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Rally reminds Republicans labor still a force ‘Union busting has brought us solidarity like never before’
By Marty Mulcahy
Managing Editor
LANSING – Union members and their supporters, led by a large building trades contingent, once again took to the front steps and lawn of the State Capitol Building on April 13, in a rally intended to show state Republicans that labor isn’t taking their anti-worker brand of government sitting down.
“I know that most on the Republican side would rather you would just go away,” Michigan Building and Construction Trades Council Secretary-Treasurer Patrick Devlin told the crowd. “In fact, they’re helping the process along by sponsoring more than three dozen anti-worker, anti-union bills that will try to put the building trades and the rest of organized labor out of business. Are we going to let that happen? Hell no we’re not.”
Protests were held in Lansing and Marquette on April 13 as part of an AFL-CIO-sponsored “National Day of Protest.” In Lansing, the building trades joined with protesters that included other unions like AFSCME, teachers, United Food and Commercial Workers, SEIU, cops, firefighters, and others.
Media estimates had the crowd at 5,000, but rally participation was easily a third larger than a similar event estimated to have 5,000 participants that was held in front of the State Capitol on March 16. It was easily the largest rally this reporter has seen at the Capitol Building.
“This is what democracy looks like!” was one of the chants delivered by Herb Sanders, administrative director of AFSCME Local 25. “There are a litany of approximately 40 bills that have been introduced in the last 75 days that are designed to eliminate 75 years of progress for Michigan workers. You and I know that union employees didn’t create the financial mess that Michigan and other states are in.”
Sanders and other speakers pointed out that it was Wall Street greed that tanked the U.S. economy. But he said financial reforms in the effort to bring the country back on track are being done disproportionately on the backs of the middle class, rather than on the rich or the business community.
The 2011 state budget submitted by Michigan Gov. Snyder shifts about $1.7 billion in taxation from businesses to individuals. The shift will be paid for by a combination of taxing state residents’ pensions, ending the Earned Income Tax Credit (which helps poor people), and reducing state aid to local communities.
Dozens of Michigan communities are in financial straits, and that reduced state aid could shove them over the edge. The Republican response? It came last month with the passage of an emergency financial manager bill, which will eventually target organized labor. Under the new emergency financial manager law, Snyder has new powers to appoint what many have termed a dictator to take over financially troubled school districts, cities and townships.
The appointed manager could abrogate union contracts, hire and fire employees at will, and make whatever financial decisions he or she deems necessary. Complete local control would be taken out of the hands of elected officials and placed in the hands of the financial manager. Two dozen Michigan communities, maybe more, are considered to be potential candidates for such a manager.
“We refuse to give up on our collective bargaining and be subject to dictators, when dictators are falling all over the world,” Sanders said.
As we have pointed out, Michigan Republicans – in complete control of the state Legislature – have introduced this year proposals for right-to-work zones, to eliminate prevailing wage, outlaw project labor agreements, eliminate MIOSHA, and halt any union business on state property.
And last month, the state’s Republicans voted to make Michigan the first state in history to lower unemployment compensation from 26 weeks to 20 weeks in an effort to save money for employers.
“We’re here to say this is government for and by the people, not for and by the rich,” Lansing Mayor Virg Bernero told the crowd. Democrat Bernero lost to Snyder in the election for governor last year. “The other side thinks that if you keep giving to the super rich, maybe, just maybe some of that will trickle down. I don’t know about you, but I’m tired of being trickled on.”
At the rally one speaker protested a new state rule which prevents the state from deducting union dues from thousands of people who provide child care at home. A teacher told the crowd that education cuts are likely going to increase class sizes and result in reductions to remedial, special education and enrichment programs.
Union members, Devlin said, helped put the Tea Party-fueled hard-right legislators into power last November by not voting, or by not voting in their own economic interests. “Democrats can’t do much to help our cause,” Devlin told the crowd. “Tonight or tomorrow, everyone of us needs to commit to finding out who your state lawmaker is, and contacting him or her.
