Location, location, location.

Right now, where you live in Michigan goes a long way toward determining whether you’re employed in the building trades. Our annual – and admittedly informal – survey of construction activity in the building trades around our state finds a varying degree of work opportunities depending on the location.

Some areas are hosting Hardhat travelers by the busloads, while other areas can’t come close to employing their own residents.

Following is a synopsis of construction activity around Michigan, beginning with one of the hotbeds, Ann Arbor/Washtenaw County:

“We’ve had a string of years where we’ve done extremely well,” said Plumbers and Pipe Fitters Local 190 Business Manager Ron House. “And 2003 looks to be another excellent year.”

With the University of Michigan, Eastern Michigan University and a good business climate that has placed a host of high-tech and low-tech companies in their backyard, the Washtenaw County building trades are riding high.

Ongoing projects like the University of Michigan Bio-Medical Research Building, new construction at Washtenaw Community College, and planned projects like a new headquarters for Johnson Controls and a new U-M cardiac research facility are putting most local building trades union workers – as well as a few travelers – to work.

“This is our tenth year or so of good employment,” House said. “I don’t think some of our members realize how blessed we have been.”

Battle Creek area: As good as things are in Washtenaw County, it’s not a good time for work in Cereal City. There is currently 40 percent unemployment at IBEW Local 445, “and except for some school work, there isn’t much in the job pipeline,” said 445’s Business Manager, Steve Franklin.

He said small- and medium size jobs are employing the bulk of Local 445 members who are working. Franklin said he is urging contractors to be more aggressive about bidding for work in the periphery of their jurisdiction – such as the renovation of an opera house in Coldwater.

Detroit/Southeastern Michigan.

“In 2003 construction activity will be down slightly for the first six months of the year and then, start rebounding later in the year and into 2004.”

That was the forecast of Barton Malow Vice President Douglas Maibach and 2003 Chairman of the Associated General Contractors, Greater Detroit Chapter, speaking at the 2003 Economic Club of Detroit outlook luncheon held Dec. 9.

“In 2002,” Maibach said, “construction in the region continued at a somewhat healthy pace, but hours worked by the building trades, and the number of new projects started, were down from 2001. In fact, like much of the economy, construction in regional Detroit stalled, due to the cancellation of some projects, and the delay in the start of others.”

The construction industry, he said, was hit hard by the cautious approach taken by the major automotive, Tier One and other manufacturers in committing to new construction projects. He said today “we are seeing renewed interest” on the part of owners to build new structures and renovate existing ones in response to customer demands.

Maibach said “this in no way suggests a return to the recent construction boom years,” but the construction economy for the region appears to be on a “steady” course with “plenty of optimism for the future.”

The optimism is created by projects that have recently been announced or are in the works, including a new Federal Reserve Bank building in Detroit’s Eastern Market; renovation of the Book-Cadillac Hotel, the Fort-Shelby Hotel and possibly the old Statler-Hilton Hotel; hotel construction associated with the Detroit’s three casinos; a new North Terminal for Metro Airport and other expansion/reconstruction work; the Metro World Center on 550 acres near Metro Airport; renovation of the Rouge facility in Dearborn; a $2 billion mixed use development at Telegraph and Square Lake and a $500 million mixed-use development in St. Clair Shores.

Anticipated activity in Southeast Michigan, Maibach said, “is pointing towards a much-anticipated rebound.”

Flint. “We’re in the doldrums,” said Plumbers and Pipe Fitters Local 370 Business Manager Mark Johnson. “Work hasn’t been this bad in years, and there isn’t much on the horizon.”

Some school construction will put some building trades workers to work in the next few months, but there are no immediate plans for work from General Motors facilities, and there’s little else to speak of outside of plans for a new Flint Journal newspaper building downtown. The outlook is grim in Flint – and in most areas of the country, Johnson said.

“We can thank our illustrious president for that,” he said. “I heard of a business manager in Arkansas who called 128 locals around the country, looking to see if anyone needed travelers. There was no work out there. Nothing.”

Grand Rapids/Muskegon. “I’m afraid 2002 didn’t get off to a very good start, and things got worse as the year went on,” said Plumbers and Pipe Fitters Local 174 Assistant Business Manager Kirk Stevenson. “The way it looks now, 2003 doesn’t look to be much better.”

Normally, more than 100 Local 174 members are kept busy working in area manufacturing plants – but that number has been reduced to a handful because of the economy. Big employers like Steelcase and Amway have been in no frame of mind to pay for facility maintenance, upgrades and renovations.

“The manufacturing plants are usually good, steady employers for us,” Stevenson said. “But they’ve been laying off their own people, and they’re booting out our guys, too.”

School work will keep some union trades employed, as will a new downtown Grand Rapids convention center, a new building for the Grand Rapids Press, and some hospital work. And a number of members are working on traveler at the new power plant under construction in nearby Covert.

