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News Briefs

Date Posted: April 13 2007

Building trades council mainstay Mary Bechtol retires
The Greater Detroit Building and Construction Trades Council is urging building trades workers who live in White Lake Township and along the M-59 corridor to attend an upcoming meeting to show their support for proposed developments in the area.

Work involving a new Kohl's store, the J.C. Penney Plaza, St. Joseph Medical Center and other big box stores is on the horizon, but there is a vocal faction in White Lake Township against development in that community.

The next White Lake Township Board of Trustees meeting will take place at 7 p.m. Tuesday, April 17, 7525 Highland Rd. "We need as many tradesmen as possible to pack the auditorium and send the message to the trustees that we need these projects and need the jobs they will create," said IBEW Local 58 BA Ryan Webb.


News from the (anti-)Labor Dept.
If you assumed that the role of the federal Labor Department was to act as an advocate for the nation's working people… well, you would be wrong.

An article in the Construction Labor Report said that President Bush's Labor Secretary, Elaine Chao, is pushing for the Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA) to be "defeated soundly" in Congress. An explanation of the pro-worker bill is elsewhere on this front page.

The EFCA has already been passed by the House, and President Bush has announced he will veto the bill if it is adopted by the Senate. The Employee Free Choice Act is organized labor's No. 1 legislative priority. But is probably the Bush Administration's lowest priority.

Chao told a legislative conference of the Society for Human Resources Management: "Please do not think that President Bush can simply wave around his veto pen and the debate is over. It is very important that this bill be defeated on the Hill and defeated soundly. Proponents of this bill should not be allowed to harbor any hope that they can win in 2009," when Bush will be out of office.

Bigger boot-print for Hispanic workers
Hispanic workers are becoming a major part of the U.S. construction industry.

A new survey from the Pew Hispanic Center found that the U.S. construction industry employed 2.9 million Hispanic workers in 2006 - accounting for 25% of the total 11.8 million Americans employed in the industry.

Further, Hispanic workers landed two out of every three new construction jobs in 2006, benefiting from strong employment growth in the industry even as the housing market endured a year-long slump. The vast majority of new construction jobs in 2006 were filled by foreign-born Latinos, many of them recently arrived.

Of the 2.9 million Hispanics employed in the construction industry in 2006, 2.2 million were foreign born, representing 19.1% of industry employment.