“Doesn’t matter how you make the contact: A phone call, an e-mail, or a personally written letter. Let them know you support prevailing wage. Let them know you support project labor agreements. Let them know you support Unemployment Benefits. Let them know you support MIOSHA. Do you support union rights in Michigan? Then you need to tell that to the people who work here.”
Added Sanders: “It’s time to fight. This time union busting has brought us solidarity like never before.”
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A RALLY ON THE STATE CAPITOL steps on April 13 attracted thousands of building trades and other union members and supporters.
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“HOW DID WE GET in this mess?” said Michigan Building and Construction Trades Council Secretary-Treasurer Patrick Devlin. “As the old saying goes, bad lawmakers get put into office by good people who don’t vote. Too many of us stayed home from the polls last November. Too many of us weren’t paying attention when the Tea Party, pushed by some big-money donors, pushed Republicans farther to the right than they’ve been in recent memory.”
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Yoopers put a bug in their ear, too
MARQUETTE – Supporters of working families from across the Upper Peninsula converged on the U.P.’s largest city on April 13 to make their voices heard about the anti-labor rhetoric and actions coming out of state government.
“We were more than pleased with the turnout, we had about 1,500 from across the U.P.,” said Mike Thibault, business representative with the Michigan Building and Construction Trades Council and president of the Marquette County Labor Council. “We held it conjunction with the rally in Lansing. We’re not going to let these lawmakers come home from Lansing and relax. They’re going to hear from us. We’re also attending town halls and other meetings to give them an earful.”
Hosted by the labor council, the two-hour event was held beginning at 5:30 p.m. in front of the Marquette County Courthouse. Speakers included former state Sen. Mike Prusi and former state Rep. Gary McDowell.
The protests in the U.P., of course, mirrored the concerns of ralliers in Lansing: Republican lawmakers’s push to institute right-to-work zones in Michigan, as well as threatened repeal of MIOSHA, prevailing wage and project labor agreements, and passage of the emergency financial manager bill and cutting of six weeks of unemployment insurance.
Upper Peninsula Construction Council Executive Director Tony Retaski made remarks at the rally and ended with an announcement that he’s running for state representative, 109th District. He will be running for the seat that will be vacated by fellow Democrat Steve Lindberg, who will be term-limited out of his seat next year.
“I’m totally impressed with the amount of people who turned out,” Retaski said. “It just shows the frustration level that people have about what’s going on. There aren’t many options besides rallies to get people involved.”
Retaski, who is also president of the Marquette Board of Education, said “a lot of the cuts we’re seeing in Lansing are not related at all to job creation. The cuts in education are going to hurt in a lot of areas, even in the building trades.” He said the loss of elective classes that lead high schoolers into the trades will reduce the pool of potential workers in the future.
Tim Roman, business agent with Iron Workers Local 8 and president of the Upper Peninsula Building Trades, said with the rally, “we’re starting to see more solidarity with other unions, and we’re building coalitions with the leadership. And I’ve heard from people who plan to become active and engage these lawmakers during their public meetings.”
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THE RALLY on the steps of the Marquette County Courthouse.
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Don’t think there’s a Republican vendetta against unions? Hmm, let’s take a look around
If it were a football game, we’d call it “piling on.”
Emboldened by Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker’s blatant effort to bust that state’s public employee unions, conservative lawmakers from around the nation have seemingly tried to out-do each other when it comes to unique efforts to bash unions.
Not content with a labor movement that is down to historic lows in terms of workforce representation, many hard-right conservatives seem inclined to kick, and even kill the union monster so it can never again impede the will of corporations or abusive employers.
Following is a sampler of some of what’s being done and said to bust the American labor movement.
*The Republican-led U.S. House of Representatives on April 1 voted to retain a radical union election provision that can’t help but to confirm the impression that they’re out to destroy unions.
Republicans inserted a provision in a Federal Aviation Administration reauthorization bill addressing union representation voting in the airline and railway industries. The bill would count eligible voters who are absent in such elections as “no” votes. Voting on the bill was close, and it had Republican detractors – but it had plenty of GOP support and was adopted 220-206. The AFL-CIO called it “an undemocratic and unfair standard different from every other American election.”
This amendment won’t pass the Democratically-controlled Senate and President Obama has pledged a veto, anyway. “The administration is committed to help working Americans exercise their right to organize under a fair and free process,” the White House said in a statement.
