LECET, LIUNA, and the Pipeline Unions' Mobilizing Program (PUMP) have been working for many years to show El Paso and other owners the benefits of working union. LIUNA's Construction Department has been working with representatives of El Paso to implement a best value contracting program that levels the playing field for union contractors bidding on the company's work. The success of the Cheyenne Plains Pipeline has moved this broader effort forward, with El Paso representatives now indicating that increasingly they will look to the union sector when bidding future pipeline projects.

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RECIPROCITY HELPS SUPPLY HOOVER DAM BYPASS BRIDGE WORKFORCE                        Landmark Job Covered by Project Labor Agreement

The work was there for the Laborers, but would the Laborers be there for the work? That was the question facing Laborers and signatory contractors as Obayashi/PSM-JV signed a project labor agreement covering the 40-month, $114-million Hoover Dam Bypass Bridge project. When the subcontract for bridge footer preparation was let, there were no union contractors in Southern Nevada to bid on it, but several in Northern California were eager for a shot at the work. Laborers from California, Nevada, and Arizona wanted to work on the job, but only if pension and health benefits could be credited to their home plans. So the Northern California District Council of Laborers, Laborers' Local Union 872, and their respective benefit funds signed a reciprocity agreement providing workforce and benefit portability across regional and state lines. As a result, Laborers and signatory contractor Ladd Construction now are drilling, blasting, and excavating 50,000 cubic yards of rock down river from the Hoover Dam, and more than 50 Laborers will work on the new bridge over the next several years.

The Laborers-Employers Cooperation and Education Trust (LECET) helped craft the reciprocity agreement, which:

Enables benefit dollars, pension credits, and hours towards eligibility earned on the Hoover Dam Bypass Bridge project to follow the Laborer back to his/her home trust fund;

Establishes the means for transferring benefits between the funds;

Allows contractors to bring their existing workforce across district council and regional lines, but requires the use of Local 872's hiring hall to meet additional workforce needs.

Modeled after the Northern California-Oregon Reciprocity Agreement (see Market Lines Volume 3, Number 1), the Northern California-Local 872 Reciprocity Agreement is part of the ongoing efforts of Laborers' officials to provide the workforce contractors need, when and where they need it.

"We know that skilled union Laborers and our signatory contractors provide the best value in the industry, so we want to make it as easy as possible for industry leaders to choose us," said LIUNA Vice President and Pacific Southwest Regional Manager Rocco Davis. "We will work with any construction user, owner, or contractor to remove any obstacles that stand in the way of their working union."

"We are operating in a fast-paced, highly competitive, nationwide marketplace, and dealing with large, national and multi-national firms," noted LIUNA Vice President and Northwest Regional Manager Mano Frey. "We are determined to give Laborers and signatory contractors the flexibility and agility they need to win projects and jobs in such an environment."

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LIUNA, LECET HELP CONTRACTORS FILE PREVAILING WAGE SURVEYS                             Streamlining Increases Participation, Enhances Competitiveness

Most contractors hate filling out state or federal prevailing wage survey forms, primarily because of the complexity of "peak week" requirements. Yet the surveys often determine the wage and benefit rates to be paid on publicly funded construction projects for months or years to come. If that wage rate falls below collectively bargained wage and benefit rates, union contractors can find themselves at a disadvantage in the bidding process. So, many LECET affiliates and Laborers' regional offices and district councils have begun to help signatory contractors complete and submit state and federal prevailing wage surveys. In many cases, they work with other building trades unions as part of a broader effort to increase contractor participation, and to maintain or raise prevailing wage rates.

Prevailing wage surveys are notoriously complex. They ask contractors to report the specific wages and benefits paid to dozens of different job classifications in every county, and for every type of work, over a specified period of time. Federal and most state surveys further complicate matters by asking contractors to identify and report wages and benefits for peak weeks, while others ask for data over the entire survey period. Since these complicated surveys are voluntary, many contractors move them to the bottom of their priority lists, or ignore them altogether. But as more than one union contractor has discovered the hard way, ignoring these surveys can cede the field to non-union competitors when their lower wage and benefit rates prevail.

LECET and LIUNA affiliates have developed a variety of programs to increase contractor participation in these critical surveys.

