 The Building Tradesman Current Issue | Back Issues Index February 4, 2002 'Waiting week' kills enthusiasm for hike in jobless benefits $2.9 billion in jobless money is beginning to stink like hell Final destination nears for Midfield Terminal Union membership numbers flat in 2001 Union density unrelated to higher wages, researchers say 'Waiting week' kills enthusiasm for hike in jobless benefits By Maty Mulcahy LANSING -News reports in January touted that House Republican lawmakers who control the state legislature finally opened up their hearts - and state coffers - to provide relief to Michigan's growing number of jobless workers. Republicans are pushing a proposed benefit increase of up to 38 percent for jobless workers, to a maximum if $415 per week. Republican House Speaker Rick Johnson called the increase "the right thing to do," with state unemployment at its highest rate in six years. But their proposal includes instituting a waiting week for benefits - which effectively institutes a decrease of benefits for short-term jobless workers. "It's a testament to double-talk," said Michigan AFL-CIO Legislative Director Tim Hughes. Currently, jobless workers can earn a maximum benefit of $300 per week. That amount was set in 1995, when anti-worker legislation was signed into law that froze the maximum benefit, cut benefits across the board and made it harder for part time, low-wage and seasonal employees to qualify for benefits. The maximum amount has never been increased because Republicans who drafted the law made no allowance for increases, not even for inflation. The new Republican plan is a real kick in the rear for jobless workers who are out of work for three weeks or less. Workers who are currently jobless earn a maximum of $300 each week for the first three weeks of benefits, for a total of $900 over three weeks. If this Republican plan is implemented as proposed, the same jobless worker would get $0 in benefits for the first week, $415 for the second week and an additional $415 the third week for a total of $830 for all three weeks - a net loss of $70. "They say they're doing this to help workers, but this doesn't add up at all," Hughes said. "It is important that we address this issue in a way that helps all unemployed workers, while hurting none." According to Hughes, the House Republican plan would:
The Republican package also includes a measure creating a
"Worker Financial Security Other parts of the GOP plan include providing an income tax
deduction to unemployed parents who are paying college tuition
for their children and waiving penalties and A better way to raise unemployment benefits, Hughes said, can be found in HB 4188, currently in the House Employment Relations, Training and Safety Committee. It includes the following key provisions:
"We look forward to working with House Republicans in
the weeks ahead to develop a proposal that labor can support,"
said Michigan State AFL-CIO President Mark Gaffney. $2.9 billion in jobless money is beginning to stink like hell Tradesman Viewpoint "Money is like manure - if you spread it around, it
does a lot of good, but if you pile it up in one place, it stinks
like hell." The wealth isn't being spread to the growing population of Michigan's jobless workers, who receive a paltry $300 benefit maximum for unemployment compensation - the lowest among states in the Upper Midwest region. The low benefits and the good economy have helped enable the state's Unemployment Insurance Trust Fund to cut employer taxes for seven straight years - and amass a fund worth $2.9 billion. As recently as Dec. 3, the state Unemployment Agency announced a UI tax cut for Michigan employers worth a total of $200 million. "We have a very healthy trust," said Unemployment Agency Director Jack Wheatley. "In fact, our fund has one of the largest cash reserves among all of the state UI trust funds in the nation and has enough funds to pay well over two years worth of unemployment benefits." But the pile of money is starting to stink, and it's beginning to sound as if employer associations think they're entitled to administer the huge stash the way they see fit. The current Republican plan to increase Unemployment Insurance benefits to $415 per week - while imposing a waiting week for benefits - would cost employers at least $275 million, the Michigan Manufacturers Association estimates. David Zurvalec, vice president for industrial relations for the association, said, "we're very concerned that we don't see a provision for a waiting week that could offset some of those costs." Marlene Jobe, executive director of the Employers Unemployment Compensation Council, said, "We'll have to run the numbers on the impact this would have on the UI fund, but at first glance, this proposal is very expensive." If you're out of work - and a growing segment of Michigan's construction industry is - then that's your money they're talking about, folks. There is no doubt that these employer groups, not the employees, have the ear of Republicans who control the purse strings in Lansing. Many building trades workers support Republicans on issues like gun rights and less government regulation. But the fact that the GOP has completely ignored the economic needs of jobless workers since 1995, and is pushing for a waiting week in the effort to "increase" jobless benefits, once again illustrates their long history of being pro-business, and anti-worker, when it comes to economic issues. "A simple $115 UI benefit increase will not jeopardize
