The WisconsinLaborer

The delegates and staff of the Wisconsin Laborers’ District Council wish you and your family a safe and joyous holiday season.
Another good year for Laborers By Mike Ryan, President and Business Manager
	By all accounts, this past year has been another good year for Laborers in this state. Membership through September of this year was up 230 members over last year. During that same period, the number of reported hours worked was also running over 7% higher than the previous year. Industry projections suggest that next year may be even better -- thanks in part to a responsible surface transportation budget. Increased roadwork alone may result in an additional 250 to 500 jobs over the next two years.
	Increased work and net gains in membership have had the added effect of improving the long-term health and security of Laborers’ Health and Welfare funds. For the second year in a row the state Laborers’ Health Fund actually increased benefits without having to raise contribution rates.
	In addition to putting more people to work, strengthening this Union’s bargaining power industry-wide, and improving economic security for all members, this Union continues to improve upon the relationship we have with our signatory contractors. By working together to solve problems and overcome differences, we help them remain competitive and better position them to win more work for Laborers.
	Nowhere was this more evident than the effort that was made this year by local leadership, District Council staff and LECET, to get signatory contractors to report Prevailing Wage surveys to the Department of Workforce Development in order to insure good wage rates on public works projects next year.
	Preliminary reports from the Department of Workforce Development show the number of in-state Laborer signatory contractors filing wage surveys increased nearly 10% over last year. More importantly, total number of hours reported also increased dramatically over the previous year, including a nearly 50% increase in sewer and water hours state-wide.
	Maintaining competitive wage rates on public works projects is important to signatory contractors, but so are safe, skilled and productive workers. Last year the Laborers’ Training Center in Almond, Wisconsin trained over 1,100 workers in all phases of Laborer work.
	Increased attention and participation in the legislative and political process is also having a direct return on the economic security of Laborers and our families. In addition to the jobs I’ve mentioned in the road construction industry, we’ve helped defeat attempts to weaken the federal Davis-Bacon Act, OSHA, wage law enforcement, as well as repeated attempts to allow employers to discriminate against union members and organizers.
	As construction workers, we know these laws are especially important to our work, to our health and safety on the job, as well as to our ability to provide for ourselves and our families. We also know these laws don’t need to be weakened – they need to be improved. That is why in the next session of the legislature, the Laborers will seek legislation to make it harder for unscrupulous contractors to cheat workers out of the wages and benefits they deserve.
	The first will require contractors to submit certified payroll records to verify the proper payment of wages and benefits for work performed on public projects.
	The second will allow a contractor or third party that has been cheated out of work to sue a willful violator for any lost revenue that occurs as a result.
	The third will upgrade penalties for certain reporting violations from misdemeanors to felonies.
	Contractors who willfully violate prevailing wage laws steal wages from their own workers, they steal revenue from contractors who compete fairly, and they steal jobs and earnings from workers who work for contractors who compete fairly. It is time we recognize the hardships that they cause and begin treating them as the white-collar criminals that they are.
	Similar legislation has already become law in other states. Construction workers in Wisconsin deserve the same protection.
	This past year has been a good year for Laborers. If we continue to improve upon the effectiveness of this union in representing and servicing the membership, through more knowledgeable, more active and more engaged members, next year promises to be even better.
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Private prison skirts PW law Spec prison building undermining area wage standards By Joe Oswald
	State and federal prevailing wage laws have been around a long time -- nearly seventy years to be exact. Granted, there aren’t many building trade workers around who remember what construction was like back then. But, if you want to get a sense for what life in the trades would be like without these laws, ask the Eau Claire building trades who have been dealing with the effects of an Oklahoma based company sweeping into the state to build a private prison facility in Stanley.
	Typically, prison construction is done by the state, which means all contractors competing for the work must bid the work based on wages that prevail in the area. But, the prison in Stanley is different – it’s being built privately, on the speculation the state will use it. And, its being built by contractors who bid work based on wages that are less than the prevailing wages established in the area.
	According to Tom Grunseth, Business Manager of Laborers’ Local #317 in Eau Claire, laborers on the job are said to be getting $9 an hour, significantly less than the prevailing rate of $16.55. And even that prevailing rate is considerably less than the $21.34 total package rate building laborers were earning prior to June 1 of this year when a wage determination for the project would have been issued.
	"If this was a state project every worker would be earning prevailing wages, Grunseth said. "Instead we get a company from Oklahoma taking advantage of people who need the work and undermining our area standards in the process."
	Grunseth was referring to the Oklahoma based Dominion Management and Leasing of Edmond, Oklahoma, which has been active in speculative private prison construction and brokering buy-back or lease-back agreements from state or private firms to operate the facility once built.
