National Alliance for Fair Contracting

It is closely aligned with the Laborers International Union of North America (LIUNA) and North America’s Building Trades Unions (NABTU), the trade name of the Building and Construction Trades Department (BCTD), a division of the American Federation of Labor-Congress of Industrial Organizations AFL-CIO. ¹

Background

The National Alliance for Fair Contracting is a labor advocacy alliance that focuses on employment and contracting issues within the field of construction, specifically wages and benefits. The organization supports the “prevailing wage” and other labor-union-privileging regulations on public construction projects. ¹

The organization holds a national conference every year which includes various meetings and workshops. The conference held in October 2022 contains a board of directors meeting, research committee meeting, the board of directors election, and speakers from various membership organizations including the Laborers International Union of North America (LIUNA), a construction industry labor union, and North America’s Building Trades Unions (NABTU), the trade name of the Building and Construction Trades Department (BCTD), a division of the AFL-CIO. ²

Funding

The National Alliance for Fair Contracting receives most of its revenue from its program services.

The organization recorded total revenue of $466,411in 2017, $541,253 in 2018, $742,252 in 2019, and $578,737 in 2020. The organization received more than 90 percent of these totals every year from its program services. Other revenue was less than 10 percent in these years. ³

NAFC had a total functional expense amount of $428,420 in 2017, $500,488 in 2018, $526,391 in 2019, and $436,816 in 2020. Much of the organization’s expenses were for salaries, wages, and other benefits. It is recorded that the organization’s administrator, Geoffrey Griffith, received $128,400 in “compensation” in 2018 and $135,185 in 2019. ³

The National Alliance for Fair Contracting has also received grants and contributions from government-affiliated organizations.

The Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service, an independent agency that helps mediate labor disputes within the United States, provided NAFC with a grant of $75,000 in 2000 to “expand, on a nationwide basis” fair contracting practices in public construction. ⁴

NAFC also received $50,000 in 2012 and another $50,000 in 2013 from the Building and Construction Trades Department (BCTD), also known as North America’s Building Trades Unions (NABTU). The grant was recorded as “operational support.” ⁵

The organization also received a grant of $200,000 from the Laborers International Union of North America (LIUNA) in 2019. The grant was made to “financially support” NAFC. ⁶

Affiliated Organizations

The NAFC’s board of directors is comprised of representatives of its member organizations including LIUNA. LIUNA has provided extensive campaign support and lobbying efforts on issues such as Obamacare, immigration, and infrastructure spending. ^{7 1}

Another major member of the NAFC is North America’s Building Trades Unions (NABTU), the trade name of the Building and Construction Trades Department (BCTD), a division of the AFL-CIO responsible for managing the interaction of AFL-CIO-affiliated building trades unions, settling organizing disputes between unions, and representing construction unions as a bloc for advocacy and employer-relations purposes. ^{1 8}

Other board members represent associations of union-rate contractors. ^{7 1}

People

Geoffrey Griffith, the administrator of the NAFC, also worked for LIUNA as an audit clerk from 2001 until 2005, administrative assistant in 2006, and an assistant to the general president’s office from 2007 until 2012. ⁹

Member of the NAFC board of directors Branden Lopez is the executive director of the labor organization Center for Contract Compliance. He also sits on the Fraud Assessment Commission for the California state government. ¹⁰