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News Briefs

Date Posted: February 16 2007

Low trend for trade unions
Long-term trends for union penetration in the construction industry may be stabilizing, but they're still not good.

In our last issue, we reported that the overall unionization rate in the U.S. fell from 12.5 percent in 2005 to 12.0 in 2006, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). In the construction industry, the year-to-year drop was slightly smaller: 13.1 percent in 2005, slipping to 13.0 percent in 2006.

However, the long-term trend for unionized construction is more disturbing: when the Bureau of Labor Statistics first started keeping comparable unionization statistics in 1983, union workers performed 29.4 percent of all construction work in the U.S.

That number has steadily declined: since 2001, when BLS statistics showed construction union workers with 18.1 percent of the market, unions have lost 5.1 percent of the market.

In a Jan. 29 statement to the Construction Labor Report, AFL-CIO Building Trades Department President Edward Sullivan took a positive approach to the numbers, saying that the building trades unions' initiatives to increase membership are working "to reverse a negative trend and are having a positive result."

He also said the lower unionization numbers are taking place during a negative political and economic climate, and looked forward to improvement with the nation on the verge of "an historic construction boom" and a more favorable construction climate.

O'Reilly endorsed for Dearborn mayor
Jack O'Reilly has been endorsed by the Political Action Committee of the Greater Detroit Building and Construction Trades Council for mayor in the City of Dearborn.

The Dearborn City Council president for the last 17 years, O'Reilly is seeking to replace the late Mayor Mike Guido, who died in December.

"I have been a lifelong Democrat and support collective bargaining," O'Reilly wrote in a letter to the council. "I understand the tremendous challenges facing cities and am prepared to meet them in a manner that is respectful of the employees that are essential to serving our residents."

The special election for Dearborn Mayor is Tuesday, Feb. 27.

All-Trades tourney set for May 19-20
The Michigan Building and Construction Trades Council will sponsor its 18th annual All-Trades Softball Tournament May 19-20 at Gier Park in Lansing. At least 20 building trades teams from across the state are expected.

Last year the tournament raised $37,400. Since 1990, the tournament has raised at total of $457,852. Proceeds from the event go to "Blueprint for a Cure," a nonprofit fundraising organization that has helped build and equip a diabetes research center at the University of Miami. The research and treatment facility was entirely union built and was dedicated in 1994.

If your local's ball team participates, save the date. For more information, or to take out an ad in the tournament's program book, call the Michigan Building and Construction Trades Council's Lansing office, (517) 484-8427.

Bush proposes slight hike in OSHA budget
WASHINGTON (PAI) - President George W. Bush's budget for the year that starts Oct. 1 proposes a slight increase - about 4 percent - in the budget of the Occupational
Safety and Health Administration.

If approved by the Democratic-run 110th Congress, OSHA's budget would rise by $18 million, to $490.3 million. And, in the aftermath of the Sego Mine disaster in January 2006, the budget for the Mine Safety and Health Administration would increase by $36 million (13 percent) to $313.5 million.

New OSHA Administrator Edwin Foulke said his agency would concentrate even more on the most-hazardous worksites, especially those with high proportions of immigrant workers, in industries led by meatpacking, poultry processing, nursing homes and construction.