THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, October 19, 1996 TAG: 9610190012
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A14 EDITION: FINAL
COLUMN: Another View
TYPE: Opinion
SOURCE: By C. RAY DAVENPORT
LENGTH: 61 lines
Ward Parker (letter, Oct. 1) stated that the union boycott of the Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel was a case of sour grapes, and the unions should take a small pay-and-benefit reduction so our contractor's bid would be more competitive.
Mr. Ward's comments raise an issue that is now gripping the entire construction industry.
Since the 1960s, unionized construction has declined from about 80 percent to about 20 percent of the total market. During the same period, real wages have dropped more than 25 percent. These two developments are hardly unrelated and are symptomatic of the industry's crisis.
We have observed the virtual deunionization of many construction markets, with calamitous consequences for builders, owners, users, customers, unions and workers. In a fiercely competitive industry like construction, unions impose much-needed order and stability, inducing contractors to compete constructively on the level playing field of uniform wages and benefits, safe job-site conditions and industrywide investments in training. Under such circumstances, managerial efficiency, ingenuity and progressive labor-management relations are justly rewarded.
The erosion of union strength has unleashed a chaotic and destructive competition throughout the industry. Across the country we see legitimate employers unable to compete with unscrupulous contractors who misclassify their employees as subcontractors to avoid paying taxes, provide no health insurance, offer no meaningful training opportunities, pay substandard wages, ignore even minimal safety regulations, violate workers' legal rights to organize and defy building codes and specifications.
Even nonunion contractors admit these shameful practices are becoming increasingly pervasive. Construction users, including the general public, consequently invest in and inherit projects that are often built by unethical companies that have cheated to win a bid or turn a profit.
It is becoming difficult to attract and retain the skilled labor upon which construction depends. Declining wages are driving skilled workers out of the industry. A lack of training in the now dominant nonunion sector is discouraging talented individuals from entering construction. In fact, less than 20 percent of the 20,000 nonunion trainees ever attain journey-level status.
By contrast, the overwhelming majority of the union sector's 170,000 apprentices graduate. In 1994, union-based apprenticeship and journey-level upgrading programs reached more than a half-million workers at 1,000 training facilities. While the unionized industry has invested more than $300 million a year in training, the nonunion sector has never proved that it spends even one-tenth that amount. Given nonunion control of about 80 percent of the national market, it is not surprising that available data indicate declining productivity caused by declining human capital investments.
Construction workers and unions have taken pay and benefit reductions in real wages over the past three decades. Consequently workers, unions, owners and the general public are now and will in the future pay for this chaotic and destructive competition. MEMO: C. Ray Davenport is business manager of International Union of
Operating Engineers, Local No. 147 and president of Virginia State
Building & Construction Trades Council. by CNB