Charles_Main
AR15 Owner
So to make a long story short. I've done a lot of different jobs in my life but right now I live in northern Michigan and work is really hard to find. I have a lot of different construction experience so I have been getting work through this small construction labor service(basically a temp service for construction workers).
Anyways I was recently sent on a job as a laborer at the West Shore Community College near Ludington Michigan. Basically all I was doing was hauling stuff around and cleaning up the site for one day. I think Osha was coming the next day or something. The kicker is I was paid 28.25 per hour to do it. Believe me when I tell you that is much much higher than the going rate for a laborer in this area. So naturally I was interested why. Well when I arrived I had to have a safety orientation in the formans trailer. On the wall was one of those government info sheets about labor laws. There was a whole section that explained that the projected was funded wholly or in part by the Recovery act and there for all workers would be paid the prevailing National Union Wage for the work they were doing even when the workers are not union. Which I am not. Hell if I had been doing what I normally do, which is finishing carpentry I would have been paid a min of 45.34 per hour. double the highest rate I have ever made up here. Either for myself or working for someone else.
Now while I was happy to make 28.25 an hour to push a broom, I can guarantee you there were 10,000 people just in the local area who would happily have done it for half as much. So a 5 Million dollar expansion to a community college is ending up prolly costing 50% more than it should have because of the fact it is paid for by the government rather than private industry.
Also most of the local contrators and sub contractors were priced out of bidding on the job at all. well over 3/4 of the people and companies working on the job were from more than 200 miles away in the Detroit area and as far as Indianapolis ind. While smaller local companies and workers sit unemployed.
Government solutions at work Yay
Anyways I was recently sent on a job as a laborer at the West Shore Community College near Ludington Michigan. Basically all I was doing was hauling stuff around and cleaning up the site for one day. I think Osha was coming the next day or something. The kicker is I was paid 28.25 per hour to do it. Believe me when I tell you that is much much higher than the going rate for a laborer in this area. So naturally I was interested why. Well when I arrived I had to have a safety orientation in the formans trailer. On the wall was one of those government info sheets about labor laws. There was a whole section that explained that the projected was funded wholly or in part by the Recovery act and there for all workers would be paid the prevailing National Union Wage for the work they were doing even when the workers are not union. Which I am not. Hell if I had been doing what I normally do, which is finishing carpentry I would have been paid a min of 45.34 per hour. double the highest rate I have ever made up here. Either for myself or working for someone else.
Now while I was happy to make 28.25 an hour to push a broom, I can guarantee you there were 10,000 people just in the local area who would happily have done it for half as much. So a 5 Million dollar expansion to a community college is ending up prolly costing 50% more than it should have because of the fact it is paid for by the government rather than private industry.
Also most of the local contrators and sub contractors were priced out of bidding on the job at all. well over 3/4 of the people and companies working on the job were from more than 200 miles away in the Detroit area and as far as Indianapolis ind. While smaller local companies and workers sit unemployed.
Government solutions at work Yay
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