Associated Builders and Contractors, founded in 1950 in Baltimore, is an organization of general contractors, subcontractors, suppliers and associates, with a simply stated objective: to defend and promote the open shop construction industry. Its immediate reason for existence was to respond to a concerted effort by building trade unions in the area to impose closed shop conditions on open shop firms. The fact is that the open shop operation was not only a response to this union effort, but in a positive sense, an expression of a fundamental right of any firm to do business with any other.
In the beginning of the Association, union pressures required that labor relations be stressed. Union rights, supported legislatively by Congress and the federal courts, had been positively certified, and any firm operating on a non-union basis was circumscribed by federal and state laws.
Among those laws were so-called prevailing statutes--the federal Davis-Bacon Act and similar state statutes. In Maryland, the legislature had enacted such a law; the youthful association challenged it in the court and had it invalidated. This thrust had a stimulating effect on open shop operations and provided the first big opening for business development which was to become one of the most important activities of the Association.
Through the 1950's, the Association continued to defend itself through legal initiatives and was responsible for a number of landmark cases in the field, which helped to clarify further the right of open shop contractors.
In this period, ABC was primarily a Maryland organization, with more than 500 members. It achieved a respectable status in the legislative field, becoming the most prominent representative for the industry. But it was not until 1959 that ABC first stepped outside of Maryland to set up a chapter in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, similar to those established on the Eastern Shore, Western Maryland, Anne Arundel County and Metropolitan Washington.
There is no doubt that the initial impetus for ABC's growth sprang from its labor relations activities. However, the Association also established a number of member services, such as plan rooms, management education meetings and social affairs with the opportunity for business contacts.
Business promotion took the direction of beating down barriers to opportunity for the open shop. At this point, it became apparent that the use of the phrase "open shop" to identify ABC's method of doing business was a handicap, because in highly unionized areas the phrase connoted solely "non-union." This was especially true in the Philadelphia area where a fledgling ABC chapter was under constant attack. As a result, the phrase "merit shop" was coined to convey more clearly what ABC was doing.
It marked the beginning of a struggle that continues today to get recognition of the Association and its members as the spokespersons for the construction industry. The slogan became, "quality construction, produced on time, within budget," a position capable of proof and difficult to remove.
An important element in the progress of ABC was the establishment of apprenticeship programs. Everywhere the certification agencies were firmly in control of the building trade unions. They resisted every effort at setting up merit shop programs. Only persevering political action resulted in winning that certification, a battle that continues today.
Another important step of the Association was setting up the ABC Security Plan--intended to offer, particularly to smaller firms, the opportunity for group hospitalization insurance--entrenched as a benefit in the union sector while virtually unknown in the merit shop.
Information services were increasingly offered on government relations, insurance advice, classified directories, periodic news bulletins on industry developments and an association magazine. Annual conventions gave members a chance to meet with merit shop firms from various parts of the country.
The growth of the Association during the 1970's was phenomenal. The merit shop offered progressively valid competition to the building trades mired in their restrictive jobsite practices dating back to days of the Depression when job preservation and "union security" were their basic goals.
Today there are thousands of members in ABC, many of whom are unaware of the difficulties of reaching the present prominent position.
Important innovations include: ABC's Wheels of Learning program, the setting up of trade councils, leadership of legislative coalitions in congress and various state legislatures, the Construction Referral Service, which has brought literally millions of dollars worth of business to members, and advanced management education programs, with a strong emphasis on safety.
Many ABC chapters have been innovators in such activities as exhibits, services, auctions, trade fairs, business promotion and legislative activity on a local and state basis.
In all, the opportunities for ABC seem endless. There are thousands of prospects in important areas that have not been tapped. But note well: the merit shop depends upon sensible, practical legislation that permits a firm to operate with a minimum of restraints. What the Congress gave, it can take away, so the legislative guard, with its base in politics, needs constant strengthening if the business philosophy expressed in 1950 is to be perpetuated in the American construction industry.
Today, membership in the association exceeds 23,000 firms who are serviced through a network of 83 local chapters. The association is headquartered in Rosslyn, Virginia, and has a full-time staff of 70 professionals.