The bipartisan infrastructure bill that passed the U.S. Senate in August and awaits action in the House of Representatives contains a significant win for organized labor in the form of a little-noticed provision conditioning federal funding to deploy broadband internet on an employer’s labor and employment practices.
The provision is responsive to organized labor’s long-sought goal of using the federal procurement process to leverage federal contracting dollars to influence corporate behavior, most visibly by debarring or “blacklisting” employers that have, in the view of labor, a poor record of compliance with labor and employment laws. Although earlier attempts by unions and their allies to implement a blacklisting process applicable to federal procurement were unsuccessful, the infrastructure bill’s broadband provision now opens the door to expansion of the concept to other contexts, and will give unions greater leverage over the award of federal dollars to companies they favor.
Members of the Center for Workplace Compliance (CWC) can read more here.