Kalamazoo/Battle Creek and points west. More than 1,000 construction workers are toiling on the Covert Generating Plant, a new 1,170-megawatt, combined-cycle, natural gas-fired power plant being built near Lake Michigan by PG & E National Energy Group.

The largest construction project in the state is saving the bacon of Hardhats from across Michigan and the county, for whom there is no other work available. The project is also putting to work hundreds of travelers.

“I’m glad we have such a large project in our jurisdiction that can help our sister locals,” said IBEW Local 131 agent/organizer Mark Szekely. “We’ve had calls from locals all across the country trying to put their people to work. We’re fortunate to have such a big job going on at this time. I know it’s bad out there.”

There are another six to eight months of work on the Covert project. After that, Szekely said there’s a good chance that a casino project in Wayland will be getting into gear. Combined with a planned new high school in Lawton, other school work, and ongoing maintenance and upgrade work at the Pharmacia plant in Portage, “in terms of employment for our local, I think we’ll be pretty well set in 2003,” Szekely said. “But how many mouths we’ll be able to feed outside the family remains to be seen.”

Lansing. “Around here, 2002 was above average for most of the trades, but not as good as the year before, which was a record-breaking year,” said Laborers Local 998 Business Manager Dale Brzezinski. “I anticipate that except for short periods, we will have full employment in 2003.”

Brzenski said there are 4-5 “good-size projects” planned in the area. Unfortunately, some are state-sponsored, and may be on the chopping block as the state tries to get its finances in order. In the private sector, G.M. is planning a new plant at the Delta site, a $35 million school project is planned for East Lansing, Sparrow Hospital is expanding, and a tech center at Lansing Community College is coming out of the ground.

“The state construction work would be a real help,” Brzezinski said. “But from one day to the next, you don’t know if a project is a go or if it’s been cancelled.”

Saginaw/Bay City/Midland and points north and west.

“Horrible.”

That’s the employment and work outlook assessment from new Plumbers and Steamfitters Local 85 Business Manager Kris Shangle.

The Karn-Weadock plant in Essexville is employing a number of members, and work on a new G.M. engine foundry in Saginaw is expected to start in the springtime. Local 85 also has a number of travelers working at the Covert project.

“Beyond that there’s a lot of what-if’s and could-be’s,” Shangle said, adding that nearly a quarter of Local 85’s 1,100 members are on the bench. “We’re coming off a year that was not good at all, and 2003 is looking to be, quite honestly, horrible.”

Traverse City. “2002 was pretty skinny, we have our share of unemployment,” said IBEW 498 Business Manager Bernie Mailloux. “As for 2003, about the best I can say is that I’m not seeing a lot on the horizon in the Dodge reports.”

Between 50 and 60 of the 311 active Local 498 members are currently out of work, Mailloux said. Those who are working have been helping to build the new Wolf Lodge in Traverse City, building a peaker plant in Kalkaska, and performing ongoing work at the Northern Michigan Hospital in Petoskey.

“The bidding for contracts is fierce here,” Mailloux said. “The nonunion has a pretty good toe-hold, and they try to beat us every chance they get.”

Upper Peninsula. The mid-to-late 1990s were boom years for construction in the U.P. When the corner turned on the new Millenium, the bottom began to fall out.

“I wouldn’t say 2002 was a terrible year, but work was much slower than it was in the past several years,” said Tony Retaskie, executive director of the Upper Peninsula Labor-Management Council. “I’m looking for 2003 to be slightly better than 2002.”

There are “some jobs in the hopper,” Retaskie said, including a border crossing station in Sault Ste. Marie, upgrading the Soo Locks, a new casino in Marquette, and some renovation work at Northern Michigan University.

Other ongoing projects or jobs that are due to start are a Home Depot addition in Iron Mountain, a new Wal Mart in Marquette, work at Lake Superior State University and Bay College in Escanaba, renovation work at Marquette General Hospital and Portage Hospital, and the installation of pollution control equipment at the Presque Ile Power Plant.

“We have some small and medium-size jobs going on, and we should see some improvement in the commercial sector,” Retaski said. “We have a lot of people traveling, but a lot of people just don’t have anywhere to go. There’s no question we have slid a bit when it comes to employment.”

Plumbers and Pipe Fitters Local 506 Business Manager Bob McCutcheon said his local is experiencing 25-30 percent unemployment, with members working in Wisconsin, Minnesota and downstate. “We’re looking for a little better year next year,” he said.

AN EIGHT-INCH ammonia pipe is welded at the Covert Generating Plant last summer by fitter Joe Foster of UA Local 85. The new power plant, being constructed south of South Haven by PG & E National Energy Group, has put to work thousands of building trades workers from western Michigan and from around the state.