Building Michigan
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THETHE BUILDINGBUILDING TRADESMANTRADESMAN Official Publication of the Michigan Building and Construction Trades Council VOL. 69, NO. 24 Since 1952 • Serving the highly skilled men and women in Michigan’s building trade unions 65 Cents November 27, 2020 SHORT Pro-worker candidates made some gains CUTS on U.S. Election Day By Ron Bieber ‘I’m a union guy’ President, Michigan AFL-CIO Viewpoint Biden declares LANSING – This month’s Biden made gains from Ushering in a new climate elections were truly historic. Go- Clinton’s 2016 margins in two- in the White House, President- ing into Election Day, we knew thirds of the counties in Michi- elect Joe Biden met with union that a record-breaking number of gan, something that did not hap- officials and CEOs on Nov. 16 people had exercised their right pen in any other swing state. to discuss plans for the to vote by mail, in large part due Biden worked for these votes, economy and what steps need to the raging pandemic. What we visiting Michigan often and mak- to be taken to help workers. did not know was that American ing sure to speak with working The meeting, which was voters would reject an incumbent folks while he was here. Michi- virtual due to COVID-19, and in- president for just the fifth time in gan residents also know Biden as cluded Vice President elect Ka- the last 100 years. someone who stood by us mala Harris, AFL-CIO President Now that the dust has through the last recession, work- Richard Trumka, Mary Kay settled, Republican activists have ing diligently on the auto rescue Henry, president of the Service stopped chanting “stop the and listening to us as he did so. Employees International Union, count” and all Michigan’s votes •We re-elected U.S. Sen. Gary Rory Gamble, president of the have been tallied, we know that Peters. Peters has a strong record DENTIL MOLDING in the upper reaches of the Michigan Central Station’s former Waiting Room United Auto Workers, Lee the November 2020 elections were of delivering for working people gets the attention of a BAC Local 2 mason working for Ram Construction Services. Saunders, president of the huge for labor unions and the pro- and for Michigan. Six of his bills American Federation of State, worker candidates that we sup- have been signed into law by County and Municipal Employ- Got you covered: masonry ported. The Michigan AFL-CIO, President Donald Trump, more ees, and Marc Perrone, presi- in tandem with our affiliates, con- than any other Democrat in the dent of the United Food and stituency groups and partner or- Senate, with the most recent one Commercial Workers Interna- ganizations all over this state, coming less than three weeks tional Union. CEOs included work restores train station worked hard to accomplish our ago. General Motors CEO Mary By Marty Mulcahy company’s mobility team, and an BAC Local 2 union masons goals this year, and we won big: He is a senator that puts sub- Barra, Microsoft president and Editor additional 2,500 jobs with Ford’s and laborers. They have been •Joe Biden won Michigan de- stance over style – and his oppo- CEO Satya Nadella, Target DETROIT – Opened in partners and suppliers. hard at work over the past two cisively. Union members rebuilt nent drew a sharp contrast, never chairman and chief executive 1913 and abandoned to scrap- One of the project’s first pri- years on the lower train station the blue wall of Michigan, Wis- bothering to put an “issues” sec- Brian Cornell and Sonia Syngal, pers and the elements after the orities is to make the structure is and attached 15-story office consin, and Pennsylvania. That tion on his campaign’s website, CEO of Gap. last passenger train left in 1988, weather-tight for the next genera- tower, performing repair and was critical to the outcome of this and closing the campaign with The meeting was the first the city’s iconic Michigan Cen- tion. Performing much of that restoration work on no less election, and it was earned in ev- name-calling. We made sure to time that Biden had convened a tral Station has been getting work has been Ram Construction than eight acres of masonry. ery corner of this state, with a fi- communicate with our members group of business or labor lead- some major TLC over the past Services and its workforce of (Continued on Page 2) nal margin of 50.5 percent to that John James is a pro-Trump ers since he won the presiden- two years, brought about by its Trump’s 47.9 percent. (Continued on Page 2) tial election on Nov. 7. “I’m look- new owner, the Ford Motor Co. COMPLETED IN 1913, the 15-story ing forward to hearing what’s Inside