'Right to work' in Ohio? GOP lawmaker wants voters to choose

COLUMBUS – Undeterred by the acrimonious fight over Senate Bill 5, GOP Rep. John Becker wants voters to choose whether Ohio should become a right-to-work state. 

On Monday, Becker, R-Union Township in Clermont County, announced six proposed constitutional amendments that would restrict unions' ability to organize, pay for operations and recruit new members.

“It’s about freedom for the workers – that nobody should have to support the union," Becker told The Enquirer. "When there is mandated membership, there isn’t much motivation for the unions to be accountable." 

Among the proposals:

• Pass private-sector right to work: No worker at a private business would be required to join a union. Under the current system, employees cannot be forced to join unions. However, state law allows collective bargaining agreements to require "fair share" payments, which are less than union dues.

Petitions turned in to repeal Michigan prevailing wage law

A group turned in more than 380,000 signatures Friday for veto-proof legislation to repeal Michigan's 52-year-old law that requires higher "prevailing" wages to be paid on state-financed construction work.

If state election officials certify that roughly 252,000 are valid, the bill will go to the Republican-controlled Legislature, whose leaders support it despite GOP Gov. Rick Snyder's backing of the existing law.

Legislators would have a 40-day window to vote or else the measure would receive a public vote in November 2018.

Snyder, who has opposed identical bills introduced in the Legislature, could not veto the initiated legislation.

Apprentice deal with unions to require Columbus workers for city construction projects

Columbus Mayor Andrew J. Ginther’s administration is testing a new plan that it says will boost the number of people pursuing trade apprenticeships, while it also sets benchmarks for local workers on public construction projects.

The “community-benefits agreement” between the city and the Columbus Building & Construction Trades Council, AFL-CIO, will cover work done on the city’s planned new fire station No. 35, to be built at 711 N. Waggoner Road between Chapel Stone Road and Waggoner Grove Boulevard on the Far East Side.
Work on the $8 million project is scheduled to begin in May 2018. The 22,000-square-foot station will have room for medic vehicle, engine and ladder truck, plus living quarters, training rooms, and a workout area. The city has yet to select a contractor.

New Jersey Contractor Cited for Scaffold Hazards

OSHA has cited the owner of a South Jersey construction company for exposing workers to serious scaffold hazards at a job site in Philadelphia. Inspectors found employees performing work using a scaffold that was dangerously close to power lines. Vyacheslav Leshko, owner of DH Construction LLC, was cited for repeat and serious violations that include exposing workers to fall and electrical hazards, failing to train employees on scaffold hazards and not implementing an accident prevention program. The owner faces $191,215 in proposed penalties. Read the news release for more information.

Local 773 placed under 'emergency trusteeship' as general manager is ousted over allegations of firearm intimidation

The Laborers’ International Union of North America Local 773, which has been the subject of scrutiny for its alleged involvement in events culminating in a housing crisis in Cairo, has been placed under "emergency trusteeship," according to a letter by LIUNA’s Washington, D.C.-based president, Terry O'Sullivan.

The action amounts to the national union assuming operational control of the Local. The letter from O'Sullivan, dated Sept. 1, is taped to the door of the Local 773’s administrative offices located in Marion on Ed Smith Way, a street named for the founder’s son, Edward Smith, originally of Cairo, who rose through the LIUNA ranks and became a Democratic Party player on the state and national scene.

The Local 773 represents about 4,200 workers nationally, including about 2,000 local government employees and private sector laborers, primarily in the construction industry, in Southern Illinois. In the public sphere, the Local 773 represents a variety of city, county, courthouse and housing authority employees across multiple counties regionally, according to information a union representative previously provided to the newspaper.