Carpenter’s union strike continues in Cedar Rapids – A Philadelphia Parallel

PREFACE:

Carpenter’s union strike continues in Cedar Rapids – A Philadelphia Parallel or just another Groundhog Day?

This article has a direct parallel to Philadelphia and its construction industry.  As we all know and experienced, the economy nosedived here in the commercial sector just after 2006, a significant and disruptive event, much like a flood to a community.  Some would call either scenario tragic; others always see an opportunity in the tragedy.

Before 2006, commercial construction was primarily performed with unionized general contractors within Philadelphia city limits.  In the time frame between 2006 and 2012, the landscape changed dramatically here and the story below, 2 union bidders against 8 merit shop bidders, became the new normal; it hasn’t changed since that time either.  In fact, and in direct response to that, the entire construction model has evolved in Philadelphia.  It has evolved from the once proven model of a general contractor with signatory obligations that directly employed organized trades to perform the work in unison with very qualified, skilled specialty sub-contracting trades, to now, a much less complicated and more attractive model of a construction manager or general contractor that has no signatory obligations and directly employs very little or no organized trades at all; however, they do have direct accesses to all of the contractors and trades through a rather extensive and developed specialty sub-contracting network within the Philadelphia Metropolitan region.  The job still gets built union, just without the onerous, over reaching, signatory obligations of a general contractor bound by the terms of an agreement for employees that they employ very little of anymore.  The job gets built on the theory that economics and efficiency drive the process; a mantra that I have chanted rather loudly and successfully here in Philadelphia since October, 2007.  Tragically, much like the pubescent teenager with no adult supervision for the last 10 years, the voice of union construction has changed and is still struggling intensely with its own identity, is it a leader & liaison, a legislator, a politician or that shy kid that sits over in the corner at the dance and waits for somebody else to make the first move?  Let’s pray for the sake of a highly, skilled and qualified sub-contracting community that it figures out what it wants to be soon.   

As I directed the negotiating activities of multiple general and subcontracting negotiating teams year after year in Philadelphia, I cannot stress enough how many leaders on each side of the table have actually stated that this is in fact the “new normal”, a term commonly used now throughout the industry when talking about the tighter bidding process and the new construction model.  If that was, evidently it still is, the new normal, is it unrealistic to believe that other leadership within the industry and throughout the United States do not understand and believe that it is the “new normal” and that drastic change needs to be undertaken to survive?  A direct quote from the article really stuck out and had an eerie sense of familiarly, “Yeah, there’s going to be a slowdown for a couple months, but it’ll come back. It always does.”  I just reviewed some of notes from past regional negotiations and actually found that quote in several different variations thrown out in negotiations until around 2012, that is, until everyone here truly believed that it is a “new norm.”

 Perhaps the Midwest has a different definition of the “new normal”?  If they do, maybe we need to send them a new dictionary.

This is a time of opportunity, not apathy.  This is a time for real change, not reliance on the past.  This is the time for those very few that are brave, daring and progressive thought leaders to step up and lead our community.  Who’s with me?

On to the article:

Picketers are marching around construction sites in Iowa’s second-largest city, which is still recovering from the devastating flood of 2008. On Tuesday, a carpenter’s union in Cedar Rapids voted down a wage offer from general contractors after the contract expired last week.

Michael Glavan, of Kleiman Construction, says flood projects brought in more contractors who don’t hire union labor and often pay less per hour.

“We go to bid a job and there’s ten people bidding it, there’s two union bidders,” Glavan says. “If our wages and package are above those folks, how are we going to be competitive and get future work for these people?” Local 308 representative Dave Hogan says the union voted down the contractor’s proposal by a four-to-one ratio.

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