* In Florida, it’s apparently not enough to be a right-to-work state. One piece of Republican legislation would explicitly prevent a state employee from enjoying the convenience of having his union dues paid automatically from his paycheck.
According to the DailyKos website: “This is all about silencing the working class, period. But the GOP legislators can't even think up a good excuse to push this bill through. The Senate sponsor, Sen. Thrasher, tried to say that the paycheck deduction is about costing the state money, which is a lie. His house co-sponsor, Chris Dorworth, even admits that cost has nothing to do with it. They tried some argument about fairness, but that doesn't fly either.”
* In late March, Maine’s Republican Gov. Paul LePage ordered the removal of a 36-foot-wide mural in the lobby of the state’s Department of Labor building in Augusta.
“The mural sends a message that we’re one-sided, and I don’t want to send that message,” LePage told a radio station. And how did the mural offend his conservative sensibilities? The art work was a portrayal of the state’s labor history, depicting scenes with Rosie the Riveter, child laborers, and a 1937 shoe mill strike.
Gov. LePage also ordered that the conference rooms in the Labor Department building be renamed – one is named for the first female U.S. labor secretary, Frances Perkins, another for farm laborer organizer Cesar Chavez and several others for figures from the state’s labor past.
Judy Taylor, a local artist, won a state competition with the mural to tell the story of Maine’s labor history. “I don’t agree that it’s one-sided,” she told the New York Times. “It’s based on historical fact.” Matt Schlobohm, executive director of the Maine AFL-CIO, told MaineToday Media that LePage’s decision to remove the mural shows “the governor is much more interested in picking fights with labor than creating jobs that people so desperately want.”
For good measure, two right-to-work bills have been introduced in Maine’s legislature.
* Nebraska is a right-to-work state with weak unions. But again, that’s not enough.
The Associated Press reported March 30: “In the struggle between governors and unions over public employee costs, Nebraska would seem like an unlikely battleground. Teacher salaries are modest, workers pay toward their benefits and a right-to-work law prevails. But Nebraska Gov. Dave Heineman and the Republican-controlled Legislature have taken a bead this session at one aspect of state law that has produced occasional victories for unionized workers.”
A package of Republican bills released late last month addresses “frustration” with the pro-labor decisions of the state’s Commission of Industrial Relations, which resolves labor disputes between public workers and their employers. Various versions of legislation would strip the commission's ability to set wages and work conditions, remove its jurisdiction over health and retirement benefits and exclude it from cases involving public school teachers.
* He said it: “It's a bigger issue than people think, and it's something that I'm going to work a lot on, because I really don't think that collective bargaining has any place in representative government,” said Congressman Jim DeMint, R-S.C., last month.
* In Ohio, Republican Gov. John Kasich and Republican majorities in both houses of state government adopted an anti-worker law that would limit collective bargaining for workers in a plan that’s even worse for public workers than what was passed in Wisconsin.
The state’s 350,000 teachers, police, fire fighters and other public workers, could bargain only on wages, hours, and employment terms and conditions. Their employers, the governments, could unilaterally set terms – or dump – health benefits and pension contributions and change workforce levels.
“What we are doing in this state is designed to make sure that your kids have a future in this state,” Kasich told a reporter. “That your kids can stay in this state, that they can have jobs in this state and that your family can be prosperous.” Apparently those things were not possible before the law was passed last month.
* In Iowa, another Wisconsin-style law would change the state’s collective bargaining law to allow the legislature or governor to veto decisions made by an arbitrator on labor decisions for state workers, and remove state employees’ ability to negotiate over health care or retirement plans. Iowa is already a right-to-work state, but other Republican legislation, according to the Iowa Independent, would further bust unions by allowing employees to become “free agents,” who can negotiate their terms of employment directly with employers even if they are in a union shop.
* In the Hoosier State, from the AP: “The political showdown in the Indiana Statehouse got its start with a contentious ‘right-to-work’ bill, but it is being kept alive by a wide array of labor-related proposals that Democrats hadn't been able to stop. Newly empowered House Republicans have aimed to also strictly limit collective bargaining for teachers, permanently ban union contracts for state workers and exempt many government construction projects from the state's prevailing wage law.”
