An Economic Analysis of Portability

Opportunities in the construction industry for union contractors and labor are becoming increasingly more competitive as the marketplace shifts to one where there is greater nonunion competition. Signatory contractors have watched their market share decrease over time and must find ways to hold on to their existing clients and develop new ones. Restrictions in portability make this increasingly difficult. The data compiled in this research will demonstrate that signatory contracts must increase their bids to account for the lack of portability when working out-of-local, which makes them less competitive to in-local contractors and, more importantly, nonunion contractors that are seeing their market share grow.