Reform legislation introduced in both the House and Senate to promote fair and open competition in state and local government construction projects will save taxpayer dollars and create more accountability.

Legislation sponsored by Rep. Joe Haveman (R-Holland) and Sen. John Moolenaar (R-Midland) and dozens of co-sponsors, would essentially eliminate union-only project labor agreements (PLAs), a practice that diverts public construction projects to only contractors and workers subject to union collective bargaining agreements, effectively cutting out approximately 75 percent of the Michigan construction workforce that chooses not to belong to a union. The legislation likewise prohibits anti-competitive contracts that deny unionized construction firms and workers work opportunities.

"Senate Bill 165 and House Bill 4287 will help drive public construction costs down and ultimately save scarce state and local budget dollars," says Chris Fisher, ABC of Michigan president.  "Such agreements waste taxpayer money because they significantly eliminate competition, forcing costs up.  Excluding workers, contractors or subcontractors from working on projects funded by their own tax dollars on the basis of labor affiliation is discrimination plain and simple, but it's also financially irresponsible amidst Michigan's current budget challenges.  Open competition is the best guarantee of accountable public construction."

The bill pertains to state and local government construction projects and will affect all public education institutions - local schools, colleges and universities - as well as township, city, and county construction. 

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Michigan Capitol Confidential, a news service from the Mackinac Center for Public Policy, discovers that the Michigan Regional Council of Carpenters uses non-union labor to protest a Grand Rapids area businessman. What's worse, the union has even recruited demonstrators who frequent local homeless shelters, including a shelter which gets help from the very same businessman targeted by the union.

Dégagé Ministries provides a "safe, Christian alternative to the streets" for many hard-luck cases living in the Heartside neighborhood of downtown Grand Rapids. With an $850,000 annual budget, it helps provide blankets, meals, shelter and more for those who can't provide these necessities for themselves. Dégagé is currently funded entirely by private donations and not government help, according to executive director Marge Palmerlee.

One of those private donors is Ritsema Associates, a construction contractor headquartered in nearby Grandville.

"Your company has supported us both financially and with numerous in-kind donations for which we are very grateful" wrote Palmerlee in a recent letter to Bill Ritsema, president of Ritsema Associates. She felt moved to write the letter because some Dégagé patrons are being hired by Big Labor bosses as part of an "aggressive public information campaign" aimed at trashing the reputation of Ritsema Associates.

Though hired by the Michigan Regional Council of Carpenters to hold up signs and pass out fliers denouncing Ritsema all over the city, few of those doing the demonstrating have ever been carpenters at all and don't appear to have any clue that the company they are protesting has generously supported a local ministry that often provides a safety net for them specifically or people like them.

Starting this summer, the MRCC began to hold daily demonstrations outside of the businesses, hospitals and schools that hire Ritsema to do construction work. None of Ritsema's employees are MRCC members, and the union does not claim to represent the employees of his customers. Yet, the MRCC says the demonstrations are part of a "labor dispute" directed at Ritsema because of the MRCC's assertion that the company does not pay "area standard wages."

The union does not provide any factual evidence to support this charge. And, given that they do not appear to represent anyone involved the business transactions that they are attempting to interfere with, they have also provided no explanation for why they should be considered an authority on what the pay scales should be. As noted in a previous MichCapCon.com story on this matter, nearly 80 percent of Michigan's construction workers are non-union, making it unlikely that the MRCC is an accurate source of data regarding what a "standard" wage for the work should be.

Ritsema is aware of no labor dispute with any of his employees, whom he calls a "great group of guys," and says that since his father founded the company in 1955, no effort has ever been made to unionize its workforce. He suspects that the "standard wages" accusation by the MRCC isn't really the issue, noting that the MRCC started making trouble for him shortly after he successfully outbid unionized contractors for a job in Indiana. 

Click here to read the full article and watch the video at Michigan Capitol Confidential. 

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A few weeks ago Senators Arlan Meekhof, Jack Brandenburg, Dave Hildenbrand, Patrick Colbeck, Mark Jansen, Jim Marleau, Howard Walker, Dave Robertson, Tonya Schuitmaker, Phil Pavlov and Rick Jones co-sponsored Senate Bill 0095 and Senate Bill 0096 (2011), which repeal prevailing wage. 

Michigan's prevailing wage law increases construction costs by at least 10 percent by mandating wages on state-supported construction projects be determined exclusively by labor unions, even though 78 percent of the state's construction work force chooses not to belong to a union.  ABC supports competitive, fair-market wages that are neither artificially low nor high, instead of prevailing wages that inflate pay rates by 40 to 60 percent.  Michigan's average construction wage already exceeds $20 per hour, 28 percent higher than the overall median wage in the state. 

 "Our state is wasting taxpayer dollars and turning its backs on jobs by recklessly paying wage mandates it cannot afford," Chris Fisher, President of ABC of Michigan, says.  "Eliminating prevailing wage, as other states have done, would create thousands of new jobs."

In the past few years, newspapers across the state have been critical of prevailing wage laws including the Detroit News, Lansing State Journal and Grand Rapids Press.  "As elected officials pledge to reform state government and focus their efforts on creating good jobs in Michigan," Fisher stresses, "ABC encourages quick action to promote reform that will bring jobs and investment to our state at a time when it's needed more than ever." 

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