* In Tennessee, teachers are some of the only public employees with the legal authority to negotiate pay, benefits and working conditions. Maybe not for long. On March 5, thousands of teachers protested at the state capitol in Nashville to protest Republican proposals to limit collective bargaining rights.
Preserving the status quo would be a bigger win in right-to-work Tennessee than in Midwestern states, labor expert Dan Cornfield of Vanderbilt University told Nashville Public Radio. He said unions are used to hostility, and losing collective bargaining wouldn't be quite the shock it would be elsewhere.
“That would only be reaffirming of a traditional, weak labor movement in the South," Cornfield told NPR. “If collective bargaining is retained in Tennessee, that would have a strong, positive effect I would think nationally for the labor movement.”
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Will union-busting be the spark to re-ignite the labor movement?
With the building trades and the rest of organized labor being attacked all over the country, AFL-CIO Building Trades Department President Mark Ayers provided his point of view to the 2011 Building Trades National Legislative Conference on April 4. Following are excerpts of his speech.
"We convene this conference during what is arguably the most critical moment in history for America’s Building Trades Unions and for all of organized labor. Not only are we continuing to struggle against an enduring economic downturn that has devastated our ranks. But, to add insult to injury, we are also fighting against what can only be labeled as an all-out assault by the radical right-wing against unions across America. These are difficult times. Yet, they are also times of great opportunity.
The national conversation that is currently taking place about unions in America presents us with a rare opening to tell our side of the story to a wide audience of our fellow citizens. Also on the bright side is the fact that the economy seems to be moving steadily toward recovery. The unemployment rate for the construction industry has been consistently dropping over the course of the first few months of this year. Additionally, we are finally starting to see an influx of fresh capital into U.S. commercial real estate, which is bringing some long-stalled commercial development projects back to life.
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While this is all good news, it is not happening nearly fast enough to reduce the pressure and stress for many thousands of our members and their families who are struggling to make ends meet. But at least the trends are encouraging. The same cannot be said, however, about some of the dark clouds on the horizon – which have absolutely NOTHING to do with the economy!
Whether we like it or not we have been pulled into a brutal struggle in America. And it’s a struggle for the very soul of our nation and our democracy. The attacks we see today on unions all across America are being instigated by an ultra-radical conservative movement. Yes, their initial focus is to shred public employee unions under the guise of fiscal responsibility; but make no mistake about it their real purpose is the eradication of ALL unions from the American landscape.
That is why all unions must come together as ONE to fight these right-wing assaults on our unions.
Because if we let them succeed, more and more Americans will be left behind in an economy that is ever more starkly divided between the haves and the have-nots. Employer-based pensions, paid vacations, health benefits…and the fundamental right of workers to have a voice on the job…are going the way of phone booths and VCRs.
American workers who enjoy any sort of job security or retirement security are being viewed with increasing contempt. The attitude seems to be: How dare these union people enjoy any measure of economic security? That, brothers and sisters is why we must come together as never before and let the world know that WE ARE ONE.
Union busting and social destabilization should not…and will not… be tolerated in a country with as much wealth as the United States. It’s destructive, and it’s wrong. And, TOGETHER, we intend to stop it!
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Ironically, the labor movement has been searching for years for a spark to ignite a conversation about the role of unions in America; and now that spark has kindled a political wildfire in our nation. Clearly, this was not a fight that we went looking for…but like our union brothers and sisters before us...it’s a fight from which WE WILL NOT RETREAT! And let me be crystal clear on this: We do not intend to let these anti-union, radical, right wingers win this war!
Brothers and Sisters, here’s what we are facing. The radical worldview that is hell-bent on purging America of our unions believes in individual responsibility alone. They reject the fundamental American notion of citizens looking after their fellow citizens.
The radical right DOES NOT believe that government should ever help its people…unless, of course, those citizens just happen to be their wealthy political benefactors who are clamoring for more subsidies or tax cuts.
But things like prevailing wage laws, project labor agreements, trade adjustment assistance programs and safety standards are easily put on the chopping block. Why?
