Just what we didn’t need…
Local 150 of the International Union of Operating Engineers went on strike at midnight Wednesday against contractors all over the greater metro area of northeast Illinois. The unions’ three-year contracts with construction companies expired May 31. The strike effects hundreds of summer construction projects, from the Eisenhower Expressway down to Downers Grove.
That work stoppage has halted the following projects dead in their tracks:
- The Belmont underpass
- Storm Sewers along Benton
- Washington Park and McCollum Park
- Rogers St.
- Inverness Ave.
- The 8th and Cumnor Stormwater Project
- The following streets in the 2010 Roadway Resurfacing Project: Bonnie Brae, Lyman Ave,Weatherbee Pl & Ave, Lancaster Pl & Ave, Washington St, Meadowlawn Ave, and Whiffen Pl.
From the village website:
When word of a pending strike reached Village officials, steps were immediately taken to ensure that work sites around the community were safely secured. Contractors were instructed to leave each site in a maintainable, neat and passable manner. The Village is also using a combination of telephone, email and hand delivered notifications to reach those along the effected construction routes with specific information regarding the impact of this strike.
Some work deemed essential and covered by a no-strike contract clause will continue. The rest will wait until wage and benefit disagreements can be settled. These are not village employees.
Local 150 operates heavy machinery. Other unions that could follow include carpenters, cement masons and technical engineers. The unions are seeking a 5 percent annual wage increase for three years. The contractors have countered with an offer of 1 percent per year.
The union has released a statement saying contractors are seeking too many concessions, including increased costs for health insurance. The union is not not seeking a net increase in pay, only increases to cover current health benefit costs, according to the statement.
Current wages range from $35.20 an hour for laborers to $45.10 an hour for operating engineers, according to the Mid-America Regional Bargaining Association.
According to the village website no one knows at this point how long the strike will last.
Has the city looked into hiring non-union workers for the Belmont overpass??? Since I think it would be an essential project.
There is hardly any construction jobs and to go on strike makes no sense to me. With so many people out of work I am sure those people would be willing to work on all of the Villages jobs that are now at a stand still.
Just crazy. This strikes shows the greed of the Unions. Non Union all the way.
From chicagounionnews.com:
Most construction contracts have been coming in aggressively priced as companies seek business in the down economy, providing some savings for the village. A possible outcome of the Union action is contractors either asking for more money to cover the increases in labor costs, or companies closing down, and going out of business mid-project.
Cry me a river….. Health care is getting more expensive. These unions have a lot of gall to think they should be insulated from it. If they have a complaint they should demand policies from Wash DC that encourage health care competition and wise use of its resources. Oops that’s right. We just had an opportunity to do that and Obama and his cronies totally blew it.
Dummy’s are just hurting themselves in the end.
good luck trying to get any monies out of the state. I’m all for unions but not for things like this. Things are tough for lots of people, baby, be happy you actually have a job.
Off topic, I am so stupid for ever watching Schwarzenegger movies; his movies make people dumber for watching them. California – Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger Illinois and United States needs him as our Leader, NOT! California State Controller John Chiang for President, to the future leaders Mr. Chiang’s action is an act of courage to the highest level.
Today, four strikers sat at one of deadliest railroad crossings in Illinois and the U.S.. All work had stopped on our long awaited Belmont Underpass. Shame on the Union for their absolute lack of concern for our safety!
George,
Unless any of the strikers live in Downers Grove, they probably don’t know about the dangers of the Belmont crossing. To them, it’s probably just another underpass that residents complained about, because they want to save 5 minutes while getting from A to B.
The Naperville High Schools were able to reach a side deal with the unions, because any significant delay in the work at Naperville Central would force the district to move all of the students to Naperville North and extend the school schedule to past 8pm.
Absent a tragedy at the crossing, I don’t think the unions want to start hammering out agreements for each and every construction project, just to appease taxpayers who want their roads and other municipal construction projects done on time.
If you look at it from the union’s perspective, they want us, the people who want the underpass, to put pressure on the contractors to stop being cheap and agree to the wage increases that the unions want. In other words, shame on the contractors for their absolute lack of concern for our safety.
Perhaps letters from concerned citizens to the contractors, the unions, and the various government entities involved in the project, with some statistics about the accidents at Belmont, would create willingness to come to an agreement for this project.
It always makes me shake my head how quickly people are to blame unions and not think of things from both sides. Anyone who knows about the situation knows that both sides could certainly be more open minded here…
A poor economy is no reason for workers to make less than they are entitled to, and this kind of thinking is what helps make the rich richer…
Wow — so the bottom-wrung guy/gal in this union gets $35+ per hour, or in a standard year (2000 hrs) $70,000 plus benefits. I would actually pay to goof around with the machines these people operate. I say we gracefully accept their mass resignation and bring in people who don’t mind getting paid a lot more than the average worker. (Alternatively, I am available on weekends for minimum wage, but only if I get to use the ditch-witch at least once, and more generally the front-end-loader/backhoe). .
Doctor J – Is this a standard year – or far from it? If you would like to become a laborer, please sign up, good workers are always needed…
Every hour of a strike is lost wages that these union folks will not recoup. The 5% raise that they are looking for will be gone forever if the strike lasts more than a couple weeks. If they make $40 an hour, 80,000 a year, they are looking for a $4000 raise. Striking for 100 hours puts them back to where they started. And this assumes that they are working 2000 hours a year. Maybe in year 2 or 3 of their deal they will come out ahead but it will never be 5%. With so many people out of work and many others making less doing the same thing, why does the union expect a raise? As a friend pointed out, when Ronald Reagan said goodbye to the air traffic controllers, planes didn’t start falling out of the sky. Life will go on and construction projects will take a little longer. Aren’t we used to that anyway?
Someone is working over in Washington Park today. Healthcare costs went up for almost everyone I know and thier first inclination was not to ask for a wage increase. Poor economic times do not seem to me to be the times to ask for what one is “entitled to”. I could make a fairly long list of what I think I am actually entitled to. A number of people I know have not worked for over a year, are they not entitled to a job? They are College grads, MBA’s.
Not Sure — A standard year would be the # of weeks times the number of hours worked per week. While 52 weeks times 40 hours per week comes out at 2080 per year, most companies use 2000 hours instead.
My point is that someone with no investment in training or education can make $75,000 per year and work on the Belmont project for the next couple of years. Instead, they have decided to strike. That is crazy.
One of the pieces of the labor puzzle is hours worked. The previous contract called for 1,600 hours. Contractors are/were seeking a reduction in hours to 1,000.
Whether that was a floor, or whether that’s what the contractors wanted as an average? Don’t know, but the 2,000 hour figure is too high for what they actually, historically, have worked.
Mark, so it’s seems it’s not a simple puzzle. How does the 1600 or 1000 hours play into the contract? Do workers have to meet some minimum hours to qualify for benefits?
You got me, Pete. My comment was triggered off the assumption in comments (incorrect) that the union guys are pulling 2,000 hours. They’re not.
But why they would tear everything up and then go on strike; seems like such a shallow time to do it.
The unions are making agreements with school districts to finish projects before school starts; in return the school districts are committing to using only union labor for the next number of years. I don’t know how that effects 58 roofing, but that seems to be in progress.
Once again, late to comment. I saw the workers at Washington Park last week too and thought they were back to work . I think they were landscapers, not construction workers though.