	"We have developed more medium-sized prisons than anyone in the country," boasted Jim Hunter of Dominion in a Chippewa Herald article last June. "Our specialty is speculative development. It seems fairly bold, but we have been very successful."
	Successful may be an understatement. Dominion is just one of a growing number of firms that comprise what a current article in the Atlantic Monthly calls a multibillion dollar "prison-industrial complex."
	"What was once a niche business for a hand-full of companies has become a multibillion-dollar industry with its own trade-shows and conventions, its own web sites, mail order catalogues, and direct marketing campaigns," writes Eric Schlosser in the December Atlantic Monthly.
	In the article, Dominion is cited as a "well established bed broker" that can make as much as $2.50 to $5.50 a day per prisoner for arranging and/or selling beds. On a facility the size of the 1200 bed Stanley prison, that’s over $2.4 million a year.
	Like any good speculator, Dominion has chosen Wisconsin because of its market potential. The state Department of Corrections as recently as August of this year reported more than 14,000 prisoners in state sponsored facilities. At the same time, the inmate capacity of these facilities stood at 10,237.
	According to Department of Corrections spokesperson William Clausius the inmate population is expected to continue to rise. Quoted recently in the Chippewa Herald, Clausius estimated that "In terms of new beds, we would have to build a new prison every year just to keep up."
	Grunseth agrees that citizens deserve to feel safe in their communities and that prison construction is necessary to obtain that goal. His concern, however, is the dramatic and negative impact that low-wage private prison construction will have on future wage rates in the area.
	Prevailing wage rates in a county are based on private sector work. Given the size and duration of the project, and the low wages paid on the project, the $40 to $50 million Stanley Prison will more than likely lower wage rates issued for Chippewa County over the next two years.
	The Stanley Prison is the first privately built prison in Wisconsin. While Dominion has not yet reached a buy-back or lease agreement with the state, and it is unclear what, if anything, Dominion will be able to do with the facility should a deal with the state fall through, the precedent for a private build-it-and-they-will-come prison construction strategy has been established.
	Should a buy-back or lease-back deal with the state go forward, some argue an even greater precedent will be established – paying construction workers less than area standard wage rates on a project that for all practical purposes should have been a public works project.
	"Private prison construction allows rich corporations and speculators to profit off our desire to be safe," said Grunseth. "They profit even more when they get away with paying workers less than area standard wages. I know it happens every day – but that doesn’t make it right."
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What do you know?
	There has been a long-term decline in the share of income taxes paid by corporations in comparison to the share paid by families and individuals. In 1945, corporations paid 87 cents for every dollar of Federal income tax paid by individuals and families; by 1994, that number had declined to . . .
	a) 66 cents
	b) 56 cents
	c) 46 cents
	d) 36 cents
	e) 26 cents
What do you know – the answer is "e" 26 cents
	That’s right – over the last half-century the burden of income taxation in the U.S. has moved from corporations to individuals and families. That’s called "tax-shifting" and it’s a trend that is making our tax system increasingly unfair to working families.
	In the 1940’s corporate income taxes accounted for 33 percent of all income tax revenue collected by the federal government, and taxes collected from individuals and families accounted for 43 percent. By the 1990’s, the share of Federal taxes accounted for by collections from individuals and families had almost doubled, rising to 73 percent, while the share accounted for by corporations had declined by more than half, to 15 percent.
	Source: Politics and the Economy, state AFL-CIO, 1998.
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Laborers participate in "New Millennium" forum
	In October, District Council Business Manager Mike Ryan was invited by the Wisconsin Department of Transportation to participate in a panel discussion -- Transitioning into the New Millennium – a discussion on issues and trends in the construction industry. The panel was a part of the Departments annual DBE Awards banquet.
	Ryan talked about the primary challenges facing the industry from the perspective of construction laborers, including an aging workforce, a shortage of skilled workers, worker health and safety on the job and the generally "ill perceived" nature of the industry. Ryan went on to discuss some of the programs Wisconsin Laborers have developed to deal with serious trends in the industry, including the implementation of various training, apprenticeship and recruitment programs.
	Ryan reminded the audience that while the Laborers are serious about dealing with trends that threaten the stability of the industry, programs alone are not the answer.
	"Retention of workers in the construction industry is not helped by the seasonal, non-permanent, and transient nature of employment, or the unsafe working conditions," Ryan said. "Nor is retention helped by the fact that average wages in construction have fallen by about 25 percent since 1973."
	Ryan also noted that as of 1995 nearly 60 percent of all construction employers did not offer their workers any private health insurance, while nearly 70 percent did not offer any pension benefit.
	"Without question, cooperation, creativity and commitment are all essential ingredients for dealing with these issues and trends as we enter the new millennium," Ryan said. "But so too, is a back to basics strategy that incorporates the training workers need to get the job done and the wages and benefits they deserve for doing the job right."
