Despite its dogged troubles, the construction industry is not going gentle into this good night. And what better organization to take up the industry’s cause than a major union. Enter the Laborers’ International Union of North America (LIUNA), which is launching a new public campaign, Build America 2010, to address the “move votes in the United States Senate to increase investment in infrastructure.” The union has a good reason for going to bat for construction — its membership includes some half a million construction trade members, many of whom have been struggling in a weak economy that has left the sector reeling.[SButtonZ button="digg"]
According toLIUNA president Terry O’Sullivan, the union is committed to spending about $2 million on the summer-long campaign, which will include billboard, radio and Internet ads along with other outreach efforts, and could spread to Kentucky, Massachusetts, Ohio, and Virginia, among others. The whole operation will kick off on Tuesday in Denver, where the union is mobilizing both members and community allies to build public support for increased infrastructure spending.
Ultimately, the union’s endgame is with this campaign is clear: They’d like a quick Surface Transportation Act renewal packed with highway spending. Union officials have told reporters that LIUNA would like $565 billion put aside for highways and other transportation projects in the STA, which is up for re-authorization this year.
But achieving that goal may be logistically and politically difficult: Obama has already delayed the STA renewal until next year (with an eye towards the November elections), and the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee likewise hasn’t drafted a bill. Meanwhile, the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee has a draft in the Highways and Transit Subcommittee, but it doesn’t include a revenue component to pay for infrastructure spending — budgets are the responsibility of the Ways and Means Committee, and good luck getting its members to jump on this issue before November. Since, in order to budget funds, you have to have funds in the first place. And getting those funds might require doing all sorts of politically unpopular things — like, oh, say, raising the gas tax.
[...] The Construction Industry Is Still Ailing — Call in the Unions … [...]
The idea that unions are a good solution in such a budgetary-tight fiscal crisis is not very bright: unions are inefficient, bloated, and prone to corruption– especially on such large contracts as highway construction. If the bids can be put together correctly (fixed price, bonus for early finishing, independent quality inspections), then I don’t care who fulfills the contract (if the union wins, then okay). If, however, the union is trying to sew up exclusive deals before the bids even go out, then we’ve distorted the market and we’ll all pay more in taxes and get inferior results.
The idea that contracting work to publicly held corporations in such a budgetary-tight fiscal crisis is not very bright: corporations are inefficient, bloated, and prone to corruption. Just look at Goldman Sachs, Enron, Tyco, Worldcom, Massey, BP . . . .
Enough with the union-bashing already. Working people in this country are running out of ways to assert themselves and defend their right to a decent standard of living. The right to organize and bargain collectively is the last shot in the gun.
Either we care about working Americans making living wages, or we quit pretending and fly a bunch of unemployed Malaysians over to rebuild our roads and bridges for $4 a day.
There’s quite a lot of evidence that the most efficient way to do lots and lots large construction is with an expert in-house labor force.
It’s only appropriate if you have a steady construction demand, however, since it’s hard for governments to hire temporary workers and then lay them off.