Report: Collective bargaining agreements create 'robust' middle-class jobs for union construction workers | Dump Trucks Charlotte NC

Dump Trucks Columbus OH Insight:

CBAs are agreements negotiated between employers and unions and cover columbus oh dump truck company terms like rates of pay and other conditions of employment. The study said additional benefits for construction workers in northeastern Illinois covered by CBAs were:

• Wages increased by 11% over three years, beating a 6% rate of inflation.
• The union worker household homeownership rate is 76% compared to 73% for nonunion worker households.
• Union workers are covered by private health insurance at a rate of 98% compared to 70% for their nonunion counterparts. 
• Only 3% of union construction workers receive assistance via the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) compared to 12% of nonunion construction workers.

The big takeaway from the report, said coauthor Frank Manzo, policy director at the IEPI, is that collective bargaining agreements have positive economic impacts beyond just paychecks and that the study can serve as an example of how CBAs benefit communities.

"The Chicago area's construction industry offers a roadmap for family-sustaining careers in a post-COVID economy and, in particular, in construction," said Manzo.

Some construction employer groups, like the Associated Builders and Contractors Illinois Chapter, take issue with the suggestion that CBAs might be necessary in order for workers to achieve financial success.

"The construction industry provides an ideal career path to the middle class, regardless of union affiliation," said Alicia Martin, president of the ABC Illinois Chapter. Martin said that merit shop workers have more take-home pay than their union counterparts, but the ABC could not provide any state or national data on nonunion construction wages.

Martin did point to statistics from the Bureau of Labor Statistics' Current Population Survey that found in 2019 there were more nonunion construction workers in Illinois than union workers, although the survey did not report wage data. 

However, according to coauthor Robert Bruno, director of the labor education program at PMCR, CBAs provide an opportunity for employers and workers to sit down, without government mandate, and decide what’s needed for the employer to be profitable and for workers to earn a fair wage.

“I think what people don’t get,” Bruno said, “is that the collective bargaining process empowers the parties to put on the table what is important to them — to both parties — with an understanding and appreciation that compromise is absolutely essential. … It is an incredibly powerful problem-solving tool to bring these two parties together who defend their own interests but then find common ground.”