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 Begins Ad Program

As a result of action by the Board of Trustees late in 1996, Wisconsin LECET will embark on an advertising program in 1997.

The first full page ads will run in the 1997 Directories of the Wisconsin Road Builders Association and the Associated General Contractors of Wisconsin.

In addition, Wisconsin LECET has contacted the Laborers Local Unions to explore advertising opportunities in their Builders Directories and Buyers Guides.

Many of these directories are published by local building trades councils.

Wisconsin LECET felt that getting the message out about the benefits of labor-management cooperation to a very targeted audience would be a beneficial first step in our advertising campaign.

If you see our ads, we hope you will let us know. In addition, any thoughts on additional ads or advertising possibilities are welcome.

Just call us at the number listed in the advertisements.

Message From The Director

by Gerald J. Diemer
Director, Wisconsin LECET
Most of you reading this newsletter will not know who I am. I am the new Director for the Wisconsin Laborers- Employers Cooperation and Education Trust and I have been on the job for a couple of months.

During those brief sixty days, I have had the opportunity to participate in a number of seminars, put together my first LECET budget, participate in my first LECET Board of Trustees meeting, participate in my first District Council meeting, lay out some advertising for the 1997 Directories of the Wisconsin Road Builders Association and the Associated General Contractors of Wisconsin, meet a number of my LECET colleagues from around the country AND write my first newsletter for Wisconsin LECET.

If you wanted to take a breath while reading the previous sentence, you get the idea. . . it has been a very busy and productive two months. I have enjoyed it immensely and I am looking forward to more of the same in 1997.

I come to Wisconsin LECET with more than 20 years of experience in association management and government service.

For more than 15 years, I worked for the Wisconsin Builders Association, a trade association that represents the residential construction industry. For seven and a half years, I served as the Executive Vice President of the builders association. I managed an $800,000 budget and seven employees.

Prior to working for the home builders, I worked for six years in state government. I was on the staff of Martin J. Schreiber while he was Lt. Governor and Governor.

My background includes extensive a experience in non-profit management, personnel administration, writing and editing, budgeting and government relations.

I have enjoyed the variety of tasks I have undertaken at Wisconsin LECET. It a has been hectic, but productive.

I look forward to working with you in the future on increasing market share for union employers and their employees.


Wisconsin LECET Welcomes New Trustees

The Wisconsin Laborers-Employers Cooperation and Education Trust is now governed by a 14-member Board of Trustees.

With the recent termination of the Labor-Management Work Preservation Fund and the recent addition of the Wisconsin Underground Contractors Association as signatories, Wisconsin LECET has added two labor trustees and two management trustees to our board.

Joining our Board of Trustees are:

Management:

Dennis Moore
Zenith Tech, Inc.
Waukesha, WI

Richard Schraufnagel
Super Excavators, Inc.
Menomonee Falls, WI

Labor:

Dennis Henrichs
Laborers Local 1359
Wausau, WI

William Johnson
Laborers Local 1 13
Milwaukee, WI

We wish to thank these gentlemen for the time they devote to LECET and we welcome the Wisconsin Underground Contractors Association to our labor-management partnership.


Workers Comp Premium Adjustment Program Announced

The Wisconsin Compensation Rating Bureau has proposed a Wisconsin
Contractors Premium Adjustment Program that will begin in 1997 pending approval
by the Insurance Commissioner.

For contracting classifications that are eligible (more than 80 separate worker classifications are included), Wisconsin contractors can receive significant downward adjustments in workers comp premiums.

To qualify for the program, employers must have employees in the eligible contracting classifications and an experience rating modification of no greater than 1.00. If you meet these qualifications, you will be eligible for credits to decrease your workers compensation premiums for any employees that you pay more than $16.50 per hour.

The Wisconsin Contractor Premium Adjustment Program should help high wage employers be more competitive in the workers compensation area.

Last year, when Wisconsin LECET approached the Workers Compensation
Advisory Council on the issue of negotiated workers comp plans, part of the discussion was on wage disparity and the unfairness to high-wage union employers. This discussion refocused attention on the wage disparity issue, and the Wisconsin Contractor Premium Adjustment Program was the result.


Wisconsin Alliance for Fair Contracting Expands Operations

The Wisconsin Alliance for Fair Contracting (WAFC) has expanded its monitoring of public sector construction projects in the Fox River Valley and northwestern Wisconsin.

Recently, WAFC has hired Bernie Samz to work on prevailing wage investigations in the Fox River Valley. Bernie's background includes security work and background investigations at the Point Beach Power Plant.

Russell Anderson has also rejoined WAFC. Russ has worked as a claims adjustor for Sentry Insurance and as head of security for the Ho Chunk Nation.

Russ had a previous stint with WAFC in northwestern Wisconsin.

With the additions of Bernie Samz and Russ Anderson, WAFC now has four investigators covering the state and an administrative assistant in the Madison office.

During two years of operation, WAFC has recovered more than $500,000 in back wages and benefits for workers on public, prevailing wage projects. In addition, WAFC has had positive effects on the bidding of a number of public projects and educated many local government agencies on prevailing wage requirements.