New Jersey LECET, and the Laborers' New England Region, Mid-Atlantic Region, Oregon and Southern Idaho District Council, and Northern California District Council all have alerted contractors about upcoming wage surveys, and helped them to complete and submit the survey forms. Regional, district council, and local union staff typically gather data on hours worked and wages paid, fill out survey forms, then approach contractors to validate the forms. Laborers often work closely with other building trades unions in these efforts.

Wisconsin LECET and Michigan LECET have used information technology and the internet to increase contractor participation in prevailing wage surveys. Wisconsin LECET joined forces with the Operating Engineers, Bricklayers, Teamsters, and Ironworkers to electronically distribute union wage and hour data to signatory contractors, enabling them to easily and accurately dump these rates into state prevailing wage survey forms. Michigan LECET joined union and industry allies in the Construction Industry Survey Action Team (CISAT), and established a website at which contractors and union officials could get information about the survey, download survey forms, and learn how and where to file.

Ohio Valley and Southern States LECET (OVSS LECET) used the 2003-2004 federal prevailing wage survey to push for increases in the federal prevailing wage in Arkansas and Mississippi. The affiliate worked closely with local union field staff to increase contractor participation in the survey.

In Montana, where both the federal and state departments of labor accept petitions from contractors for raising heavy highway prevailing wages, the Montana District Council of Laborers annually solicits contractor signatures for such petitions. The district council works with other building trades unions and contractor associations to generate broad contractor participation in the petition drive.

With contractors pressed for time and loathe to take on extra paper work, programs that streamline prevailing wage surveys greatly increase both contractor participation and the likelihood that union wages will prevail.

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STUDY DOCUMENTS EMPLOYEE MISCLASSIFICATION                                                                Unscrupulous Contractors Cost Insurers, Massachusetts $18 Million Over 2 Years

The misclassification of construction workers as independent contractors has frustrated union members and their employers for years. Many law-abiding contractors have lost projects to competitors whose bids are based on misclassifying employees and skirting the law. Such misclassification denies workers unemployment insurance and many fringe benefits. It saddles these same workers with higher taxes and fewer protections than their correctly classified counterparts. And by cheating the workers' compensation system, it raises premiums for law-abiding contractors. Now, a study released by Harvard University's Construction Policy Research Center has documented the scope and effects of this problem in Massachusetts.

Relying on several years worth of state tax data, The Social and Economic Costs of Employee Misclassification in Construction found that from 2001 to 2003, 14 to 24 percent of Massachusetts construction employers misclassified 7,000 to 16,000 employees as independent contractors. As a result of this misclassification:

The Massachusetts unemployment insurance system lost $1-4 million;

The state of Massachusetts lost $4-7 million in income tax revenues;

The workers' compensation insurance industry lost approximately $7 million in premiums.

The study's authors also report that the problem has been worsening over the past decade, and caution that their methodology "does not fully capture the scope of underground economy activities in construction and other sectors."

By documenting the scope of the problem and its effects in one state, The Social and Economic Costs of Employee Misclassification in Construction provides valuable ammunition to anyone urging elected officials to tighten independent contractor regulations and enforcement. It can also help make the case for responsible bidder and/or best value procurement programs. A copy of the study is available on the LECET Resources Clearinghouse.

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NEW MARKETING MATERIALS COMING FROM LECET                                                                Fact Sheets To Highlight The LIUNA Advantage

The Laborers-Employers Cooperation and Education Trust (LECET) is going to press with a new series of marketing flyers that promote Laborers and their employers to contractors, owners, and construction users. Dubbed The LIUNA Advantage, the materials are designed for a variety of venues, including meetings with key decision makers, direct mailings to owners and construction users, outreach to contractors, and campaigns to defend or expand prevailing wage laws.

Developed with the advice of several LECET affiliates, and featuring photographs of Laborers at work, fifteen individual fact sheets address issues of concern to contractors, owners, and construction users. One flyer details the "Trained, Skilled Workforce" Laborers provide. Another highlights LIUNA's apprenticeship program. "Best Value and Quality Contracting" promotes the use of procurement procedures that level the field for Laborers and their employers. "Prevailing Wage Laws" explains the ways in which prevailing wage statutes protect the public, and refutes the most common arguments against them. "Corporate and Owner Relations" describes LIUNA's work to build relationships with industry decision makers that can lead to projects and jobs.

