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July 9, 2010
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Republican filibusters kill jobs bill, jobless benefits, too WASHINGTON (PAI) – Two separate Republican filibusters on June 24 and June 30 blocked extended jobless benefits for the nation’s unemployed, putting money for millions of jobless workers in limbo after the July 4 holiday. On June 24, by a 57-41 margin, a successful Senate Republican filibuster killed an extension of unemployment benefits that were part of a jobs bill, even after Democratic leaders watered it down to attract support. Then on June 30, 57 Democrats were joined by two Republican senators from Maine (the only Republicans supporting the measure) but fell one vote shy of overcoming the GOP filibuster of $34 billion in aid, which would have extended jobless money through November. The failure of the legislation in the Senate, according to the Washington Post, ensures that more than two million people will have their checks cut off before Congress returns to Washington after a week-long break. On top of that, the Labor Department estimates that more than 1.2 million people already have lost their benefits. “We’ve tried for eight weeks to pass a jobs bill and continue help for people out of work,” said Sen. Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich.). “”Despite a tremendous amount of negotiation, we’ve come up short every time. People in Michigan are desperate, and they hope we can get over the partisan wrangling. People want help, and they want to know who’s on their side.” Republican Sen. George V. Voinovich (R-Ohio) said he was prepared to provide the vote needed extend jobless benefits on June 30, but Democrats had rejected his request to pay for at least half of the expenditure through unspent money from the federal stimulus program. “More than any other one issue,” reported Politico, “the impasse over jobless benefits has come to dramatize the Republicans’ almost single-minded focus on deficit reduction as an economic – and campaign – theme this election year.” Democrats had jettisoned numerous other provisions from previous jobless aid measures, including $16 billion for cash-strapped state governments, $1 billion for summer jobs and $32 billion in special-interest tax breaks that expired earlier this year. "Democrats,” said Voinovich, “are more interested in having this issue to demagogue for political gamesmanship than they are in simply passing the benefits extension. I came to the table with a fair compromise and the ball is in their court." Countered Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid: "We have a basic responsibility to help our constituents respond to emergencies. We have a fundamental obligation not to deny them the help they need when they need it the most.” The 9.7 percent national jobless rate, Dems argued, constitutes a continuing emergency that under congressional budget rules, has traditionally been addressed through deficit spending when it comes to aid for the jobless. Tom McMahon, acting executive director of labor-backed Americans United for Change, asked: “Haven’t Republicans in Congress cost enough Americans their jobs already?” After pointing out the GOP opposed past recovery efforts, too, McMahon warned that failure of this bill will cause immediate hurt. “Interestingly, the same Republicans who are drawing this illogical line in the sand on the short-term deficit had no problem coming up with the money to bail out the Wall Street banks,” McMahon said. “They had no problems throwing Bush’s prescription drug program or the war in Iraq on the nation’s credit card.” He added: “Fewer jobs mean less tax revenue and more people seeking public assistance.” Several news sources reported that the bill will likely be passed some time in July, when a replacement for the late Sen. Robert Byrd is seated. But for jobless people who see those benefits as a lifeline, the interruption of a few weeks could be devastating. “For Democrats,” Politico said, “especially from high unemployment states like Michigan and Rhode Island, the lost relief is not just important to the workers but the larger state economies. The fact that the cost – $34 billion – is virtually identical to new war funding in a bill Democrats must try to complete before the recess adds to the bitterness.” (Press Associates contributed). |
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Loss of benefits has an immediate affect on state jobless LANSING – The Republican opposition which killed bills to extend federal jobless benefits on June 24, and again on June 30, will have immediate consequences to the nation’s – and Michigan’s – unemployed workers According to the state Unemployment Insurance Agency (UIA), the Extended Benefit (EB) program will end in Michigan as the program makes its final unemployment benefit payment the week ending July 3. In addition, the federal Emergency Unemployment Compensation (EUC) program immediately stopped taking new claims. Some 408,000 unemployed workers in Michigan are currently receiving either state or federally-funded unemployment benefits. UIA estimates that 87,000 will exhaust their jobless benefits by the July 3 date. By the end of July that number will double. By the end of the year the number of jobless who will be affected by the expiration of the federal extensions will actually exceed the 408,000 currently collecting. Extended benefits “is the last unemployment benefit extension in a series of extensions that have all now expired,” Stephen Geskey, director of Michigan’s Unemployment Insurance Agency (UIA) announced June 25. “At this point, federal funding for EB and the EUC programs ended on June 2, 2010. At this point federal funding for the EB and EUC programs ended on June 2 and legislation to extend those programs has not been approved.” More than one million Americans lost their jobless benefits almost immediately after the Senate’s June 24 vote, and they will be joined by an estimated 41,000 per day. "This is a bill that would remedy serious challenges that American families face as a result of this Great Recession," said Max Baucus, D-Mont. "This is a bill that works to build a