Wisconsin LECET
LABORERS-EMPLOYERS COOPERATION AND EDUCATION TRUST
2801 Coho Street, Suite 202 Madison, WI 53713 (608) 274-5757
Michael R. Ryan, Chair - Wisconsin Laborers District Council
Jerry Diemer, Director

Wisconsin LECET has upgraded the Windows program developed last year for reporting wages and hours in response to the State of Wisconsin Department of Workforce Development Prevailing Wage Survey. Each signatory contractor has been sent a copy of the software, called Prevail 1.1, on disk. If you install Prevail 1.1 on your computer, you can report wages and hours for all your workers electronically. It will save you a lot of time and effort. In addition, Prevail 1.1 has Help Files that contain all DWD Instructions for filling out the survey as well as contract wage rates, occupational classifications and work descriptions.

Each year. the State of Wisconsin surveys construction contractors to determine the prevailing wage for all the trades in all 72 Wisconsin counties. The survey covers building, heavy and highway, sewer and water, specialty trades and all other contractors who could perform work on public projects in the state. Responses to the survey determine which wages prevail in which counties. The survey covers the period June 1 through May 31 of the current year. Thus, the current survey that you just received from the Department of Workforce Development covers the period from June 1, 1997 through May 31, 1998.

Signatory contractors will be required to bid work in 1999 at collectively bargained wage rates in all counties in Wisconsin. If those same contractors do not report wages and hours on all employees on all projects when responding to the DWD survey, union wages will not be included in the formula used by the State of Wisconsin to determine prevailing wage rates. Thus, signatories who do not report high-wage private sector work take their generally higher wages out of the formula and literally guarantee that lower wages will prevail. Lower rates have a ripple effect that makes all signatory contractors less competitive when bidding for 1999 projects.

Call DWD at
(608) 267-9331
if you have not received a survey
Call Wisconsin LECET with questions at
(800) 782-4634

TEA-21 stands for the Transportation Equity Act for the 21st Century. This act provides federal funding for all manner of transportation projects across America through the year 2003. And it provides a lot of funding. More than $200 BILLION DOLLARS in funding!

TEA-21 also made changes in the way transportation budgeting takes place, eliminated differences between how much Wisconsin sends to Washington, DC in highway user fees and how much we get back and makes it easier for us to actually use the federal money we receive for transportation projects.

FUNDING
TEA-21 provides at least $204 billion in funding for transportation construction projects across the country over the next six-years. Probably more!

The new transportation budget system is good news for Wisconsin. Federal highway funding will increase 48% under TEA-21.

Preliminary figures indicate that this will mean an average of $521 million a year for Wisconsin highways. Transit funding will also go up in Wisconsin, increasing 40% to about $55 million a year.

BUDGETING
TEA-21 completely overhauls the Federal Highway Trust Fund in an attempt to ensure more highway user fees are actually spent on transportation improvements. It does this by establishing two separate discretionary spending categories for highways and mass transit within the federal budget. Prior to this bill, spending categories for highways were included in the overall domestic discretionary spending cap of the federal budget.

This arrangement resulted in billions and billions of dollars accumulating in the highway trust funds from transportation user fees that were never spent on improvements. Instead, highway trust fund balances were used to offset part of the budget deficit. TEA-21 changed this dishonest budgeting practice.

To ensure transportation funds will not be raided in the future, the bill contains guaranteed funding in the amount of $200.5 billion.

A provision also automatically adjusts the highway and transit accounts should revenues exceed or drop below estimates in the bill. The Office of Management and Budget would be required to calculate the ratio of Highway Trust Fund revenue to the bill's estimates and include any additional amount in the President's annual budget submittal. Thus, huge annual unspent balances, so common in the past, will no longer be allowed.

FUNDING EQUITY
Wisconsin will no longer be a donor state under TEA-21!

For years, Wisconsin sent millions and millions of dollars to Washington in highway user fees and never got as much back as we sent.

That will no longer be the case.

Under TEA-21, Wisconsin will now receive $1.00 in federal highway funding for each dollar we send to Washington in user fees. For the previous six years, we only received about 92 cents back for every dollar we sent in user fees.

Although this achievement is long overdue, Wisconsin's equity in funding is only assured for the six year life of this bill until 2003. We must make it clear to our Congressional Delegation that we will accept nothing less in the future.

RED TAPE
TEA-21 begins the long process of eliminating the maze of mandates and red tape involved in actually spending highway monies from the federal government in Wisconsin. Streamlining the process further and continuing to eliminate the myriads of federal mandates, sanctions and set-asides that currently delay spending will continue to be a priority for Wisconsin LECET.

Message From The Director

by Gerald J. Diemer
Director, Wisconsin LECET

Wisconsin LECET has upgraded the Prevail Windows program for reporting wages and hours to the Wisconsin Department of Workforce Development (DWD) in response to the annual Prevailing Wage Survey. The latest version, Prevail 1.1, has been mailed to all signatory contractors on disk along with instructions on how to install the software on their computers. Prevail 1.1 arrived in contractors' offices about the same time as the Prevailing Wage Survey arrived from DWD. As you know from the cover of this Wisconsin LECET News, the completed survey deadline is July 31, 1998. It is very important for ALL signatory contractors to respond to the DWD Prevailing Wage Survey completely and correctly by the July 31 deadline.

