“I think that we would all agree that jurisdictional disputes have caused part of the problem in the unionized sector of the construction industry …” Who would you attribute this quote to? The President of the Associated General Contractors? Maybe the President of MARBA? Actually, this is a recent quote from Terence O’Sullivan, President of the Laborer’s International Union! Wait a minute – a union leader who recognizes the divisiveness of jurisdictional disputes? Unheard of!

Just in our little part of the world, jurisdictional disputes are constant issues. Recently, we put together a list of ongoing issues we know about.

Air Compressors: Operators–Painters
Backing for bath accessories: Carpenters–Plumbers
Bobcats: Operators–Laborers
Brackets for TV’s: Carpenters–Electricians
Concrete Forming: Carpenters-Laborers
Drilling/Coring Concrete: Laborers–Plumbers–Electricians–Pipefitters-Carpenters
Elevator doorframes: Ornamental Ironworkers-Elevator Constructors
Elevators electrical: Elevator Constructors–Electricians
Glass curtain walls: Glaziers–Ornamental Ironworkers
Hardscape: Laborers–Operators
Lull-type forklifts: Operators-Bricklayers
Material handling: Carpenters–Laborers
Machinery installation: Machinery Movers–Carpenters Millwrights
Precast Concrete panel erection: Bricklayers–Structural Ironworkers
Shingle roofing: Roofers–Carpenters
Spraying finished concrete: Laborers–Painters–Cement Masons
Underground conduit: Electricians–Laborers/Operators/Teamsters

With the proliferation of “subcontractor” agreements, these jurisdictional fights are even more damaging to contractors. And there is not one negotiation that we are involved in that does not involve a jurisdictional issue in one way or another.

What caused this problem? It starts with “The Green Book” that is used by arbitrators to determine jurisdiction. According to O’Sullivan, “The Green Book decisions date back to the early 1900’s. We think it is ludicrous to decide jurisdiction in 2007 based on decisions from the 20’s, 30’s, 40’s and 50’s.” Jurisdiction has pitted union against union and now contractor against contractor. But there is only so much we can do locally. We need leadership from the International Unions and O’Sullivan’s comments are a step in the right direction. Hopefully, others will listen.

The 18^th Annual Construction Safety Conference & Expo in Rosemont attracted a great crowd and LCCA’s “neon” Safety Glasses Lanyard handouts were in great demand. LCCA’s Safety Committee members manned the booth, and spoke to many potential members and others looking for safety services. A special thank you to the following committee members who took time to help out:

Peter Graham, International Decorators
David Grum, Jos. J. Henderson & Son
Scott Johnson, Kelso-Burnett
Tom King, Continental Electrical
Mike Mendoza, Abbott Laboratories

We also are looking forward to a few new members from the show. Your Safety Committee makes great salesmen!

LCCA’s Annual Safety Awards were presented at the February Membership Meeting. The “Winners” in each division had zero Lost Workday Accidents or were the best in the division. Honorable Mention winners had Lost Workday Ratios better that the national averages for their type of work. Congratulations to all winners!

Division I Winner - Less than 20,000 Hours

Illinois Architectural Glass & Aluminum, LLC

Division II Winners - 20,001 - 100,000 Hours

Car-Min Construction Co., Inc.
Century Automatic Sprinkler Co., Inc.
DK Contractors, Inc.
Ernie Peterson Plumbing, Inc.
Glenbrook Excavating & Concrete, Inc.
Greg Greenhill Construction Company, Inc.
John Keno & Company, Inc.
Kirschhoffer Truck Service, Inc.
Lenny Hoffman Excavating, Inc.
Payne & Dolan, Inc.
R J Underground, Inc.
Stuckey Construction Co., Inc.
W.B. Olson, Inc.

HONORABLE MENTION
Manusos General Contracting, Inc.

Division III Winners - 100,001 - 500,000 Hours

Air Con Refrigeration & Heating, Inc.
Camosy, Inc.
Ragnar Benson Construction, LLC
Rasch Construction & Engineering, Inc.

HONORABLE MENTION
Alliance Contractors, Inc.
Althoff Industries, Inc.
Bane-Nelson, Inc.
Becker Electrical Group
Berger Excavating Contractors, Inc.
Boller Construction Company, Inc.
Carey Electric Contracting, Inc.
Cecchin Plumbing & Heating, Inc.
Curran Contracting Company
EHC Industries, Inc.
Martin Petersen Company, Inc.
Midwest Masonry, Inc.
Riley Construction Company, Inc.
Thatcher Foundations Inc.