Because they are actually designed to protect and assist middle class working America! In the twisted world of Governor Scott Walker in Wisconsin, and Governor John Kasich in Ohio…as well as Fox News in general…there should not be a middle class to protect!
The disturbing truth is that, politically, these conservatives now have the wherewithal to accomplish their goals. Today anti-union conservatives have as many elected lawmakers at the federal, state and local level than at any point since 1928. Twenty-two state legislative chambers changed majority control in the 2010 election cycle – all in the direction of the GOP. But as we are seeing all across the nation, these are a different breed of Republican.
They are certainly NOT like Republican President Dwight Eisenhower who, in 1954, had this to say about unions in America, and I quote: “Unions have a secure place in our industrial life. Only a handful of reactionaries harbor the ugly thought of breaking unions…and depriving working men and women of the right to join the union of their choice.”
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Now, If a strong labor movement is so good for middle-class standards of living…and for the Democratic Party…then we have to be concerned about what has been, up until recently, a sense of ambivalence on the part of too many Democrats toward the concerns of labor.
Sure, they are jumping on the bandwagon now that many state governors have declared war on labor unions. But it’s fair to ask where the hell have they been the last three years…not to mention the last 30 years?!
I think many of us would agree that, in recent years, we have been viewed by some within the Democratic Party as nothing more than a source of funds and votes. Just imagine, if the Employee Free Choice Act had been a higher priority, and had been adopted in early 2009.
We could have spent the past two-and-a-half years organizing and mobilizing millions of American workers, instead of waging these defensive battles in state after state! If Democrats and other progressive forces want to turn this nation around, they must openly embrace unions as the centerpiece of that movement!
No more dithering. No more “fair weather” political friends.
Unions aren’t just good for workers and working families. Unions are good for America! And it’s high time for our would-be political friends at all levels…especially those who claim an interest in our declining middle-class…to GET ON BOARD.
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Brothers and sisters, nobody in this room believes we are perfect… nor should we EVER think that way. In fact, like many corporations and organizations today, our unions have adopted the mindset that if we are not constantly innovating and improving…then we are simply moving backwards.
Now more than ever…it is critically important for us to engage key stakeholders within our industry and among federal, state and local lawmakers, and impress upon them the detailed nature of our brand proposition: “Value on Display… Every Day.” Many of you are already doing this.
I have heard stories and anecdotes from many of you who have actually invited local elected officials out to a JATC facility, and then hearing those folks say something to the effect of: “I had no idea this is what you all do!”
Brothers and sisters…this is our ace in the hole.
It is similar to our historical commitment to the rational center when it comes to politics. Ours is a business model that is centered upon seeking cooperation and common ground with our industry and political partners to develop innovations and solutions that benefit everyone.
And on that score, we are more in tune with the central thinking of the vast majority of the American people who are sick and tired of the incessant drumbeat of conflict and caricature, and are instead seeking cooperation and solutions that lead to shared prosperity for ALL Americans…and not just the privileged few!
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And as I stand here today, please be assured that we will stand by you and with you in this battle.
This is OUR Building Trades… and we must stand together to protect it. And protect it we will!
In these times of dark and confrontational rhetoric that constantly bubbles forth from the extreme left and the extreme right, we need to be the voice of the rational center. As for those who are hell-bent on seeking the destruction of our unions… well, I would encourage them to study a little history.
Specifically, the events of that fateful day on Dec. 7, 1941 after the surprise attack on Pearl Harbor. They should recall the words of Japanese Admiral Yamamoto after he heard the news of the successful raid on the U.S. fleet in Hawaii. Admiral Yamamoto did not celebrate upon hearing the news. Rather, he stood stone-faced and remarked to an aide, and I quote: "I fear all we have done is to awaken a sleeping giant and fill him with a terrible resolve."
Brothers and sisters… the resolve of America’s building trades unions from this moment forward will be to impress upon owners and contractors, as well as reasonable and rational elected leaders, that our nation has work to do… and that our unions are uniquely equipped to help do that work.