	Following the morning program, the Wisconsin Laborers’ District Council and the Wisconsin Laborers’ Training Center received a plaque from the Federal Department of Transportation in recognition of their roll in the Transportation Alliance for New Solutions – a program that is transitioning women and minority workers into the road construction industry.
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Changes at LIUNA
	By unanimous vote of the General Executive Board at a special meeting at Headquarters last month, Vice President and Assistant to the General President Carl E. Booker was elected to serve as LIUNA’s General Secretary-Treasurer.
	The Action was the result of Secretary-Treasurer R.P. "Bud" Vinall’s earlier retirement.
	A recognized authority on worker training, education and benefits, Booker was Superintendent of Training for the Indiana Laborers’ Training Trust Fund before coming to Washington, D.C. to serve as Director of the Jurisdictional Department. Appointed Assistant to the General President in 1993, elected as Vice President by the General Executive Board in 1995, and re-elected to the post at the Laborers’ International Convention, Booker has overseen many of the day-to-day functions of Headquarters and coordinated daily with LIUNA’s regional offices. Booker is a member of Local #795, New Albany, Indiana and brings years of experience in the field to the position.
	To fill the Vice President’s term made vacant by Booker’s election, the Board also unanimously elected Southeast Regional Manager James Hale as an International Vice President. James began his career with LIUNA as a construction laborer and member of Local 386 in Nashville, Tennessee. He was elected to various offices at the local and later became Business Manager of the Tennessee Laborers’ District Council. He was appointed Manager of the Southeast Region in 1996.
	With these changes, General President Arthur A. Coia has appointed LIUNA Chief of Staff Terrence M. O’Sullivan to serve as the new Assistant to the General President. A member of Local #1353, Charleston, West Virginia, he has served as Staff Assistant to the General President and Assistant Director of LIUNA’s Construction, Maintenance, and Service Trades Division.
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Congressional Watch
Social Security or Insecurity?
	Points to earnings ratios may not mean a lot to most people, but how about loosing $43,000 – roughly 30% of your retirement savings – in a week?
	That’s how much Frank (not his real name) lost when the market took a dive earlier this year. Until then, his 401K plan had been doing quite well, out-performing the market in each of the last five years. He had other investments, too – a hand-full of stocks that he had bought and sold with amazing discipline, based on a carefully crafted and apparently convincing formula he had read about in a financial magazine a few years ago.
	Lucky for Frank his loss was only on paper. Lucky for Frank he doesn’t plan on retiring for a while. But what if Frank wasn’t so lucky? What if Frank had retired the week before? And, what if Frank had "opted out" of social security and had only his investments to retire on? These questions and more are likely to come up soon, as Congress deals with the over-riding question of how to "save" social security.
	"Saving social security" became a theme for Republicans and Democrats alike during the recent elections. But what does "saving" social security mean exactly – and perhaps more importantly, what does "saving" social security mean to you?
	In the months ahead it is important that we all take some time to examine this issue and answer that question so that we can decide for ourselves if what Congress is doing is in the interest of Main Street or Wall Street.
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Legislative
House leaders pressed on "right-to-work"
	The dust had barely settled on the elections and the resignation of House Speaker Newt Gingrich, before Reed Larson, President of the National Right to Work Committee, called on House Majority Leader Dick Armey to schedule a vote on legislation to outlaw union-security agreements in collective bargaining agreements, BNA’s Construction Labor Report reported in November.
	The BNA article said Larson’s letter urged Armey to view the results of the November 3 election in light of Republican leadership’s failure to schedule a vote on so-called "right-to-work" legislation last session. Both Armey and Gingrich were co-sponsors of H.R. 59, the National Right-to-Work Act that died in committee last session without receiving a public hearing.
	So-called "right-to-work" laws outlaw union security clauses in collective bargaining agreements, forcing unions to represent workers who want all the benefits of the contract but who refuse to pay their fair-share of the cost of maintaining the agreement.
	While 21 states have so-called right-to-work laws, over the last 33 years only two states -- Idaho and Louisiana – have joined the ranks of "right-to-work" states.
	Opponents of so-called "right-to-work" laws say the lack of effort by GOP leadership is understandable given the lack of interest for "right-to-work" laws on a state level, and the huge wage and benefit disparity that exists between "right-to-work" states and "free-bargaining" state.
	For example, as recently as 1996 an average worker in Wisconsin, -- union and non-union alike – earned roughly $3,200 more than the average worker in any "right-to-work" state.
	In addition to typically low wages, 11 of the 15 states with the largest percentage of people without health insurance are "right-to-work" states.
