One of the few consistent bright spots in the Michigan construction industry over the past decade has been a robust market for school construction and renovation.

While there aren't any statistics on how much of that work is going union or nonunion, a number of building trades leaders have looked at the school construction process and decided that there's plenty of room for improvement when it comes to selling union construction.

In order to win a greater share of work, the nonprofit West Michigan Construction Alliance has hired an ex-school administrator to approach local school districts - especially those about to embark on construction projects - on behalf of building trades unions and their contractors. His name is Ed Haynor, and this summer he was hired primarily to promote "responsible contracting" as a way of doing business for local school districts.

Haynor is recently retired from the Newaygo County Intermediate School District after running its school-to-work program. He was hired, said Bruce Hawley, business manager of Iron Workers Local 340 and president of the West Michigan Construction Alliance, because he "speaks the language" of school officials and won't come off as "a union guy" trying to find work for his members.

"We wanted to take a professional approach to presenting union labor and contractors to local school districts," Hawley said. "After a lot of discussion, we decided that the best way to do that wasn't to push union labor, but to promote responsible contracting."

Currently, there is easily more than a billion dollars in construction work taking place on behalf of Michigan schools, and according to a 2000 report by the National Education Association, our state's school buildings need an additional $9.9 billion in school renovations.

With all that money being spent on school buildings, it would be reasonable to assume that school districts have policies in place for hiring contractors. After all, Haynor said, school districts already have three-inch-thick policy books that address everything from student apparel to textbook purchases.

But there are no policies regarding school construction, mainly because the Michigan Association of School Boards - which sets the pace for policy for the state's 555 K-12th grade public school districts - has never formulated any such rules for the local districts to copy.

The MASB has shown interest in adopting responsible school construction policies after being contacted by Haynor, and he is now working with the statewide group to develop contractor responsibility rules. Last month, the Muskegon School District became the first in the state to adopt such a policy.

The West Michigan alliance is the first group in the state to actually hire a representative; other building trades councils, individual unions and contractor groups around the state are also in the process of finding funds and hiring personnel for similar work. Contractor groups associated with the effort are the Michigan Chapter of the Associated General Contractors, Michigan Chapter of the National Electrical Contractors Association, and the Michigan Mechanical Contractors Association. They are working under the umbrella of the parent group, the Michigan Association of Responsible Contracting.

"About one in five school board members I've talked to at various meetings said they're not pleased with some aspect of construction in their district," Haynor said. "But a lot of it involves good planning. Maybe people in the district aren't knowledgeable about building, or maybe they depend on input from a board member who has some experience, or maybe they hire an unqualified construction manager to supervise the work. Whatever the reason for bad hiring, the school district is left behind to sweep up the mess when the project is complete, and that's not a good way to do business."

Haynor added, "I don't talk to school people talking about union or nonunion, because that creates winners and losers. I only want to create winners, so I talk to them about quality construction."

Responsible contracting is a set of guidelines that would tend to steer school administrators away from, well, irresponsible contractors. Following up on a model created by other labor-management groups in Ohio, school administrators and boards of education are asked to adopt some or all of a three-page set of rules that spell out qualifications that construction contractors should possess before they're hired.

Hawley said the rules, when adopted, will help level the playing field for union contractors to win work from school districts. The playing field has tilted in favor of nonunion contractors for a number of reasons, including the ties between architects and designers with the anti-union Associated Builders and Contractors, the hiring of single-source non-union construction managers, and the perception of higher costs and potential labor strife in hiring union.

Hawley said even before bond issues for construction projects are approved by school district voters, it is common for construction consultants to be talking to school officials about how to avoid paying prevailing wage and cut costs on their project. It is hoped Haynor's work will help change that.

Tom Boensch, secretary-treasurer of the Michigan Building Trades Council, learned about the responsible contractor concept at a building trades seminar and passed the information along to affiliate unions last spring. He said a number of union/contractor groups are on board around the state, and DVDs, binder materials and handouts explaining the concept are being made available for distribution to school boards and others. The responsible marketing program can easily be geared to other users of construction, like home builders or commercial property owners.

"The thing that gives this some punch is Governor Granholm's executive order that demanded responsible contracting from companies that do business with the state," Boensch said. "It shows school boards and other organizations that responsible contracting is good for business and good public policy."

Responsible contracting guidelines, which building trades unions are proposing for adoption by the Michigan Association of School Boards and local boards of education, provide a foundation for good, common-sense hiring that would at least weed out borderline and fly-by-night contractors.

Among the 18 "primary criteria" suggestions for hiring responsible contractors:

• Making sure contractors have proper licenses and workers have certification for jobs being performed;
• Having the correct proportion of apprentices-to-journeymen and documentation of participation in an apprenticeship training program that's is in line with U.S. Department of Labor guidelines;
• Documentation of a safety training program for employees on the proposed job site;
• Evidence of experience with construction techniques, trade standards, project scheduling, cost control and management of projects of similar size/complexity;
• Documentation of a project track record of timeliness, performance, quality of work, contractual fines, and penalties imposed;
• A warranty statement regarding labor and materials;
• A list of pending litigation against the company, references, evidence of compliance with the Fair Labor Standards Act and state and federal safety agencies.