Division IV Winner - Over 500,000 Hours

Aldridge Electric, Inc.

HONORABLE MENTION
Continental Electrical Construction Company
International Decorators, Inc.
Kelso-Burnett Company
Landscape Concepts Construction, Inc.
Mechanical, Inc.
Trench-It, Inc.
Turner Construction Company

Candidates –The field is set for the fall General Elections and the race really begins. Looking back at the primary election results, most would say there were no real upsets locally. Incumbents won but several races were very close. In the Democratic race for State Representative – 60^th District, incumbent Eddie Washington defeated Angelo Kyle by just 121 votes. An even closer race was the Democratic Lake County Board Race for District 1 where Peter Grant edged Steve Skinner by just 55 votes. On the Republican side, in the County Board race for District 16, Jeanne Goshgarian lost to incumbent Bob Powers by just 5 votes! So if you think your vote does not count, ask the losers!

Referenda – Over $75 million in construction projects were approved this election and only two projects were rejected. But voting was very close for several proposals as the voters show some reluctance to spend tax dollars. Here are the Referenda and results:

Newport Township – Proposed moving money from other funds to build a new $450,000 Town Hall – REJECTED 793 to 763

Barrington Park District – Proposed selling $12 million in bonds to build a new recreation facility – APPROVED 818 to 792

Wauconda Park District – Proposed selling $12 million in bonds to build a water park – REJECTED 1,459 to 1,099

Fox Lake Library District – Proposed selling $14.975 million in bonds to build a new library – APPROVED 3,029 to 2,581

Mundelein School District #75 – Proposed selling $6.6 million in bonds for building improvements – APPROVED 2,461 to 1,114

Mundelein School District #75 – Proposed selling $3.3 million in bonds to air-condition existing building – APPROVED 2,177 to 1,369

Grant High School District #124– Proposed selling $38.5 million in bonds to add classrooms and a field house – APPROVED 4,891 to 3,126

LCCA’s Annual Trade Show will be held Thursday, March 27, 2008, at Midlane Golf Resort.

Exhibit space is over 80% SOLD OUT! Only 5 booths remain! Thanks to the following member companies who have signed up to exhibit:

Associated Professionals Inc.
Baker Corp.
The Blue Book
Burris Equipment Co.
CISCO
Corporate Imaging Concepts
ITT Flygt
John Sakash Co., Inc.
Kapur & Associates
Lance Construction Supplies
Lee Jensen Sales
McCann Industries, Inc.
McDonald Modular Systems
Manhard Consulting
Metrolift, Inc.
NorStates Bank
Northern Illinois Mack
Peterbilt Northern Illinois
Positioning Solutions Co.
Rockenbach Chevrolet
Saf-T-Gard Int’l
U.S. Cellular
VanderBloemen Group
Vazcom Communications
Waukegan Roofing
Waukegan Steel Sales
Zeigler Associates, Inc.

NEW in 2008! LCCA is working on inviting contractors from other area associations! These include ASA Chicago, Illinois Road Builders, Mason Contractors, Mechanical Contractors and PAMCANI. We are also inviting building commissioners and architects/engineers from Lake County communities.

As in the past, booth space is limited and will be assigned on a first come, first served basis. If you are interested in exhibiting give Heidi a call TODAY!!

Be sure to mark March 27^th on your calendar and plan on attending and bringing your employees who could benefit from the networking.

Subcontracting Gang Form Work – The Carpenters District Council sent all signatory contractors a letter stating that the erection of gang forms either at the jobsite or the employer’s facility is work historically performed by Carpenters. According to a February 12^th letter from MARBA, the Chicago Regional Council of Carpenters agreement with MARBA only covers construction and subcontracting work that is performed at the site of construction.

Operators After Boilers – Recently, the Operators have been trying to get contractors to assign an Operator to boilers that are being used for heating concrete as it cures. Both the blankets in use and other heating devices seem to be on their radar. The Operators agreement does cover “Boiler Plants” but only “Boiler Plants used for power …” I am sure this was added to the contract many years ago when some equipment was powered by steam boilers. Not many of those machines left today! But that does not stop the union from finding new uses for the language. The contract also excludes “steam for temporary heating purposes …” but the grievances keep coming.