To contact the Wisconsin Alliance for Fair Contracting, please call (608) 274- 1915 Or 1-800-780-1778.


Training Cited as a Key by the Business Roundtable

The Business Roundtable, an association of more than 200 chief executives of major U. S. corporations, cited a commitment to training as a key to determine if contractor is qualified.

During their national construction conference in November, The Business Roundtable declared that training should be recognized as a legitimate expense and contractors should be required to demonstrate a commitment to training.

For union contractors, a training requirement is old news. Virtually all union agreements provide for hourly contractor payments to support union training programs. But for the non-union sector, the development of a standard for training programs remains problematic. In addition, having all non-union contractors support training programs remains virtually impossible.

While the non-union construction sector is struggling with the status of training programs, our signatory contractors have already received the extensive schedule of classes at the Wisconsin Laborers Training Center this winter.

Environmental Courses, Construction Courses and General Industry Courses are already scheduled for 1997. In addition, some courses are also scheduled at Laborers Local Unions. Call the Wisconsin Laborers Training Center today for a 1997 course schedule. It is the best investment you can make.


Negotiated Workers Comp Revisited

As you know, Wisconsin LECET's efforts to persuade the Workers Compensation Advisory Council to allow negotiated programs was unsuccessful in 1995.

However, the concept of negotiated workers compensation programs in the form of groups, self insurance or as part of a Taft-Hartley trust still has merit.

With that in mind, Wisconsin LECET attended a national Workers Compensation seminar late in 1996 in Chicago to learn the latest about negotiated programs. LECETs in Illinois and Minnesota were also in attendance, as well as participants from Hawaii, Florida, New York and many other states.

Enabling legislation to allow negotiated workers comp has passed in nine states. Some of the programs have been in existence for five years, and we are seeing some very positive results. It is clear that negotiated workers compensation can improve benefits while instituting cost savings.

Though Wisconsin's Workers Compensation system is viewed as a model program nationally, it still can be improved.

That is why we will continue our efforts to persuade the Workers Compensation Advisory Council to allow negotiated programs. We are convinced that labor and management working together CAN improve on a good thing.

Tri-Fund Conference

The Laborers International Union of North America (LIUNA) and the Tri- Funds, their joint Labor-Management Cooperatives, will hold the 6th Annual Tri-Fund Conference, February 2-5, 1997 at Walt Disney World, Lake Buena Vista, Florida.

The theme of the conference is "New Markets, New Technologies, New Alliances." Arthur A. Coia, General President of LIUNA, will be the Keynote Speaker and Wisconsin's own Donna Shalala, Secretary of the U. S. Department of Health and Human Services has also been invited.

Good Transportation Critical to Sound Economy and Jobs

by Philip Scherer

The construction industry is dependent on a healthy and growing economy. Good transportation and good roads are absolutely vital to a sound and growing economy. Therefore, good transportation has a direct and positive impact on the construction industry. It's as simple as that.

Study after study has shown that investing in good transportation will provide a return that far exceeds the initial or long term costs of those investments.

Those paybacks are both direct in terms of jobs created in planning, engineering and construction, and indirect in terms of wages that are spent throughout the state and individual communities.

The investments workers make in homes, autos, groceries, as well as other goods and services, help to spur our economy.

But the value of good transportation goes beyond these immediate and direct benefits. To be competitive, business and industry must be able to recruit and  retain productive workers, and those workers must have access to the jobs they depend on. Job accessibility is critical to both workers and employers.

Business and industry must also have good connections to markets if they are to remain competitive. Whether it be bringing materials to a job site or shipping finished products to markets, transportation costs must be competitive or employers will relocate elsewhere.

In the tourism and recreational industries, if people cannot safely and conveniently get to and from a destination, they will look elsewhere.

Here in Wisconsin, the importance of good transportation, especially good roads, could not have been more apparent than during the Transportation Projects Commission hearings in July. At these hearings, business, industry and community leaders from each of six project areas across the state, came out in force to voice support for improvements and their impact on the local economies.

But, as valuable as their testimony was, it is not enough. As stated earlier, the economic benefits of investing in good roads are both direct and indirect.

Those business and industry leaders that cite the need for good transportation tend to concentrate on indirect or secondary benefits, and that is understandable.

But, we should also be playing the other aces in our hand, including the benefits of building and maintaining good transportation.

Those whose livelihoods depend on a stable construction program need to stand up and be counted. Design and construction engineers, surveyors, equipment operators, laborers and others who build the roads and buildings that allow our economy to prosper, need to articulate the importance of a good transportation program to them and their families.

The bottom line is that good transportation and good roads do not just happen. Unless those who depend upon programs that allow us to build and maintain our infrastructure speak up, leaders at all levels will tend to take the course of least resistance. All too often that is to do nothing.

Phil Scherer is the Executive Director of the Transportation Development Association of Wisconsin, representing labor, business, government and community organizations concerned with transportation and economic development issues.

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