More road 'donors' on Senate panel
The battle to straighten out funding for construction and maintenance of the nation's roads and bridges probably won't be solved in Congress for months - but at least a majority of Senate lawmakers on a key committee will be sympathetic to states like Michigan.

Michigan is one of a number of "donor" states that sends more to the federal treasury than it receives in money to pay for construction work. In fact, our state only gets 88 percent on each dollar sent to the feds, ranking us No. 47 in terms of equity received.

While Congress and President Bush are at a stalemate over how much to spend on the nation's roads, the Michigan Road Builders Association said that in a "key development" for donor states, the new makeup of the Senate Environmental and Public Works Committee has a composition that includes 10 of the 18 overall committee members from donor states. The previous makeup of the committee included 8 donor state and 11 recipient state members.

The goal of the Michigan Transportation Team - which includes building trades unions and the road builders association - is to win 95 percent equity in transportation spending for Michigan.\

Heat's On/Water's Off volunteers sought
No longer a one-day effort, the Heat's On-Water's Off project has been changed to a multi-day event. Volunteers are needed. Plumbing and heating service will be done at four Detroit non-profit locations, including two homeless shelters, on the following Saturdays: Jan. 22, Jan. 29 and Feb. 5. Approximately 60 volunteers are needed.

Volunteers are asked to call Molly Forward at (313) 341-7661, ext. 204 to sign up. If you get an answering machine, leave your call back number, name and union number. You will receive a return call. In addition, volunteers will be asked to help build 30 Habitat for Humanity homes in June of 2005. Ask for details when you call.

Cole provides a few construction asides
A few side comments that went beyond construction prognosticating were made last month by James Cole, chairman, Associated General Contractors, Greater Detroit Chapter, who is also executive vice president, Skanska USA Building, Inc. Here are a few facts and figures:

• Construction contributes $16 billion, or 5 percent of the gross state product of Michigan (2001 figures).
• In 2002, there were 30,525 construction companies in our state, with a monthly average employment of nearly 200,000 men and women working on job sites. In addition, there were more than 70,000 self-employed construction contractors.
• Of those 30,525 construction companies, nearly half were in Southeast Michigan. The volume of construction in Southeast Michigan represents a little more than 50 percent of the volume for the entire state.
• Despite the overall lousy construction market, new workers will still be needed to fill the jobs left open by retirements and attrition. Cole said over the next decade, a growth of 15% in the construction workforce is expected. He added that "construction is the only sector in the economy that is predicted to have any labor growth between now and 2015."