Employers get a break; Workers get the shaft
"Michigan to slice state jobless taxes in 2001 - Employers to save $200 million," trumpeted a recent press release from the state Unemployment Agency, which said the state's employers will see a 10 percent cut in their state unemployment taxes in 2001.

"As we enter the 21st Century, Michigan's economy continues on the same strong note that it has enjoyed for most of the 1990s," said Gov. John Engler. "And that tune is one of low unemployment and low unemployment taxes for our employers. In fact, next year will be the sixth straight year that we have cut state unemployment taxes."

Note than you won't find anything in Engler's comments or in the press release about giving unemployed Michigan workers a similar break.

In 1995, Engler and the Republican-dominated state legislature imposed a permanent 3 percent rate cut for Unemployment Insurance benefits for all workers, and eliminated all cost of living increases by capping maximum weekly benefits at $300. There is no adjustment for inflation - and unless the Michigan legislature passes a law to increase that benefit level, the state's jobless workers could be earning that $300 maximum for the next 10 years.

The 2001 cuts in the Unemployment Tax were triggered by a substantial cash reserve in Michigan's Unemployment Insurance Trust Fund. Most of the state's 217,000 employers will benefit, but the same can't be said of the state's unemployed workers.

Building trades featured in calendar
Detroit and Michigan's rich labor history will come to life in a new wall calendar issued by the Michigan Labor History Society. The calendar includes some rare photos of Detroit building trades workers.

Produced in observance of Detroit's 300th birthday in 2001, the 16-month calendar, "We built this city," is available at Book Beat in Oak Park and at Paperbacks Unlimited in Ferndale.

Local unions can order bundles of the calendar with their own imprint, at a special price. More information is available from Dennis McCann at IBEW Local 58, (313) 963-2130.

Proceeds will help fund a major downtown labor legacy monument and interpretive walkway planned as a gift to the city. The monument is planned to honor, inform, and inspire viewers with its look at Detroit's history and vision for the future. Surrounding the monument will be a landscaped area highlighting labor's contributions to the Detroit community.

Plans call for the display, to be placed along Jefferson Avenue with a related kiosk in the lobby of Cobo Center or the UAW-Ford Training Center.

Take a gander at a new store
"Gander Mountain…hunt, fish, camp!" chants the radio commercial, appealing to Michigan's outdoor lovers as a place to purchase sporting goods.

The store has taken a while, but now it is making its first appearance in the Upper Peninsula, with a 20,000 square-foot facility that's going up in Marquette. The $1.5 million building will be the 11th Gander Mountain store in Michigan. "It's a small store, but we're glad to have it," said Michigan Building Trades Council U.P. Field Rep. Jack LaSalle.

The store is being constructed 100 percent union, with the job being managed by Construction Aspects and Closner.