and out, the 600,000 Michigan Central Station was the on your mind,” Biden said to the square-foot building is being tallest in the world at the time. Union leaders cheer group. “What is top of mind on transformed by construction Conceived in 1908, the year the Covid and getting back to work manager Christman-Brinker Model T was introduced to safely?” joint venture. Combined with the world, the Biden’s win, but At the meeting Trumka upgrades to surrounding prop- building’s brought up a few key points that erties, the construction work entire he wanted the Biden adminis- will yield a 1.2-million-square- space temper expectations tration to focus on including foot innovation campus where was never WASHINGTON (Press Asso- of further relief for jobless work- hiring a full time OSHA director Ford and its partners will work fully ciates) – As might be expected, ers left unemployed by the which the agency hasn’t had on autonomous and electric utilized. union leaders cheered the Elec- coronavirus pandemic. under Trump, making an invest- vehicle businesses, and design toral College and popular vote It also includes a raft of other ment in retrofitting workplaces urban mobility services and so- victory of the 2020 Democratic pro-worker provisions, such as and classrooms to keep work- lutions. The project will bring ticket of Joe Biden and Kamala special aid for airlines contingent ers safe during COVID-19, and approximately 2,500 Ford em- Harris. And some, in their state- on keeping all their workers – most creating a permanent infectious ployees to the city’s Corktown ments, added expectations for the of them unionists – on the job and disease standard. neighborhood, most from the new administration of Biden in the a mandate to the Occupational “The most important thing White House and Harris, the first Safety and Health Administration we can do on Day 1 is to rees- Black woman and first Asian- to order firms to create and imple- tablish OSHA’s mission of pro- American, as VP. ment anti-virus protection plans. tecting workers” said Trumka. But whether and when those “While we don’t know the final “For four years, OSHA has been expectations will be met will prob- composition of the Senate, we AWOL. There’s been no full- ably turn on the outcome of the (Continued on Page 3) time director. There are fewer in- two remaining U.S. Senate races: spectors today than at any The Jan. 5 runoffs in Georgia be- Labor has point in the agency’s history.” tween Democrats Jon Ossoff and The meeting with union Raphael Warnock, and incum- legislative leaders and CEO’s was the lat- bent Republicans Kelly Loeffler est step in Biden forging ahead and David Perdue. with his transition, even as If the two Democrats win, the priorities Trump refuses to concede the Senate is tied 50-50 and Harris election or allow departments to breaks the tie to create a Demo- with Biden – work with the Biden Transition cratic-run Senate. If they lose, team. Biden said the objective Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., re- that aren’t of the meeting was to “get our mains Majority Leader, with the economy back on track. We all avowed aim of – again – deep- shared by GOP agree on the common goals, just sixing Biden/Democratic proposals, By Mark Gruenberg have a slightly different per- notably the union-friendly Protect PAI Staff Writer spective.” The Right To Organize Act. WASHINGTON (PAI) – Con- Playing off of his cam- AFL-CIO President Richard gressional passage of the Protect paign message of “Build Back Trumka put the Pro Act as No. 2 The Right To Organize (PRO) Act, Better,” Biden told the leaders BRICKLAYERS AND ALLIED Craftworkers Local 2 members employed by Ram Construction on labor’s to-do list for Biden and the most pro-worker rewrite of that we can’t just go back to Services set a replicated section of a capital piece atop a column in front of the Michigan Central Harris, second only to Senate U.S. labor laws since the original the old economy and said that Station. The replicated limestone section was manufactured by Capital Stoneworks. approval of the Heroes Act, which 1935 National Labor Relations he remains optimistic that would provide trillions of dollars Act, is high among Democratic American business and work- President-Elect Joe Biden’s eco- ers can emerge from the crisis By Marty Mulcahy pipeline owner Enbridge violat- sition that protects Michigan’s nomic priorities, assuming he suc- stronger. Whitmer seeks Editor ing the public trust doctrine, and energy needs over the coming cessfully takes office on Jan. 20. In a press conference after LANSING – Gov. Gretchen “given the unreasonable risk that months.