stronger economy. This is a bill to put Americans back to work." Republican senators focused on the widening deficit. The bill “adds new taxes and over $30 billion to an already staggering $13 trillion dollar national debt," said Republican Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell. The Extended Benefits program began in January 2009 and had been paying up to 20 weeks of federally-funded unemployment benefits in Michigan to those who exhausted their state and Emergency Unemployment Compensation benefits. Geskey said his agency has begun notifying those in the Extended Benefit program that it will trigger off with the payment of benefits for the week ending July 3. The EUC program and its four tiers provided up to 53 weeks of unemployment benefits to jobless workers who depleted their state unemployment benefits. Those currently receiving EUC can continue to collect the balance of benefits remaining on their tier, but cannot move on to the next tier. The Federal Additional Compensation (FAC), which adds $25 a week to all unemployment benefit payments, is no longer available for new claims that started after May 29 and all FAC payments will end by December 11, 2010. Unemployed workers who are now collecting unemployment benefits can find out how many weeks they have remaining on their claim by calling MARVIN at 1-866-638-3993 and selecting option 2. Those with online web accounts with the UIA can check their “Benefit Payment History” for information about their remaining weeks of benefits. Additional information about the end of EB and EUC is on the UIA website (www.michigan.gov/uia). In addition, the agency has also established a toll-free telephone number (1-866-MI-HELPS) for people to call for pre-recorded information about the extension programs. Individuals nearing the end of their unemployment benefits may also visit the state’s Helping Hand website (www.michigan.gov/helpinghand) for information about family support, housing, health care, jobs and training, and unemployment benefits. People can also apply online through Helping Hand for food assistance and to determine if they may be eligible for other types of assistance. 2-1-1, a service of the United Way, is another way to locate additional resources that are available in their communities.
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Parking deck’s rooftop solar panels will bring power to the people By Marty Mulcahy Managing Editor TRAVERSE CITY –A parking deck can have a use other than as a pre-cast concrete and metal shell used to park cars. Here, the new $7.9 million parking structure at Union and Eighth streets in the city’s Old Town neighborhood has spaces for about 522 cars, but it also has made room for the production of electricity. Last month, Voltage Electric’s crew of IBEW Local 498 members spent a few weeks installing 186 solar photovoltaic panels atop a roof that extends over the top ramp and on the upper level of the four-level parking structure. IBEW Local 498 member Matt Vajda, who owns and founded Voltage Electric in 2004 was awarded the $245,000 contract to install the panels. He said it’s the largest such project in Northern Michigan. Colasanti Construction out of Detroit is managing the construction of the parking structure. “It’s going great,” Vajda said while the panel work was taking place last month. “It’s definitely a good thing to be doing something involving renewable energy. It is certainly the wave of the future, and I hope to see more of it. Alternative energy and solar-specific training has prepared us for this kind of work.” Vajda said he has undertaken solar power installation training courses at IBEW Local 58’s Training Center in Warren, as well as in Miami and Las Vegas. “You need to be ahead of the curve in this industry,” he said. He and his crew of four other Local 498 electricians installed the U.S.A.-made Sharp panels, which measure 30.5 feet by 5 feet, and are rated at 230 watts each. The total array can produce up to 40.2 kilowatts when the sun is shining brightest in Traverse City. The payback cost in electricity produced vs. the cost to purchase and install the panels is 20 years, Vajda said. City Engineer Tim Lodge said consideration of how ice and snow would affect the ramp going to the roof was a major safety concern during the design phase of the parking deck. So the decision was made to heat the ramp and put a roof over it – and that roof space gave the city even more space to install solar panels, which they had been considering. “We looked at solar as a cost-effective innovation, so we put the solar option in the bid package,” said Lodge. “And what we’ll have is basically a decent-sized solar array that will be installed with a monitoring system that will generate useful information about the system. It’s a sustainable, responsible design, and we didn’t spend a lot of money doing it. Someone has to take this risk and show whether solar is viable for the community, and show what you can do and what you can’t do.” Installing photovoltaic panels atop parking structures is not a new concept, but it makes sense. Parking decks offer a big footprint of land, easy access to the sun, and sometimes, spare room on the roof. A relatively sunny area and a willing owner are, of course, necessities. A number of high-tech computer, software and electronic companies in sunny California have been putting up the panels on parking structures for years. “Solar has to go on parking lots and parking structures," said former architect Robert Noble, who founded Envision Solar, a photovoltaic panel maker, in an interview with VentureWire. “The parking lots and parking structures are where all the space is.” The Traverse City parking deck’s photovoltaic system will help power lights and other electric systems – such as car charging stations for electric cars – inside the parking deck. The system will be tied into the city’s power grid, so energy can be moved back and forth. The parking deck’s completion date is targeted for Aug. 3, but it may open sooner, Lodge said. “It’s been a great project,” Lodge said. “It’s actually been easy because we’ve had such a great team working on it. They’ve worked with the city really well.”