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Political
Labor effort credited for increased turnout
	Despite predictions of record low turnout, Wisconsin voters came out in near record numbers for an off-year election, thanks in large part to union members who came out to vote in large numbers November 4.
	While roughly 15 percent of the nations workforce is organized, national exit polling revealed that nearly one in four voters identified themselves as a Union member. In Wisconsin that figure climbed to nearly one in three voters.
	Organized labors return to issues based and member focussed campaigning appears to be working in Wisconsin and across the nation. Rather than simply telling members who to vote for, the strategy has been to inform members about important issues that impact their work, their lives and their ability to provide for themselves and their families.
	Wisconsin Laborers participated in this activity, doing mailings and making personal contacts with members on issues ranging from prevailing wage to protecting social security.
	Labor’s effort and impact was particularly crucial in a number of key areas in the state, with Laborers contributing to the effort.
	This was especially true in Milwaukee, where the Milwaukee Area Labor Coalition was credited with increasing turnout by 12,000 votes more than the previous off-year election, and where Laborers’ Local #113 again produced the most number of volunteers for various campaign activities.
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Training Center Trenchless Technology training
	Trenchless Technology is a broad term used to describe any form of underground work that requires minimal trenching. Examples include directional drilling, boring, microtunneling and pipebursting.
	One of the most prevalent Trenchless Technologies is sewer and water pipe rehabilitation. This work can typically require several steps, including: inspecting, cleaning and relining existing pipe; cutting new laterals to restore service; and manhole repairs and sealing. In order to determine the conditions of underground piping, many municipalities are now conducting remote operated camera inspections. These inspections allow engineers and planners to determine the rehabilitation method needed to preserve the integrity of the entire pipe system, whether it is a trenchless or traditional open-cut method.
	There is an enormous demand for a skilled workforce in the Trenchless industry and the Laborers International Union of North America (LIUNA) is taking steps to meet that demand. Construction Craft Laborers are responsible for laying new sewer and water pipe. In fact, laborers and their signatory employers laid much of the pipe currently under America's streets. Construction Craft Laborers are now being trained in Trenchless Technology applications so that they can repair those same pipes years and, even decades, later.
	The Laborers-AGC Education and Training Fund and the Construction Laborers Education and Training Fund of Minnesota and North Dakota have teamed up to provide unique, hands-on training in techniques of trenchless pipe rehabilitation.
	The one week, 40 hour course, Trenchless Pipe Rehabilitation and Remote Camera Operation, provides hands-on training with pipe rehabilitation and camera equipment at the Construction Laborers Training Center in Lino Lakes, Minnesota.
	Trainees learn the basics of trenchless pipe rehabilitation as well as the operation and maintenance of remotely operated cameras used for inspection and service. Course topics include methods of rehabilitation for existing utility piping systems without excavation, methods of pipe relining, manhole rehabilitation, remote camera operation and maintenance and remote service cutter operation.
	The training combines the latest remote-operated equipment technology with the most knowledgeable instructors in North America. The course includes classroom lecture, discussion, demonstration and hands-on modules.
	Trenchless Technology Training is available to any member of LIUNA in good standing and employed by a signatory contractor. The Laborers-AGC covers the cost of training, room and board and up to $300 per trainee for transportation.
	For more information on how to get Trenchless Technology training for your workers, please call Al Friedl, Training Director, Wisconsin Laborers Training Center at: (800) 275-6939.
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LECET
LECET joins DOT safety effort
	Wisconsin LECET has been invited to join the Wisconsin Department of Transportation Work Zone Safety Committee. The committee is charged with developing a multi-media education and information campaign to promote safety in Wisconsin highway work zones next year.
	The committee will develop a public service advertising campaign that has two objectives:
	To provide information to motorists about the locations of highway construction projects most likely to cause traffic disruptions.
	To continue an on-going educational campaign on behalf of construction and maintenance workers which encourages drivers to slow down and drive safely in work zones.
	These objectives will be met by a campaign designed to reach drivers at home and in their vehicles with the work zone safety message. A project-specific program to inform people about delays on a local or regional basis will supplement this effort. Both efforts will warn drivers about Wisconsin laws that double traffic fines in work zones and will inform drivers of potential alternate routes to avoid construction delays.
	The campaign will consist of publication and wide distribution of safety brochures entitled "On the Road Again", the development of radio and television public service announcements and the printing of posters with a highway safety message. The committee will also contract with electronic media all over the state to purchase air time for the campaign.
	Wisconsin LECET is currently participating in meetings with state and federal highway officials, the Wisconsin State Patrol and the Wisconsin Transportation Builders Association to plan the safety information effort.
	National LECET has been so interested in the safety campaign in Wisconsin that they have agreed to contribute $5000 to help fund the program.
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