The first case of COVID-19 in Michigan was reported on March 10. Rapidly, things changed for everyone in the state, and Operating Engineers 324 members were no exception. As schools were cancelled and restaurants closed, many projects were temporarily stopped, and workers asked to wait out the pandemic. Many others were deemed “essential workers,” from
Working to beat “A Hundred-Year Storm” The scenes were dramatic – a freeway flooded with water up to 14 feet deep. Cars, submerged, their drivers having to climb out to safety. A torrential late summer downpour had caused several Metro Detroit roads and freeways to fill with water, but none so drastic or dangerously as
Operating Engineers 324 today applauded Governor Gretchen Whitmer’s vetoing of several items in the submitted 2019 Transportation budget that would have drastically impacted the state’s ability to move forward on infrastructure. This includes the veto of a section added to the boilerplate language that would have prohibited MDoT from awarding road contracts to union contractors
https://www.detroitnews.com/story/opinion/2019/07/09/letter-let-free-market-competition-fix-roads/1672920001/ A few legislators in Lansing, backed by special interests, are trying to sneak through a proposal to bar many contractors from bidding on state projects. This is government meddling in private commerce. That the Detroit News supports government intrusion into private business is both surprising and disappointing. Here are a few things they fail
“We know what they’re doing is anti-worker, anti-family…and the way they are doing it is anti-American! This is about people. This isn’t about some ‘scary union,’ but what happens when the people get together and decide we’re gonna fight for fair wages and decent benefits. We form a union. That’s made of people, and that’s