Skip to main content

Older Issues

The Building Tradesman Newspaper Editions

Hello? State UIA is lousy at detecting fraud, and answering calls

Date: Mar-06-2020

LANSING —The Michigan Unemployment Insurance Agency (UIA) falsely accused up to 40,000 unemployed workers of making fraudulent claims from 2013 to 2015, a mess that's still being addressed in  the...

Michigan utilities speed up plans for carbon elimination

Date: Mar-06-2020

Michigan's two largest utilities are accelerating plans to completely stop the burning of fossil fuels at their power plants. On Feb. 20, Consumers Energy announced a goal to achieve net...

Minimum wage laws, at least, are pushing pay higher

Date: Mar-06-2020

Median hourly wage growth for the American worker grew a paltry 1.0 percent in 2019, adjusted for inflation, although the highest (top 5 percentile) of wage earners continue to pull...

Trump seeks end to collective bargaining for Defense workers

Date: Mar-06-2020

By Jake Johnson  President Donald Trump on Feb. 20 quietly issued a memo granting Defense Secretary Mark Esper the power to abolish collective bargaining rights for the Defense Department's 750,000...

False unemployment fraud resolution delayed, again

Date: Feb-21-2020

LANSING - For wrongly accused victims of state Unemployment Insurance fraud, what the Michigan Court of Appeals giveth, the state attorney general's office is seeking to taketh away.  Or at...

New medical center, new daytime vigor in Royal Oak

Date: Feb-21-2020

ROYAL OAK - The city's downtown is popular for its nightlife. Later this year a major development in the city's Civic Center will make it a magnet for a lot...

News Briefs

Date: Feb-21-2020

Another award for Mighty Mac painting The Mackinac Bridge tower painting project, now entering its fourth and final year, has won a second national award. Representatives of Seaway Painting of...

Number of striking workers surge in 2018-19

Date: Feb-21-2020

The strike is back. After decades of declining strike activity, data on major work stoppages from the Bureau of Labor Statistics—including new 2019 data released Feb. 11 —show that there...

Prevailing wage still drives road work in Michigan

Date: Feb-21-2020

LANSING - Michigan's prevailing wage law was repealed in June 2018, and the Republican-backed move was intended to lower building trades worker wages, de-fund the state's construction unions, and allegedly...

Contributions to Care House 'make a tremendous difference'

Date: Feb-07-2020

MOUNT CLEMENS - Building trades union representatives on Jan. 17  contributed $8,925 to the operations of Care House, a facility that helps women and children who are victims of domestic...