The Retiree's Monthly Breakfast is currently the first Wednesday of each month at 8 am. The breakfast is at the Hometown Buffet in the Southern Plaza Shopping Centre on South East Street (which is US 31) just north of I-465. If you have any questions call Dave Murray 317-631-3600. Driving Directions
Labor Dispute with Modern Masonry at Paramount School.
Labor Dispute John Hope School, IPS Advance Restoration.
Cain Masonry is at IPS Schools and the bricklayers are exercising the right to protest. Dave Murray is seen here with the handbill banner.
I am writing to take issue with The Star's one-sided coverage of the project labor agreement (PLA) now in place for the construction of the Wishard Hospital ("An ailing process," Jan. 24). Readers deserve to have the full perspective.
The article strongly implies that the agreement is somehow bad for the local economy and that contractors are being prevented from bidding on the project. Both claims couldn't be further from the truth. The agreements are agreed to before a project is put out to bid so that contractors are fully aware of the requirements when they prepare their bid. If contractors elect not to bid because they don't agree to the agreement's terms, that is their choice.
The Wishard Hospital agreement specified union labor for prudent reasons that will benefit the community and the project. As an example, members of my union, Bricklayers and Allied Craftworkers' Local 4 Indiana/Kentucky, who work on this project will be from the area. They will have all received top-notch craft and safety training, which prevents costly mistakes and accidents, and there will be apprentices who will receive formal in-class training at no charge through the union's joint labor-management apprenticeship program, as well as on-the-job training.
Speaking on behalf of the highly skilled members of my local and the contractors who employ them, because of this focus on training no one works safer or more productively in our industry than our union members.
In addition to superior project management and bidding protocols, on-time and on-budget outcomes for high-quality, safe projects and, of course, fair wages and decent benefits for the skilled building trades workers who will work on Wishard Hospital, maybe the best argument for the agreements is that they are being used more in the private sector, where profit motive is the driving force.
Simply put, they work. Even the Construction Users Round Table, whose members represent hundreds of billions of construction dollars spent in the United States annually, found that union labor makes a positive difference. In fact, a three-year comprehensive study of labor productivity for the Construction Users Round Table conducted by Independent Project Analysis found that union labor is 17 percent more productive on average than open shop or merit shop workers because of its higher levels of skill and training.
Anything you can take to the bank in this fragile economy deserves a fair and balanced perspective.