Other LIUNA Advantage fact sheets include:

Advertising and Communications

Clean, Competitive Agreements

Flexibility

Market Research and Analysis

Project Tracking and Project Alerts

Regulatory Assistance and Review

Risk Management

Safety Training

Union Workers Are Safer Workers

Training the Trainers.

A high-quality, 9-by-12-inch portfolio will provide an overview of The LIUNA Advantage, and a cover for any or all of the fact sheets. The packet will enable representatives of LIUNA and the Tri-Funds to assemble materials according to the needs of specific marketing meetings, mailings, and campaigns. The portfolio and fact sheets will also be available electronically, enabling users to modify them to fit their needs.

LECET will work closely with its 31 affiliates to assess the usefulness of these materials, and to refine them as needed.

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LECET EXPANDS PROJECT TRACKING TO PIPELINE, LNG MARKETS

The Laborers-Employers Cooperation and Education Trust (LECET) is now providing vital project tracking information in the growing pipeline and liquefied natural gas (LNG) markets. Project and job opportunities in these markets often circulate by word of mouth, and most do not show up in the Dodge reports mined by LECET's project tracking software, CTTS Exchange. LECET has now contracted with a leading data provider in the energy-related construction market to fill this gap in coverage.

Using this new data, LECET has created a special alert system for project and job opportunities in the pipeline and LNG construction markets. Like LECET's other project alerts, these special alerts will help Laborers and signatory contractors prepare for, bid on, and win projects and jobs. The new pipeline and LNG alerts are compiled from a wide range of sources, including:

Up-to-date information on more than 500 pipeline projects and 3300 plant and facility projects;

A news service with breaking market information related to pipeline and LNG projects;

A specialized database of pipeline and LNG projects and jobs.

The alert system is part of LECET's ongoing work to increase the union sector's share of the pipeline and LNG markets. For more information about LECET's new pipeline and LNG project alerts, contact LECET Computer Services Manager Katey Bailey at (202) 783-3545 or katey@lecet.org.

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TRANSPORTATION BILL CLOSER TO PASSAGE                                                                                      Final Funding Level Expected to Be Approximately $284 Billion

After nearly two years of gridlock, Congress appears close to completing work on the replacement for the Transportation Equity Act for the 21st Century (TEA-21). During a record sixth extension of the highway program, the U.S. House of Representatives recently approved HR 3, the Transportation Equity Act: A Legacy for Users (TEA-LU), providing $284 billion for federal highway, transit, and highway safety programs. As of early April, the Senate was working on a similar bill, the Safe Accountable, Flexible, and Efficient Transportation Equity Act of 2005 (SAFETEA), which provides $191 billion for maintenance and improvements of the nation's roads and bridges from 2005 to 2009. When combined with the Senate's mass transit component and fiscal year 2004 funding, SAFETEA totals $284 billion. Final action is expected when the conference committee of both the House and Senate meet to reconcile the two bills. Most observers believe the current funding level is acceptable to the Bush Administration.

LECET continues to work with its industry partners through coalitions such as the Transportation Construction Coalition (TCC) to support the bills, and to push for an amendment to the Senate bill which would tap the transportation reserve fund and raise the funding level to $300 billion.

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UPCOMING MEETINGS AND CONFERENCES

LECET will hold its eighth annual Computer Services Conference in Chicago, Illinois from May 25-27, 2005. Participants will have an opportunity to review the latest information technology developments at LIUNA and the Tri-Funds; evaluate software that enhances cooperation and teamwork, and learn about various features of Microsoft Windows XP and Office. The conference also will feature a keynote address by technology compliance expert James Carlini. LECET's annual computer services conferences are intended to showcase information technology services, address vital and timely computer-related issues, and encourage and de-mystify the use of technology.

Representatives from LECET's 31 affiliates will meet for the LECET Directors' Council Meeting in Providence, Rhode Island, from June 5-7, 2005. The LECET Directors' Council meets periodically to address industry topics, trade ideas, and report on recent accomplishments.

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Laborers-Employers Cooperation and Education Trust
Labor Trustees	Management Trustees
Armand E. Sabitoni, Co-Chairman Mike Quevedo, Jr. Raymond M. Pocino Edward M. Smith James C. Hale Joseph S. Mancinelli Rocco Davis	John C. Bartnett, Co-Chairman Lee Smallman Thomas T. Holsman John D. O'Reilly Michael D'Antuono Massimo Marino
Bill Bergfeld, Administrator	Christopher P. Engquist, Executive Director