But, for those that continue to spoil for a fight…YOU CAN BET YOUR LIFE THAT WE WILL GIVE THEM MORE THAN THEY EVER BARGAINED FOR! But our main desire is to impress upon this great nation, that we have the opportunity to create a NEW AMERICA every morning when we wake up.
America’s building trades unions choose to see an America not in a setting of despair and conflict…where cynical and diabolical interests continue to turn worker against worker. No, our unions see an America where every man, woman and child has a chance to share in our nation’s wealth; to hold a good paying job and have a pension and health care.
We see great days ahead for our unions and our nation.
And these great days are only possible when men and women of vision and a cooperative spirit come together in a common purpose. That is our vision; and that is our quest. And we will not let any detractors stand in our way.
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Union leaders confront political dilemma
By Mark Gruenberg
PAI Staff Writer
WASHINGTON (PAI) – Union leaders, meeting April 13 in D.C., spent their time confronting a political dilemma: What do you do when your supposed allies let you down a lot of the time – but at the same time know they can take you for granted?
That problem consumed the political discussion at that day’s AFL-CIO Executive Council meeting, various people interviewed during the session said. And the leaders didn’t reach a conclusion, either.
Similar complaints erupted at the council meeting in Orlando, Fla., in early March 2010, but were more general. This time, attendees told Press Associates Union News Service that specific complaints surfaced, one by one, around the council’s meeting room. They aimed at Democratic President Barack Obama and congressional Democrats, often by name. Among them:
The Fire Fighters were upset that after they won a hard victory to fund fire fighter training and hiring in the GOP-run labor-hostile House, then Senate Democratic leaders and Obama gave the win away in bargaining over a final budget deal.
Industrial unions were unhappy that Obama is plowing ahead with yet another version of the U.S.-Colombia “free trade” agreement. This version adds a side pact, committing Colombia to pursing the murderers of 2,850 unionists over the last 25 years, and following the rule of law. But it has no timetable and no enforcement mechanism.
- The Machinists are seething that the administration and Congress are fixated on cutting the deficit and the debt, and ignoring the plight of the unemployed.
- The National Nurses Union says it will campaign against any lawmaker, of either party, who votes to cut Social Security in any way.
- And at the Building Trades legislative conference this month, AFL-CIO Building Trades Dept. President Mark Ayers said: “Just imagine, if the Employee Free Choice Act (which would make it easier for unions to organize) had been a higher priority, and had been adopted in early 2009, we could have spent the past two-and-a-half years organizing and mobilizing millions of American workers, instead of waging these defensive battles in state after state!”
And not all the complaints were voiced. “We have our own issues, too, but we didn’t air them,” said Unite Here President John Wilhelm.
One leader, Communications Workers President Larry Cohen, differed. He said “90 percent of the discussion was about Ryan’s budget,” citing the GOP Budget Committee chairman’s proposed 10-year spending plan that cuts Medicare, turns Medicaid into a block grant and slashes education aid, job training and other programs. “The other 10 percent was how Democrats and progressives should organize” to fight it, Cohen added.
But even with that, the problem the union leaders confronted is that politically, unionists are in a corner.
A top AFL-CIO staffer who was in much of the meeting said the leaders spent the day “in discussion about how do you choose between Democrats who sometimes sell us out and Republicans who are not with us at all.”
That leaves unionists struggling with what to do. Democrats, including Obama, know the unionists are backed into that corner. “One day, the unions are going to say to the Democrats: ‘It doesn’t matter if we endorse you or not. Because our members are so sick and tired” of broken promises “that they’ll give up voting,” Machinists President Tom Buffenbarger warned.
Unionists aren’t the only upset pro-Democratic groups. Political directors of liberal groups, including the Center for Community Change – a labor ally – MoveOn.org, and the Progressive Change Campaign Committee say their members are leaning towards not donating funds and staying home from the polls, or both, in the 2012 race. Progressives discussed their dilemma on April 12. It’s the question unionists and leaders face, too.
“If the president and the Democrats don’t stand up to Republicans” as they did not on the budget deal, on the “public option” in health care and tax cuts for the rich, then “I don’t see people coming out and doing the work it would take to get them re-elected,” MoveOn Executive Director Justin Ruben told the Washington Post.