Why Not Start Doing Non-union Residential Work? – With the potential for a tightening market, some contractors may be looking to branch out into the residential market – but will need to be non-union to be competitive. Generally this is NOT a good option. Union contracts that you sign cover a specific geographic area and usually cover all work for a “trade” within that area. A plumber’s scope of work does not end at the commercial project door. By contract it would cover all “plumbing” work and therefore is easily applied to either residential or commercial projects. So if you are running a “non-union” crew doing residential work, you can expect to be liable for union wages and benefits at a minimum. Better to not take the chance.

Residential Work Target For Unions – In an effort to increase membership, more and more unions are looking to organize the residential sector that traditionally has been mixed – even in union strongholds like Chicago. According the Terrance O’Sullivan, President of the Laborers International, the Laborers approved a residential organizing campaign that is the union’s largest effort in its history. Initially the campaign will target Phoenix, Las Vegas, Los Angeles where there are over 50,000 potential workers. Since the campaign will target 5 nationally known developers – most of whom are building here - we can expect some ripple effect here!

According to IRS officials, one of the agency’s 2008 enforcement focus will be worker classification. A new electronic matching system will flag businesses that issue Form 1099’s that report payments in excess of $25,000 to five or more workers who have no other income. To help in this effort, the IRS has signed data sharing agreements with 31 states. So the legislation passed last year by the Illinois General Assembly will also have the IRS looking for the same tax evaders.

Worker Classification legislation is being introduced and passed by several other states and now the Federal Government is getting into the business. S-2044 has been introduced by Sen. Patty Murray (D-Washington) that would instruct the Labor Department to start tracking misclassification cases and expand the IRS procedure that allows workers to ask the agency if they are wrongly classified. Both Illinois Senators Barack Obama and Richard Durbin strongly support the legislation.

The legislative session in Springfield is getting started and expectations are – same as last year (unfortunately). But the legislative machine will continue to pass bills – some good, many bad – so we must keep up with the action to make sure the industry is not compromised.

Tops on the wish list this year is a Capital Construction program. But unless the various factions in Springfield can find it in their hearts to “negotiate” (almost a foreign word these days) without “conditions,” nothing will be accomplished. In the Governors budget address, he said, “How is it that virtually everybody here says they support a capital bill that will create jobs, but you have yet to send me something I can sign? Actions speak louder than words. Act and send me a capital bill that I can sign.” Sounds great on the nightly news but the devil is in the words “a capital bill I can sign.” All the legislature needs to do is send a bill with the subtitle “Guaranteed to get the Governor reelected.”

Here are some early bills of interest. Copies of any bill listed are available from the LCCA Office.

Employee Classification – HB 5060 has been introduced by Rep. Bill Mitchell (R-Forsyth) to exclude owner-operator truckers from the definition of “employee” effectively removing the trucking industry from the provisions of the bill that was passed last session. Trucking is the one area that concerns most contractors so this is an amendment that we need to get behind. In addition, the Employee Classification Act permits civil actions by “interested parties,” namely unions, to enforce the act. This amendment would make the “interested party” liable for attorney fees and court costs in the event they lose. Only fair!

Prompt Payment – HB 4794 introduced by Rep. Tim Schmitz (R-Batavia) would limit the amount of retention a public owner could withhold to just 5%. It also prohibits retention when a Payment Bond has been furnished.

HB 4920 introduced by Rep. Lou Lang (D-Skokie), would also limit retainage to just 5% and require a reduction to 2.5% after 50% complete.

Firestop Licensing – HB 4729 introduced by Rep. Edward Acevedo (D-Chicago) would require “Thermal System Insulation and Fire-Stop” contractors to be licensed. “Thermal system insulation” is defined as any product that “is used to insulate any hot or cold surface including a pipe, duct, valve, boiler, flue, or tank, or equipment on or in a building.” A Fire-stop product” is defined as and product that “is used to prevent the spread of fire or smoke and that is installed on or around a pipe, duct, wire, or any other penetration through a floor, ceiling, or wall or a building.” The bill also requires both the contractor and the “thermal system insulation and fire-stop mechanic” to be licensed.

It is also interesting to note that Wisconsin has essentially the same bills pending (WI SB 194 and AB 388). If this bill applies to you, let LCCA know.

Prevailing Wage Demolition – HB 5323 introduced by Rep. John Bradley (D-Marion), would extend Prevailing Wage coverage to demolition of public works. Currently the Prevailing Wage Act only covers “construction.”

Paid Sick Days – HB 5320 introduced by Rep. Julie Hamos (D-Evanston) would require all employers to provide employees up to 7 sick days with pay during each 12-month period.

In addition to the newly filed bills, all legislation from the last session is still available for action.