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‘Most Yoopers tell me the best social program is a job’ U.P trades rally to support Eagle mine, other projects By Kurt Mensching MARQUETTE – The message presented by the Upper Peninsula Construction Council: Mining is part of Marquette County’s heritage and it can be done safely by those who live in the community. The underpinning: Present and future generations of Upper Peninsula citizens need the jobs a new mine in the area could provide. Hundreds of U.P. labor union members and their families gathered in Harlow Park near downtown Marquette on Saturday to join speakers in calling for urgency in beginning construction on the Kennecott Eagle mine and other projects throughout Upper Michigan. “We wanted to make sure that we let companies that want to do business in the U.P. know that we support them,” UPCC Executive Director Tony Retaskie said. “We’re concerned about preserving the environment and at the same time that we have jobs in the U.P. The unemployment rate is so high that we have to look to the mining industry to create some jobs for us. That’s what’s happening now.” Members of more than 20 unions, from construction to education, rallied around the park before listening to eight speakers ranging from union representatives to businessmen to local politicians extol the need to create jobs through the mining industry. Mining company Rio Tinto, parent company of the Eagle Project, plans to invest $469 million in building an underground nickel and copper mine in a rural area of northern Marquette County, as well as upgrading the Humboldt Mill near Ishpeming. Since the State of Michigan first issued permits in 2007, the mine has faced repeated lawsuits from protesters. However the company says it will create about 500 construction jobs in the area when it begins construction, which has recently begun in preliminary phases. Chairman of Champion Inc. Bill Verrette said he disagrees with those people who believe the tapping of natural resources needs to be stopped at all costs. “It’s not an either-or situation,” he said. “We can, and we’ve demonstrated we can, mine and use the natural abundance of our resources and maintain a clean and clear environment. “ That was a sentiment Patrick “Shorty” Gleason of the Michigan Building Trades and Construction Council agreed with. “There are ways we can make this work for everybody,” he said. “The No. 1 thing is, people have to return to work. Make no exception to it whatsoever. I look out and see all these young children out here. It would be nice to know when they get out of school and they complete an education, they have an opportunity to work right here where they were born and raised.” Stu Skauge, of the Michigan Education Association, said the issue of jobs does not end with skilled tradesmen. The tax income will help the local schools, which are battling budget deficits. “We’re here to support mining and jobs, because they’re one in the same,” Skauge said. “Especially the Kennecott Project. We know that Kennecott’s going to pay full property taxes, and they’re proud to do it. And that’s going to help our local schools, big time.” A pair of U.P. politicians running for the state Senate both spoke to the audience as well: Mike Lahti, D-Hancock, and Tom Casperson, R-Escanaba. “These folks are the silent majority,” Casperson said. “They’ve been too busy trying to work, making a living for their families, and haven’t had time for this kind of stuff. I think they realize now if they don’t (get their message out) we’re going to lose our way of life. It’s exciting that people show up like this.” Lahti added: “We must promote our clean mining industry. It’s our past, it’s our future, and it’s good. … Clean mining will promote more mining, and that’s good.” Another possible U.P. mine was explained by Bob Mann, a geologist with Aquila Resources. He spoke of a zinc and gold mineral find in Menominee County known as the Back Forty Project, which could have the doors opened by a successful Eagle mine project. Though the majority of the speakers focused on the mining project, the workers were rallying to encourage companies to bring all varieties of work to the U.P. “Most Yoopers tell me the best social program is a job,” Marquette County Board of Commission Chairman Gerald Corkin told a cheering crowd. “Yoopers want paychecks, not welfare checks. So keep up the good fight for U.P. jobs.” Unemployment is an issue in all the state, but it has hit some construction workers in the U.P. especially hard, said Mike Thibault, business representative in the U.P. office of the Michigan Building and Construction Trades Council. Some local trade unions are currently experiencing 50 percent unemployment, he said. “When you look at raising a family without health care coverage, which some of our folks have lost because the man-hours weren’t there, think about how devastating that is whether you can go to a doctor … or putting food on the table,” he added. “We support industrial expansion in the U.P. “ Representative Steve Lindberg, D-Marquette, told the audience they are the people who make the state great. “You’re the people who go to work with the lunch pail, the brown bag,” Lindberg said. “We’ve got teachers in the audience who teach our kids. There are nurses here. There are people who work shift work while the rest of us are sleeping. You’re the people who make this country what it is today. And we have to keep jobs in this U.P.”
