impossible to reverse them, which will stack the deck in favor of unions over Maine workers and the economy.

Fortunately, there is a way to hit the brakes on this runaway train. Sen. Angus King has a unique opportunity to restore the NLRB to its intended role as an impartial arbiter in labor relations. By voting against McFerran’s nomination, King would be supporting a fair labor environment where all businesses in Maine can compete equally, and workers can exercise their rights without undue interference from partisan government bureaucrats.

Rejecting McFerran’s nomination is an essential step to ensure our labor market remains competitive and fair for all. Maine’s labor policies and industries depend on a fair and balanced NLRB. King’s vote can help protect Maine’s businesses, workers, and the broader economy from potentially more disastrous decisions from McFerran’s NLRB.

Hope Pollard is president and CEO of the Maine chapter of Associated Builders and Contractors.