the fiscal stability of the UI Trust," said Michigan AFL-CIO
President Mark Gaffney. "The Unemployment Agency just announced
a $200 million dollar UI tax cut for employers - the seventh
year in a row that UI taxes for employers have been cut. These
tax cuts equal $1.2 billion. If the UI trust fund is healthy
enough to allow $1.2 billion in tax cuts for businesses, then
the fund is healthy enough to give unemployed workers an extra
$115 a week without instituting a waiting week for benefits." Final destination nears for Midfield Terminal By Marty Mulcahy Ladies and gentlemen, please observe the "fasten your seatbelt sign" - the building trades are preparing to bring the Midfield Terminal in for a landing. Nearly four years after the first dirt was moved on construction of the $1.2 Midfield Terminal at Detroit Metropolitan Airport, the largest public works project in the state's history is beginning to wind down. In mid-January, there were still about a thousand construction workers on the project, and a good deal of work remained to be done. But the new 97-gate terminal in Romulus with the cumbersome name - the Edward H. McNamara Terminal/Northwest WorldGateway - is on course to open on Feb. 24. "We've had such an aggressive schedule, from the design, to the hiring of the contractors, to the administration of the contracts," said Chuck McCloskey, Northwest Airlines' director of construction for the Midfield Terminal. "It's a challenge out there every day, but we have a good crew of contractors and a good labor force." Huber, Hunt and Nichols is the general contractor on the project. Getting to the point of moving passengers through the mile-long terminal seems a long way off, but signs of completion are everywhere. Some sections of the terminal were virtually complete during our visit on Jan. 21, waiting only for plastic to be removed from seats and a few other finishing touches. In other areas, there was still a significant amount of work to do, especially in the food, clothing and specialty shops that line the concourse. Wayne County and Northwest Airlines are holding fast to the Feb. 24 opening day schedule. "It's looking like a realistic opening date, but the entire terminal may not be open," said Kevin Wieczorek, vice president of operations for Motor City Electric, a subcontractor on the project. The behemoth $1.2 billion project has had its share of problems, with cost overruns, an opening that has twice been delayed and numerous change orders. Wieczorek said one of the biggest headaches took place in September, when electrical subcontractor The State Group walked off the job, leaving in their wake materials and fixtures that couldn't be located, mislaid plans and general confusion. "It was a horrible mess, but Local 58 provided us with top-notch people to get the job done, and we kicked butt," Wieczorek said. "We had 400 people out here to get caught up. If there's one thing about this job that I'm proud of, it's the way the workers have come through." When the terminal opens and the bugs get worked out, all the difficulties involving the construction process will probably be forgotten - just like they were after similar complaints were made during the construction of Comerica Park. In fact, with the new Midfield Terminal, the traveling public is sure to see the facility as a vast improvement - the existing terminals get abysmal ratings from the traveling public. "The whole project is going to be an asset to the community," McCloskey said. "Passengers are going to love this facility. It will move them efficiently and it will treat them right." The new $1.2 billion terminal features:
"This is probably one of the most important public works projects that's ever been undertaken in southeastern Michigan," said Northwest Airlines Chief Executive Officer Richard Anderson in a published interview last November. "It will be monumental, not only for southeastern Michigan, (but) it's for all of Michigan . . . particularly the regional jet facility that we built. It is the link for Escanaba and Traverse City and the small communities of Michigan, too. It will transform this airport to the highest-quality international hub facility in the world. "Our idea is we are going to surpass Chicago as the most convenient and most customer-friendly connection point for the upper Midwest and the large population centers east of the Mississippi." The terminal is designed to accommodate 30 million passengers a year. Bob Luxon, job superintendent for Plumbers Local 98 working for subcontractor John E. Green, said that the project peaked out at about 200 pipe trades workers. In recent weeks they were down to 16 plumbers and pipe fitters, who were "busy making final adjustments, doing odds and ends and basically just wrapping things up." "It's really a very impressive design and a beautiful building," Luxon said. "There have been some rough times out here, but all the building trades can be proud of the work they've done. The tradespeople have built a landmark that will be here for years to come."
