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Nonunion construction workers are employees of their companies. Meanwhile, most union members are essentially temps, sent over from the union hall to do a job under the direction of a general contractor or subcontractor. When the job is done, they go back to the union hall and their pay stops.
As full-time employees of our companies, open shop workers draw a regular salary and benefits whether work is hectic or slow. Because of this, company management has an incentive to keep the pipeline full of projects in order to make payroll. Union contractors dont have this incentive. When they have work, they call the union hall for workers to come over. But when there is no work, the union members are not paid. (I once read a newspaper column by a union worker who said he only works half the year. How is that a good deal?)
Merit shop contractors offer their employees a lot of benefits, including health care and 401(k) retirement plans. The construction union workers only get health care if they work enough hours in a year to qualify. They are in a pension plan, though from what I read many of them are severely underfunded and under close scrutiny by the federal government. In addition, open shop workers get many benefits union members do not, including sick days, vacation time and, as I mentioned before, paid holidays.
As an open-shop employee, in addition to being paid prevailing wages on all public jobs, I am also rewarded based on merit. An employer will often offer a bonus for work done efficiently and finished on-time or early. I can be promoted within the company while unions have seniority rules that suppress ambition.
Or I can open my own shop and be my own boss.