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Have we bottomed out? Signs point to more woe Construction employment in Michigan didn’t have a good month from April to May, and the year-to-year numbers are even worse. But now, other states have caught up to Michigan’s construction misery index, moving our state from a regular top-ten unemployment state to a spot that’s closer to the middle of the pack in construction job losses over the past year. Figures released June 22 by the Associated General Contractors of America show that Michigan’s construction industry lost 10,400 jobs from May 2009 to May 2010, a decline of 8.1 percent which ranked us “only” at No. 30 among the states. Washington State, which lost 15.6 percent of its construction jobs during that time, dropped the greatest number of jobs and was ranked No. 50. “Construction workers will continue losing jobs until demand for new housing, office, retail and local public construction improves,” said Ken Simonson, the association’s chief economist. “Although the stimulus is helping, it is very likely that construction employment has yet to hit bottom in most states.” Michigan might have been ranked even higher if not for a lousy month of April-to-May, where the AGC, citing federal labor statistics, showed our state losing a whopping 4,200 jobs – a 3.4 percent loss – tied for 6th worst in the nation. Construction employment also declined in 24 other states during that period. AGC officials said that private, state and local construction employment demand was unlikely to improve until next year at the earliest, given current vacancy rates and public finances. With economists predicting stimulus work will decline later this year, association officials urged Congress and the Administration to act on a series of long-delayed infrastructure measures. They noted that passing the nine-months late surface transportation bill would boost employment and provide relief for a construction industry that loses an estimated $23 billion a year to traffic congestion. “Construction workers shouldn’t have to suffer because Congress is months late in doing its job,” said Stephen Sandherr, the association’s chief executive officer. Meanwhile, an economic reading we rarely see before – the Architecture Billings Index – reported on June 23 that after three straight months of improving conditions, the ABI fell nearly three points, a substantial decline. It “reflects a continued decline in demand for design services,” the group said, which is an unfavorable harbinger for the construction industry. “This dip is somewhat of a surprise since it appeared that conditions were pointing towards a recovery,” said American Institute of Architects Chief Economist Kermit Baker. “The overriding issue affecting the entire real estate sector is unusual caution on the part of lending institutions to provide credit for construction projects that apparently would be successful in this economic environment.”
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NEWS BRIEFS More confidence in work outlook Construction professionals expect the industry recession to start to turn around by the end of the year, according to a survey released June 29 by the Engineering News Record (ENR) and published by McGraw-Hill Construction. The ENR Construction Industry Confidence Index (CICI) for the second quarter of 2010 shows that construction and design firm executives believe the worst may soon be over. The second quarter index, which measures industry sentiment for market sectors and trends, is 41 on a scale of 100, where a value of 50 indicates a stable market and a value from 51 to 100 reflects the belief that the market is improving. While still below an index of 50, the index shows a dramatic improvement over last quarter (up seven points from 34 in the first quarter of 2010 and last year (up 16 points from 25 in the first quarter of 2009). The index is based on 555 responses to surveys sent to more than 2,000 domestic firms on ENR’s lists of leading contractors and engineering firms. “ENR’s CICI survey found confidence gains in 13 of the 15 construction market sectors it measures,” said Janice L. Tuchman, editor-in-chief of Engineering News-Record. “The only exceptions were in the petroleum market, which fell from 51 to 44 in the wake of the BP oil spill, and the transportation sector, which dropped from 55 to 54 due to concerns about the stalled federal highway reauthorization bill.” When assessing the construction market, 53 percent of respondents say the current construction market is still in decline, 36 percent believe it has stabilized, and 11 percent believe it is improving. However, survey respondents expect the picture to be different in 12 to 18 months, with 50 percent believing the construction market will be improving and another 39 percent believing it will stabilize in 2011. The CICI survey also asked participants about the ease of obtaining project financing and found that securing financing continues to be a challenge, although the responses were slightly more positive than last quarter. Still, 39.3 percent say obtaining project financing is tougher than six months ago (vs. 50.7% who answered this way in the first quarter of this year). The industry is also worried about inflationary pressures once the market turns around, but half of respondents said they have seen little or no upward pressure on prices.
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