Tue Apr 24, 2012 at 04:47 PM PDT
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Building Trades Unions Win PW Case in Court
We recently won a very important and very favorable decision from the Kentucky Supreme Court upholding Kentucky’s prevailing wage law against an aggressive attack by a non-union contractor, Teco Mechanical. The Court unanimously made a forceful statement in support of the statute and the way it is used to protect workers’ rights to fair wages. Both the Franklin Circuit Court and the Kentucky Court of Appeals had upheld the law, but the Supreme Court’s decision is even stronger in the law’s favor. Teco claimed that the law was unconstitutional (1) because it did not give contractors a hearing before the Labor Cabinet assessed and attempted to collect back wages from prevailing wage projects and (2) because the law did not give the Cabinet sufficient guidance by defining each classification of construction worker. The Supreme Court rejected both of those arguments. This case began in 2001 when several TECO workers contacted the Labor Cabinet alleging that Teco had underpaid them. Teco later filed suit in Franklin Circuit Court to challenge the constitutionality of the statute and the way it was enforced. We intervened on behalf of the Kentucky State Building & Construction Trades Council and participated in the case from the beginning. As part of our intervention in the case, our firm pushed a legal theory that the Supreme Court used to form the basis of its strong opinion. Buddy Cutler Priddy, Cutler, Miller & Meade, PLLC cutler@pcmmlaw.com
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IBEW Leads Way to Help Tornado Victims In Area
IBEW Local 369 will be collecting items for the victims of the tornado’s in Kentucky and Indiana. Any clothes, household items or non-perishable items can be dropped off at: IBEW Local 369
4315 Preston Hwy. Suite 102 Louisville, KY 40213
Any checks or cash donations will be forwarded to The United Way.
Thank you,
Bill Finn
Business Manager
IBEW Local 369
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Union Membership UP in 2011
Union membership data released by the Bureau of Labor Statistics today shows that in the private sector, union membership increased by about 110,000, with union density holding steady at 6.9 percent. Union density remained unchanged between 2010 and 2011 because union employment increased at the same pace in 2011 as overall employment in the sector.
In the construction industry, there has been a significant uptick last year in both members of unions, and workers covered under a union contract (such as in a Project Labor Agreement) nationally. This is quite good news after the recession, that shows that construction trades unions are recovering. The recession saw the shrinking of union membership by almost a third. Now there are 874,000 union members in construction in 2011, an increase of 9.1% in one year. Moreover, 54,000 additional workers that were not members of unions, were covered by union contracts, which represents a significant jump of 45% between 2010-2011. This shows that increasingly, construction workers, both union and non-union, are being represented by unions at the bargaining table.
The survey data also shows that workers with union representation earn higher wages, more likely to receive healthcare and work full-time.
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