Mighty Mac tops in engineering
The Mackinac Bridge has been recognized as Michigan's top engineering accomplishment of the 20th Century.

The American Society of Civil Engineers-Michigan Section conferred the award to the Mackinac Bridge Authority, which governs the five-mile-long span. The ASCE award recognized building projects for "significant contributions to the economic and social contributions to the state."

Completed in November 1957, the bridge took more than three years to build and permanently linked the state's Upper and Lower peninsulas. The span was built despite dire predictions that the bedrock below the Straits of Mackinac wouldn't support the weight of the bridge, or that gigantic ice floes would topple the bridge's support columns, or that wind would knock down the span.

Runners up to the Mighty Mac are, in order, the Sault Ste. Marie Locks, the Detroit-Windsor Tunnel, the Ambassador Bridge, the Ford-Rouge Complex in Dearborn, the Detroit Wastewater Treatment Plant, the Michigan Interstate Highway System, the Monroe Avenue Water Filtration Plant in Grand Rapids, the Ludington Pumped Storage Facility and the St. Clair Railroad Tunnel.


Laborers inclined to build ramps
A crew of five Laborers Local 1076 members put a day's work in to build a ramp for the handicapped wife of member Milton Bradley.

The project was done in conjunction with the United Way for Southeastern Michigan's ramp-building project, said Labor Coordinator Ray West.

"We're always glad to perform community service," said 1076 Business Manager Bob Chwalek, who help build the ramp. "When the United Way calls us, we take care of it." Chwalek said the local won a $7,500 grievance award against a nonunion contractor, and the money was donated to the United Way for use in their ramp fund.

"They worked very hard, and it's another example of union labor helping the community," West said.

U.S. CEOs - Good work if you can get it
The pay of U.S. executives continues to outpace the pay of average working people - to say the least.

According to Business Week's annual survey, the average CEO of a major corporation made $12.4 million in 1999, up 17 percent from the previous year. That's 475 times more than the average blue-collar worker and six times the average Chief Executive Officer paycheck in 1990.

Since 1980, the average pay of regular working people increased 74 percent, while CEO pay grew by 1,884 percent.

Wage/benefit levels drop a little
Wage and benefit settlements for U.S. construction workers so far this year are $1.15 per hour or 3.7 percent in the first year of contracts, and $1.25 or 3.8 percent in the second year.

According to the Construction Labor Research Council, which compiled the figures, these amounts are slightly lower than the averages reported earlier this year, and in comparison to last year. Last year at this time, the CLRC said the average first-year increase for construction workers was $1.18 or 4.0 percent.