Detroit Water Team wins GARDE Award

And the GARDE Award goes to…

The 11-member joint venture known as the Detroit Water Team that's building the new $275 million water plant on East Jefferson.

The GARDE Award, handed out May 1 at a ceremony at the African-American Museum in Detroit, recognizes individuals and organizations that have done the most to promote racial and gender diversity in the construction workforce in Southeast Michigan. There were seven nominees for the award, which were judged on their success in increasing the numbers of minorities and women in construction.

In an effort to encourage young people to pursue careers in the water and construction business, the Detroit Water Team and the Water Works Park II project developed a major series of educational programs. On of them is a "Saturday and Summer Science Academy," promoting math and science education to high school students. Modeled after a similar program in Florida, the academy uses the water treatment plant and other Detroit Water and Sewerage Department projects as a basis for a curriculum.

The Detroit Water Team joint venture includes Black and Veatch, Cole Financial Services, Detroit Water Constructors (J.S. Alberici and Walsh Construction), EBI-Detroit, Henderson Electric, Metco Services, Montgomery Watson, Motor City Electric and Rotor Electric.

More than 65 percent of all contract dollars have been assigned to Detroit-based enterprises and business and half of all contract dollars have gone to women- or minority owned contractors.

The AFL-CIO Building Trades Department has filed a federal lawsuit seeking to throw out President Bush's Executive Order banning project labor agreements (PLAs) on federally funded construction projects.

Bush issued the Executive Order on Feb. 17, which canceled a previous order by President Clinton that urged the use of PLAs.

The lawsuit was filed in Washington D.C. and contends that Bush had no constitutional authority to interfere with the rights of unions and their contractors under the National Labor Relations Act to seek PLAs on federally funded construction jobs.

Bush's order may have a good chance of being overturned: In 1993 the U.S. Supreme Court upheld the validity of PLAs by a 9-0 margin.

"The Executive Order is directly contrary to the National Labor Relations Act, which grants employers in the construction industry and building trades unions the right to enter into pre-hire agreements that are binding on all employers performing work on the particular project," the lawsuit states.

Edward C. Sullivan, president of the Building Trades Department, said PLAs "bring order out of chaos on construction jobs by setting wages, establishing work rules, and methods of settling grievances. They provide safe, fair working environments for crafts people, and they level the playing field for all competing contractors, union and nonunion."

All Trades Softball Tournament is May 19-20

Since the annual Michigan Building Trades Council's All-Trades Softball Tournament began in 1990, nearly $220,000 has been raised in the effort to cure diabetes.

The tournament will take place this year on Saturday and Sunday, May 19-20 with 21 ball teams representing building trades local unions from around the state. The action will take place at Gier Park in Lansing.

Since the inception of the "Dollars for Diabetes" program, building trades unions from across the nation have raised money to build and then fund the operations of the Diabetes Research Institute in Florida

The first games begin on Saturday and Sunday at 9 a.m.