LABOR LEADERS SAY ACTION LOOKS LIKE GOP RETALIATION

BY STEVEN THOMMA
Mercury News Washington Bureau

LOS ANGELES -- President Bush will sign four executive orders that could choke off union cash and roll back union advantages in obtaining federal contracts, a senior administration official said Friday.

A Bush aide told reporters Friday that the president could sign the four orders as early as today.

One would require that government contractors post notices reminding workers that they have the right to withhold dues money for anything except purely labor-related activity, such as collective bargaining, meaning they could refuse to contribute to union political activities.

Another would prohibit ``project labor agreements,'' which guarantee union labor on federal works in exchange for a promise not to strike. The third would eliminate protections in federal contracts for service workers. And the fourth would abolish the National Partnership Council, created in the Clinton administration to help federal managers and employee unions work together.

In addition, the General Services Administration is telling federal agencies to delay a procurement change that would stop federal money from going to any contractor who violates labor laws.

Labor leaders say publicly that they are eager to work with the White House and Congress. But privately they hold no illusions.

``They're going to try to hurt us,'' said one union president, who spoke on condition of anonymity during a break in the AFL-CIO's annual winter meeting in Los Angeles.

White House officials deny political retaliation. But other Republicans say union leaders invited trouble by putting so much effort into helping Democrats in the last election.

In last year's election, unions poured money and personnel into Democratic campaigns. People from union households represented 26 percent of the total vote, an all-time high despite stagnant union membership. They voted Democratic by a rate of 2-1.

``It's hard to argue that they don't deserve a payback,'' said Keith Appell, a veteran GOP strategist. ``They have to understand, if they want to work with Republicans, they can't be the grass-roots arm of the Democratic National Committee. As long as they are the ground troops for the Democrats, they can't expect Republicans to embrace them.''

``We can see a pattern directed at labor in a political sense,'' said Robin Gerber, a former political director for the carpenters union and a senior fellow at the University of Maryland's James MacGregor Burns Academy of Leadership. ``I don't think Republicans are out to destroy labor as a movement. But they have an interest in weakening labor's political power.''

Labor leaders also fear that Bush may be considering other punitive proposals. One would require overtime pay only after 80 hours in a two-week period rather than after 40 hours in a one-week period. The other, vetoed by President Clinton in 1996, would allow businesses to create competing organizations to rival unions.

In addition, Bush insists that any campaign-finance measure such as the one proposed by Sens. John McCain, R-Ariz., and Russ Feingold, D-Wis., must include a provision that would require unions to get permission from workers before using their dues money for political purposes.