By all accounts, this past year has been another good year for Laborers in this state.
Membership through September of this year was up 230 members over last year.
During that same period, the number of reported hours worked was also running over 7% higher than the previous year. Industry projections suggest that next year may be even better — thanks in part to a responsible surface transportation budget. Increased roadwork alone may result in an additional 250 to 500 jobs over the next two years.

Increased work and net gains in membership have had the added effect of improving the long-term health and security of Laborers’ Health and Welfare funds. For the second year in a row the state Laborers’ Health Fund actually increased benefits without having to raise contribution rates.

In addition to putting more people to work, strengthening this Union’s bargaining power industry-wide, and improving economic security for all members, this Union continues to improve upon the relationship we have with our signatory contractors. By working together to solve problems and overcome differences, we help them remain competitive and better position them to win more work for Laborers.

Nowhere was this more evident than the effort that was made this year by local leadership, District Council staff and LECET, to get signatory contractors to report Prevailing Wage surveys to the Department of Workforce Development in order to insure good wage rates on public works projects next year.

Preliminary reports from the Department of Workforce Development show the number of in-state Laborer signatory contractors filing wage surveys increased nearly 10% over last year. More importantly, total number of hours reported also increased dramatically over the previous year, including a nearly 50% increase in sewer and water hours state-wide.

Maintaining competitive wage rates on public works projects is important to signatory contractors, but so are safe, skilled and productive workers. Last year the Laborers’ Training Center in Almond, Wisconsin trained over 1,100 workers in all phases of Laborer work.

Increased attention and participation in the legislative and political process is also having a direct return on the economic security of Laborers and our families. In addition to the jobs I’ve mentioned in the road construction industry, we’ve helped defeat attempts to weaken the federal Davis-Bacon Act, OSHA, wage law enforcement, as well as repeated attempts to allow employers to discriminate against union members and organizers.

As construction workers, we know these laws are especially important to our work, to our health and safety on the job, as well as to our ability to provide for ourselves and our families. We also know these laws don’t need to be weakened – they need to be improved. That is why in the next session of the legislature, the Laborers will seek legislation to make it harder for unscrupulous contractors to cheat workers out of the wages and benefits they deserve.

The first will require contractors to submit certified payroll records to verify the proper payment of wages and benefits for work performed on public projects.

The second will allow a contractor or third party that has been cheated out of work to sue a willful violator for any lost revenue that occurs as a result.

The third will upgrade penalties for certain reporting violations from misdemeanors to felonies.

Contractors who willfully violate prevailing wage laws steal wages from their own workers, they steal revenue from contractors who compete fairly, and they steal jobs and earnings from workers who work for contractors who compete fairly. It is time we recognize the hardships that they cause and begin treating them as the white-collar criminals that they are.

Similar legislation has already become law in other states. Construction workers in Wisconsin deserve the same protection.