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Small glimmers of hope in construction employment
As the nation emerges from the Great Recession, Michigan has been one of the leaders among the states in the modest upswing in construction employment over the past year.
Now, new numbers are showing where those jobs are going. The news is particularly good in Battle Creek, which actually led the nation in construction job growth percentage – up 27 percent from February 2010 to February 2011, the Associated General Contractors reported April 5.
Not that Battle Creek’s actual employment numbers are all that gaudy: actual construction jobs rose from 1,100 to 1,400 during those 12 months, but those numbers are similar to other cities in the top 20, which is a list that includes a number of smaller communities.
The AGC said construction employment increased in 141 out of 337 metropolitan areas between February 2010 and February 2011. They said that the “relatively positive” figures were likely affected by significantly improved winter weather in February, combined with the benefits of ongoing stimulus and other temporary federal construction programs.
“With nearly half of all U.S. metro areas finally adding construction jobs, these numbers are welcome news,” said Ken Simonson, the association’s chief economist. “But warm winter weather probably played a larger role in driving these numbers up than did any change in construction demand.”
The AGC noted that construction spending hit an 11-year low in February as stimulus projects wind down and state, local and private demand for construction continue to shrink. They cautioned that without measures to boost private sector demand, repair aging infrastructure and cut red tape, it would be hard to see how the industry would continue to add jobs.
There was more good news for other cities in Michigan. Bay City came in at No. 17 on the list, with construction employment rising from 800 to 900 jobs, rising 13 percent. The “Warren-Troy-Farmington Hills division” was ranked No. 27, as jobs rose 12 percent during that one-year period, from 27,200 jobs to 30,500 jobs. Lansing-East Lansing (No. 68) was up 7 percent, from 4,500 jobs to 4,800 jobs.
But the news wasn’t so good for the “Detroit-Livonia-Dearborn division,” which ranked No. 194 and lost 1 percent or 200 jobs, down to 14,600 jobs. And the Grand Rapids area was ranked No. 291: construction jobs declined by 7 percent from 11,600 to 10,800 jobs.
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NEWS BRIEFS
Federal regulation can be good for jobs
WASHINGTON (PAI) – With Right Wing Republicans in Congress and the states aiming to trash federal and state regulations on everything from clean air to child labor, the Economic Policy Institute stepped forward with a comprehensive analysis rebutting GOP claims that federal rules cost jobs. Indeed, EPI says, rules may create jobs, especially for construction workers.
Using examples of environmental rules and financial regulations and wide surveys of the impact of regulations since 1990, the analysis also shows how a retreat backwards to lack of rules would harm workers and consumers and cost the economy money and productivity.
And GOP plans could actually make things worse, added Gary Bass, head of OMB Watch, a non-partisan group that analyzes the federal budget and rulemaking.
“If we were to turn back the clock completely” to a time of little or no regulation, as many Republicans and the business community advocate, “the probability of financial collapses,” such as the one that triggered the Great Recession “would greatly increase,” Bass said.
The Great Recession was preceded by years of deregulation, no regulation of new financial markets – such as derivatives – and little to no regulation of the housing and housing securities markets.
Its bubble of sub-prime mortgages, which financiers repackaged as top-rated securities, which then collapsed, caused the crash. That shot the jobless rate up to a high of 10 percent and led to the banking crash. Joblessness only recently started dropping.
EPI’s report laid out examples of where regulation either helps create jobs – in meeting anti-pollution requirements – and where doom-and-gloom job loss estimates due to regulation, especially by industry, were wildly off base.
The EPI report focused on environmental regulation in particular, because that’s where most of the studies of the costs and benefits of regulations have been done, and where the data is most comprehensive. It’s also the regulation area where industry’s screams have been the loudest.
The building trades have enjoyed hundreds of thousands of man-hours of work performing pollution retrofits of coal-burning power plants to bring them in line with the Clean Air Act. Petroleum, plastics and pulp paper mills have also been upgraded.
“If demand is relatively inflexible to price, and if the pollution abatement activities require intensive labor inputs, then the net effect of the regulation even within the affected industry may be positive,” EPI reported.
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