The second Wisconsin LECET priority that is currently newsworthy is funding for transportation infrastructure. On June 9, President Clinton signed the latest version of federal funding for road, bridge and airport construction projects across the nation.

The Transportation Equity Act for the 21st Century (TEA-21) increases the federal government funding commitment to Wisconsin transportation projects significantly. This result is what Wisconsin LECET has been working toward for many years. Our membership in the Transportation Development Association (TDA) of Wisconsin and six years of participation in the TDA Fly-In to Washington, D.C. has finally resulted in an increase in federal transportation funding that will ensure that needed improvements are made to highways, bridges and airports all across our state.

This accomplishment also means more successful bids and more projects for signatory contractors and more jobs for laborers.

Helping our signatories respond to the Prevailing Wage Survey will ensure that they can be very competitive when increased funding becomes available.

Wisconsin LECET Participates in Laborers Unity Conference

Wisconsin LECET Trustee Robert Niebuhr (left), Business Manager of Laborers Local 464, introduced State Senator Joe Wineke (D-Verona) (right) as a speaker at the Unity Conference. Attendees at the conference thanked Senator Wineke for his support of increased transportation infrastructure financing.

Wisconsin LECET Trustee William Kennedy, (left) (at podium) from the Rock Road Companies, Inc., Janesville, WI, addresses the Unity Conference. Kennedy, a former president of the Transportation Development Association talked about the importance of Labor-management cooperation. Wisconsin LECET Trustee Mike Ryan is at the right.

More than 200 attendees participated in the 2nd Wisconsin Laborers Unity Conference held at the Concourse Hotel & Conference Center in Madison in March. The attendees were treated to three days of speakers, workshops, networking opportunities and the availability of health screening equipment.

Wisconsin LECET played a major role in the conference as a sponsor, workshop presenter and exhibitor.

Labor-management cooperation was a recurring theme throughout the conference. Wisconsin LECET Trustees Bill Kennedy, Bob Niebuhr and Mike Ryan all were speakers during the conference. Leo Gannon from National LECET participated in four workshops with Kitty Conlan from the Laborers Health & Safety Fund of North America and Jerry Diemer from Wisconsin LECET. James "Mitch" Warren and Bill Duke from the Laborers-AGC Education and Training Fund and Al Friedl, the new Training Director for the Wisconsin Laborers Skill Improvement Fund, also were represented at the workshops and served as speakers. Judy Paul, an Occupational Health Nurse with the Laborers Health & Safety Fund of North America, performed health screenings for blood pressure and cholesterol throughout the conference.

Wisconsin LECET and the Wisconsin Laborers Skill Improvement Fund also staffed the trade show booth display during the conference.

The Unity Conference accomplished its goal of educating the rank and file laborer about the many services, particularly the labor-management initiatives in marketing, state-of-the-art training and safety and health, offered by the union and signatories.

Dean Jensen, long time Training Director at the Wisconsin Laborers Training Center near Almond, Wisconsin has retired.

Dean was a laborer for 34 years, Business Manager of Laborers Local 539 from 1975-78 and Training Director from 1978-1998. He guided the growth of the Wisconsin Laborers Training Center from a trailer in the middle of a muddy field to a 24,000 square foot, state-of-the-art facility that contains 5 classrooms, 8 welding bays and an indoor training lab. Now full scale, hands-on training can take place regardless of weather conditions. THANK YOU, DEAN !

Dean Jensen (right) shares a laugh with Mitch Warren (left), Executive Director of the Laborers-AGC Education and Training Fund, at his retirement party. The sign above their heads says it all. ENJOY YOUR "EXIT" DEAN!!

Wisconsin LECET and the Wisconsin Laborers Skill Improvement Fund were exhibitors at the Governor's Conference on Economic Development for the second straight year.

Our display marketed highly skilled laborers and a commitment to safety and training by our signatories to more than 400 business owners, economic development professionals, government officials and media representatives attending the conference.

Al Friedl (left), the new Training Director at the Wisconsin Laborers Training Center talks with State Assembly member Donald Hasenohrl (D-Pittsville), (right) who stopped by our trade show display at the Governor's Conference on Economic Development.

The Wisconsin Alliance for Fair Contracting (WAFC) Field Supervisors attended an all day workshop with Department of Workforce Development (DWD) staff to learn the history and legal requirements of the Wisconsin Prevailing Wage Law. The session covered the prevailing wage survey, wage and hour violations, open records requests and contractor responsibilities.

Contractor Compliance, the prevailing wage monitor for the Operating Engineers, also participated.

Participants in the DWD workshop on prevailing wage
law included, from left: Nancy Hoffman, Wisconsin State AFL-CIO; Mike Ryan, Chair of the Wisconsin LECET
Trustees; Pat Hewitt, Lead Investigator and Gary Shealy, Chief, Construction Wage Standards Section in the
Labor Standards Bureau at DWD.

Visit the Wisconsin LECET website
http://www.solidarity.com/lecet

Send email to wilecet@solidarity.com