Michigan trades do well with money
Settlements in newly negotiated U.S. building trades contracts averaged $1.14 or 3.8 percent for their first year, according to the Construction Labor Research Council.

The average second-year increase for multi-year agreements was $1.27 or 3.8 percent. The CLRC said the numbers remain "within, but at the high end of the range" for annual average first-year settlements since 1986. Since that time, contracts have increased between 2.2 percent to 3.8 percent.

In December, the Bureau of Labor Statistics said in Michigan, for both union and nonunion construction workers, the news was even better. Reporting on 1998 numbers, the BLS said our state's construction workers enjoyed the third-highest average pay increase in the nation, 7.4 percent. All Michigan building trades workers, both union and nonunion, earn an average of $38.148 per year.

Differences in pay increases among crafts were "minimal" in 1998, said the CLRC, and the duration of contracts was typically one to three years. We reported on a 10-year agreement forged by the St. Louis pipe trades with their contractors in our last edition; the CLRC said the trend toward contracts longer than three years "appears to have abated."

Finally, the CLRC said the U.S. construction unemployment rate is at its lowest in 30 years, while employment in the industry is at record levels. Jobs in construction increased by 300,000 in 1998 to more than 6.3 million.

ABC needs skilled labor; that's news?
Open shop contractors consider the lack of skilled labor to be their most significant challenge in 2000, according to a survey by the Associated Builders and Contractors.

(Editor's note: many in the construction industry believe that the lack of skilled labor has always plagued the nonunion ABC).

The Construction Labor Report said the survey revealed that 46 percent of ABC contractors who responded to the survey identified skilled labor shortages as their biggest shortage, while 16 percent said lack of skilled management was their biggest problem.

According to the survey, 94 percent of the Midwest's ABC contractors experienced delays on the job because of worker shortages.

Who spend what on political lobbying
In the first six months of 1999, health insurers, Big Business groups, banks, unions and other special interest groups spent $697 million to lobby the U.S. Congress.

Of the 513 groups that spent more than $250,000, only eight were union organizations, spending a total of $10.2 million, or .014 percent of all spending.

The biggest spender was the health care industry at $95.5 million, during a year when Congress was debating managed care reform and the Patient's Bill of Rights.

Historically, unions have accounted for about 12 percent of all campaign finance spending. Yet Republicans in Congress and now in the Michigan legislature have continued to push for "Paycheck Deception" legislation, that would place burdensome requirements on unions collecting money for political spending.