THINK ABOUT IT 

      Fourteenth in a series of newsletters by former Local 150 Financial Secretary Ray Connors

 JUST WHO IS GETTING RICH?

     By now, those of you who are working under Dugan’s “richest contract in the history of the building trades” may be wondering just who is getting rich.

     Let’s start with wages. Members are receiving only $1.00 per hour on their check. From that $1.00, you must first pay 3% administrative dues. That leaves you with 97 cents per hour. Reduce that by an average of 28% for federal and state taxes (and many operators pay much more), and you are left with 70 cents. Based on a 40-hour week, that makes for a grand total of maybe a $28.00 per week raise on your check. That’s rich? That won’t even pay for the increased cost of gas to get you to work!

     Next, we have the pension annuities that all members under this contract are forced to buy. Annuities are a very good investment for retirement. But that’s just what annuities are, an investment. Not everyone’s situation is the same, and the choice to invest in annuities, and the amount of that investment, should be made voluntarily by each member individually, based on his or her circumstances. Why should every member who works under that particular contract be forced to allow someone else to dictate to them how they should invest their wages?

     Likewise, shouldn’t every member have the same opportunity to participate in an annuity plan if they so choose? Making voluntary annuities available to every member of Local 150 is part of Joe Ward’s and Team 150’s plan for our future. You will choose whether or not to participate, and in the type of annuity and the amount with which you feel comfortable.

     Health and welfare annuities — that’s a good one! This is nothing more than taking even more of your money and putting it into health and welfare, under a different name. Does this mean that Dugan and his slate believe that their current health and welfare plan will not be able to pay for our health care and are forcing members to put even more of their wages into an additional health care fund? I’d say that’s a pretty good guess. So, once again, they choose to just take more money from the members, instead of trying to find ways to control the local’s cost for our members’ health care.

     What about contract language? In this “rich” contract, Dugan thinks it’s so great that craft foremen are selected by agreement of the employer and the union. Where the hell has he been for the last decade? If you can actually get Dugan’s agents to let you see one, you will find that, in the contracts we have negotiated in Indiana, the union alone has been selecting craft foremen for years. I suppose including that same language in this contract was just a little too difficult for this “negotiating team”.

     Contrary to what he says, during the 17 years that I was on staff, Bill Dugan only rarely took any part in any contract negotiations. I surely can’t understand why he, or anyone else, would want to take credit for this one.

     One last comment about this contract: Bill Dugan and the UEP have told all of us that this contract was “unanimously” ratified by the members of Districts 1, 2, and 3. Now, the last time I checked my dictionary, unanimous meant, “agreed upon by everyone”.

Are we to understand that every single member in Districts 1, 2, and 3 voted for this contract, or is this just another one of Dictator Bill’s examples of “everyone agreed”?

     THINK ABOUT IT.

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