Union membership numbers flat in 2001 Union membership in the U.S. remained stable in 2001 despite economic uncertainty and massive layoffs after the events of Sept. 11. According to figures released last month by the Labor Department's Bureau of Labor Statistics, the number of union workers in the U.S. reached a 12-month average of 16.3 million - up by 18,000 workers, a number which is statistically even with 2000. The total number does, however, represent an increase of 180,000 over the past five years. Last year, unions represented 13.5 percent of the U.S. labor force, but it's an historically low number. The union membership rate has fallen from a high of 20.1 percent in 1983, the first year for which comparable union data are available, according to the BLS. At 18.4 percent, the nation's construction industry enjoyed one of the highest unionization rates. "Despite a year of record layoffs and historic national upheaval, unions held their own in terms of membership in 2001," said AFL-CIO President John Sweeney. Unions organized 400,000 new workers last year, keeping the percentage steady. Half of the 16.3 million union members in the U.S. lived in six states - California, New York, Illinois, Michigan, Ohio, and Pennsylvania. With 20.8 percent of its workforce union, Michigan ranked fourth in the nation in 2001, behind New York, Hawaii and Alaska, although that number for our state dropped a full percentage point from 2000. "Unions can still do much more to help workers improve their lives by forming unions at work, but the numbers show steady dedication and perseverance is laying the groundwork for later change," Sweeney said. BLS noted 9 percent of all private sector workers are unionized, compared to 37.4 percent of public sector workers. In 2001, full-time wage and salary union members had median usual weekly earnings of $718, compared with a median of $575 for wage and salary workers who were not represented by unions. Union density unrelated to higher wages, researchers say Have higher wages in the unionized construction industry led to unions pricing themselves out of some employment markets? That's a widely held belief in many areas of the country. Construction unions cemented a reputation in the 1960s and 1970s for demanding excessive pay, and that stigma hasn't completely gone away. But two researchers, one from Michigan State University, one from Rutgers, maintain that the relatively high wage differences between union and nonunion construction workers make no difference in the unionization rates for a given area. According to the Construction Labor Report, Rutgers School of Management and Labor Relations professor Paula Voos and MSU professor Dale Belman studied construction wages in three periods, 1975-79, 1988-1990 and the year 2000 to see if it was true that in states with a high union-nonunion wage differential, there was a lower rate of unionization in 1990 or 2000. "Mostly unions held on to their membership. In the places they were strong they remained strong," Voos said. In the places they were weak, they remained weak. For example, nonunion laborers in the South-Central region of the U.S. earned an average wage-fringe salary of $11.65 per hour in 2001. The lousy wages in that region reflect the general weakness of unions in the region, because there isn't much incentive to unionize: the average union laborers in the same area earned $13.87, according to PAS, Inc. The researchers, who appeared on a panel before the Industrial
Relations Research Association last month in Atlanta, said unions
were better able to hold on to their membership in states where
a prevailing wage law exists. They also found that in states
with a high percentage of residential construction, unions tend
to lose more members.
Bubba Chiles' sister needs help The average second-year increase for multi-year agreements was $1.56 or 4.7 percent. "These amounts represent a continuation of a slow, but long-term upward trend in average annual settlement amounts that has been occurring since 1994," the CLRC report said. Pay hikes had averaged about 3 percent or less until the mid-1990s, when construction pay finally started to move. About two-thirds of all settlements were between three and
five percent. And, contract durations lengthened, with 25 percent
of new contracts negotiated for four years or more. The average second-year increase for multi-year agreements was $1.56 or 4.7 percent. "These amounts represent a continuation of a slow, but long-term upward trend in average annual settlement amounts that has been occurring since 1994," the CLRC report said. Pay hikes had averaged about 3 percent or less until the mid-1990s, when construction pay finally started to move. About two-thirds of all settlements were between three and five percent. And, contract durations lengthened, with 25 percent of new contracts negotiated for four years or more. 636 BA Inman running for commissioner The primary election will take place on Monday, Jan. 8; but the more important general election will be held Tuesday, Feb. 5. Inman is running on the Democratic ticket in a heavily Republican area, which includes Clarkston and portions of Waterford and Independence Twp. A 32-year member of Local 636, Inman has been an elected union official for the past 14 years. "I am proud to be a part of the success my local has
accomplished in keeping the membership of our union well informed
on our issues," Inman said, "while providing a voice
for the working men and women of our local." |
