This is what ABC is about, and has always been about. This association more than any other in the construction industry, has a single foundation principle. It is this: Everyone in the industry should be evaluated, judged, awarded and rewarded based on their merit.
The Merit Shop.
Contractors should be invited to bid work based on their demonstrated ability to perform. They should be awarded work based on the merit of their proposal, (that is, the low responsible bidder). Regulation of the industry should be restricted to the lowest possible level. Government should have as little involvement as is reasonable.
The foundation is free enterprise. For most ABC members, the answer to every question about policy or position derives from the answer to the following question: Does it impede free, open and fair competition? If it does, it should be opposed. If it does not, but does not enhance free, open and fair competition, it should be opposed. Only if it encourages free, open and fair competition should it be supported. If you have to ask what ABC’s position is on an issue, you don’t know ABC.
For most, ABC is a belief. Ask Gary Hess or Gary Voss or Ben Houston or Carole Bionda or virtually anyone who has been ABC’s national President. They will tell you they believe this Association is a movement, a pressure for free enterprise, a remarkable philosophically sound organization that is working to protect contractors from an erosion of their right to do business. Ask any of the ABC staff members who have been around for any length of time. They will all make some reference to philosophy. For those of you who understand what this is about, or who come to understand… this will be an avocation and perhaps a career. For those of you who treat this like a job, it is likely you will be in another job in a few years.
Gary Hess fought a battle. Ted Kennedy, the one from Alabama, was picketed when he played golf. He was followed, his family was intimidated, he was threatened. Different in scope, but no less important than all of the battles for freedom. More than two hundred years ago men and women died to gain for the U.S. our right to be free. And in many of the wars since, those same freedoms were secured. It is smaller in scope, but no less important, this movement called ABC. This is what ABC is, and that’s what ABC is about.