This work builds upon the work and understanding of the Business Roundtable by J.C.Turner, General President – International Union of Operating Engineers, AFL-CIO and his paper titled “The Business Roundtable and American Labor”; May 1979. It gave the Building Trades a roadmap of what to expect should we not heed his counsel on business & labor!
“It has become apparent that a systematic and well planned campaign is being conducted to totally destroy the building trades… the current attack is the result of a decade of planning and groundwork by the Business Roundtable acting in concert with regional and local construction user associations, the contractor associations, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, pro-business academic institutions and their allies in government… Our real enemy is clearly these large industrial concerns, organized as the Business Roundtable, who are using the contractors and their associations as soldiers in the battle. Their purpose is to put the lid on costs by pressuring their construction contractors to slash wages… The Business Roundtable represents a threat not just to the building trades unions but to the trade union movement as a whole… If corporate America can weaken the hard-won gains of this country’s construction unions, the ultimate target will be the entire trade union movement…” May 1979
The research & conclusions is based on years of research and 483 individuals & groups; and is still ongoing.
There are hundreds of accounts from mostly veteran trades persons sharing application info with us regarding info they are increasingly have to provide when going to work. We separated info needed for secured & TWIC sites vs others. Also we have scores of supervision, giving us accounts on how their employer treats their union status among other issues. We also have several accounts from former execs of construction companies; obtained during the course of anti-union workshops about unionized worksites. Please visit the CURT Construction Users Roundtable and see for yourself. CURT is benign with comments regarding unions, and is not recognizing our skills, apprenticeships, etc… that the building trades bring to their job sites. What they & their surrogates are saying at our meetings, is not what their saying on the record; or doing behind the scenes!
Consider the following:
- Major end users, especially CURT (Construction Users Round Table)represented companies, may be compiling multi-year demographical information on our skilled Building Trades workers to include, but not limited to:
- Time on the road
- Skills, credentials, licenses, training, etc.
- Age, background, work history, attendance
- Temperament
- Flexibility and multi-craft abilities
- Union tendencies, i.e., calling Reps, grievances, knowing their rights, etc.
- Financial and credit strengths and weaknesses
- Many other diverse aspects of employment
- Major end users, such asCURTaffiliated companies, are major contributors and muscle behind increasing anti-union laws and legislation. labor college union organizing
- Anti-union consultants and attorneys have been busy training not only anti-union contractors on union avoidance, but also have increasingly focused on union contractors becoming double breasted and/or union free altogether. labor college union organizing
- Community colleges and vocational training facilities programs are the single largest growth component in post-secondary education, with a substantial increase in training of Building Trades skills. CURT’s purpose has been to “Empower and enhance the effectiveness of Local User Councils throughout North America”. Local CURT User Councils have a strong level of interest in the skills training of the community colleges as it relates to building trades training.
- Labor-Management cooperation has affordedCURT, which was formed in 2000; a clear and concise look at the inner philosophy of Building Trades unions, including the personality and habits of individual union leaders – all the way up to senior union leadership.
- My research indicates that many union contractors claiming to be “going out of business due to the economy” may be planning a legal absence to satisfy legal requirements related to CBA and ERISA fund laws. Many of these former union companies will re-open as anti-union surrogates and/or contractors, with a still intact book of business of clients and contacts, to launch anti-union business initiatives north and west from the 51 cities that would be the primary host candidate cities to a welcoming CURT clientele. labor college union organizing
The next boom in construction will not parallel former historical increases in market share. Nearly 5 years of research conducted by LaborCombat strongly indicates that the open shop is going to go head to head with us in key union markets, and especially in our remaining bastions of strength, such as Heavy & Highway and other highly targeted end-users.
“if you see a good fight – get in it”
In Solidarity,
Danny L Caliendo
Senior Organizer/Founder
Labor Combat Organizing College
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