A five-day labor dispute has been settled between a Teamsters’ local and the Philadelphia Regional Produce Market.
Teamsters local 929 president Rocky Bryan said his membership voted 106-30 in favor of the three-year package.
Workers will receive that double-time pay on Sundays until they move into the new, $218-million produce distribution center on Essington Avenue later this year.
On pay, the Teamsters members get a $500 bonus, no wage increase the first year, and 30-cents-per-hour increases in each of the next two years.
The Wall Street Journal is reporting that labor officials said they are confident that union-lawyer Craig Becker will take a seat on the National Labor Relations Board within the next few months, signaling that President Barack Obama could make a recess appointment as early as April.
Management and musicians in the Philadelphia Orchestra have agreed to take pay cuts to help the struggling orchestra stabilize.
Through contract modifications, the orchestra says concessions by their musicians have helped them save $4.5 million, in addition to the $3.5 million they already gave up in the past two-and-a-half years.
According to Philly.com, after $1 BILLION in investment losses, Philadelphia’s municipal pension fund has sunk into its biggest hole yet – about $5 billion short of the assets it should be holding to pay future retirement benefits to thousands of city employees.
The Committee of Seventy has released the following in regards to the City Budget and City labor costs:
This week – Thursday, March 4th – Mayor Nutter will give his annual budget address to the city. Yet, of the four unions that represent around 20,000 of the city’s 23,000 workers, only one – the Fraternal Order of Police – has a contract, the terms of which were set by an arbitration panel in December 2009. Contracts for the other three unions on issues including employees’ wages and benefits – which make up almost 60% of the general operating budget – are still unresolved, even though they expired back in June 2009.
With so many major question marks, will the city be forced to talk about service cuts and layoffs? Committee of Seventy’s “In the Know:” Labor Costs and the Budget will explore the strong connection between labor costs and the budget.
On March 1, 2010 the Philadelphia Inquirer reported that workers went on strike at the Philadelphia Regional Produce Market in a contract dispute.
The members of Teamsters Local 929 prevented vehicles from entering the South Philadelphia facility after walking off the job at 12:01 a.m., but the blockade ended this morning after union officials were served a court injunction limiting the number of pickets to two, according to TV news reports.
Overtime and management’s efforts to get workers to make health and welfare contributions are at the center of the dispute.
The market, which supplies produce to restaurants and retailers throughout the region, is to move to a new, $218.5 million facility on Essington Avenue later this year.
Nonresidential building contractors are now experiencing the worst of the recession. Their reserves have been depleted by the long slowdown.
Available work keeps shrinking as project completions exceed project starts even though starts have rebounded significantly from their lowest level last summer. Wage rate gains have slowed, but the inflexibility of union contracts has delayed the recession impact on wages for many contractors.
Construction materials prices are now rising again.
Cost rises are difficult to pass through to building owners in a weak market so they reduce contractors’ margins. The plight of nonresidential building contractors will worsen at least into the summer. … Read More
A leading indicator of U.S. nonresidential construction spending fell in January to its lowest level since August 2009 as construction projects kept getting delayed or canceled, an architects’ trade group said on Wednesday.
The Architecture Billings Index was down up 2.9 points to 42.5 last month, according to the American Institute of Architects. The index has remained below 50, indicating contraction in demand for design services, since January 2008. Its lowest recent reading was in January 2009, when it reached a revised 33.9 level.
Pennsylvania is plagued by many obstacles when it comes to building public structures. One of the worst culprits is the Pennsylvania Separations Act of 1913.
This archaic act requires separate bids to be awarded for a minimum of four (4) prime contract packages; general trades, electrical, plumbing, and HVAC. Under the Mandate Waiver Program, established by Act 16 of 2000 and administered by the Department of Education, a school entity may apply for a waiver from these provisions to utilize single prime contracting. Doing so allows them to enjoy the same efficiency as a developer building a neighborhood of homes or a local business erecting their new office complex.
Unfortunately, the legislation that created the mandate waiver program is set to expire in June 2010, and school districts, legislators and state policymakers are being told by an ad hoc collection of “concerned” contractors and trades groups that the multiple prime delivery system is the only way to build schools safely, on time and on budget. Of course, this isn’t the case.
Media inquiries please contact Lisa Godlewski at 215-568-7015 or by email at .
LaborLink is published by the General Building Contractors Association, Inc.,
36 South 18th Street, PO Box 15959, Philadelphia, PA 19103. For information about GBCA please visit our Website gbca.com. GBCA is the Philadelphia Builders' Chapter of the Associated General Contractors of America. It is a construction trade organization dedicated to skill, integrity and responsibility.
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