All OUT REPORTING IS NEEDED TO GAIN REFORMS AND STOP THE WAR OF WORDS BETWEEN CONSTRUCTION LABOR BOSSES AND NON UNION CONTRACTORS
November 7,2008
There is a constant daily all out media war being conducted in the construction industry by the labor bosses and non union contractors in Massachusetts that needs truth and investigative reporting to truly inform the citizenry. The media in some sort of continuous analysis must present the reality of the situation in order to be a catalyst for the required reforms.
The babble and phony statements continue relative to union and non union projects. The labor bosses on one side and so called non union contractors on the other side. The highly paid construction bosses out of touch with their members and taxpayers continue their show boating. The unions themselves squabble among themselves with various crafts raiding the others' work on job sites. The so called non union contractors keep on giving misinformation and working for goals of little or no oversight by maintaining a blind eye to the rampant fraud and abuse
The bottom line is prevailing wage laws on public works projects and their intention is good for the industry and taxpayers. The laws insure quality in construction be a union or non union contractor doing the work utilizing public taxpayer dollars.
The problem is the laws are not being properly enforced by state government to insure that a dollars work of public works construction for a dollar being paid. The labor bosses themselves are to be blamed since they destroyed the Secretariat of Labor. These same bosses continually cover up non enforcement, monitoring, and their destruction of proper enforcement. The Attorney General does not employ a system of systematic construction workplace inspections that continues to result in widespread cheating both in construction and employment laws. Workforce Development continues not to function properly with politically appointed managers who knowingly allow the crisis in former labor boss roles who now manage the agency.
Coupled with the labor bosses and so called open shop contractors war are the victimizing of union and nonunion workers and taxpayers. Bid ,Workers Compensation Employment, Wage and Hour, Tax, Safety, Development and Engineering laws, rules, and regulations are literally not being enforced in public and private construction works.
Even the BIG DIG with the original price tag going from two billion to twenty three billion has not awakened the Governor and Legislature. Honest employers and their employees be union or non union who maintain proper standards are being forced to compete against those unscrupulous contractors who cheat and rarely fear getting caught.
The time has come for another WARD type Commission which was implemented during the Government Center construction scandal be formed to deal with public and private construction Procurement and Bid Laws. However, this time there must be built in continuous monitoring and enforcement, to protect government funding, the taxpayers and citizens. The so called labor bosses, union and open shop contractors, engineers, architects, government officials must realize and address this reality. Public Interest and not self interest must come first.
