[NY65912]

Having been in a union for 20 years and now an employer with 3 unions signed on. I fuly support unions. We believe that in construction we get a better trained and safer worker.

The problem for us in construction is that the union is pricing union shops out of the market. Non union shops are able to hire good workers because of the economic conditions. So a non union shop maybe has an hourly cost of $50-75 dolars. Our costs for a union A plumber is $110 per hour. The locals are now learning these lessons due to the fact that 50 - 75% of members are sitting on the bench.

Unions have got to be aware of these conditions and turn out a better more productive worker in order for the employer to be competitive, otherwise they'll be no union shops to work in.