Quote Originally Posted by DJD View Post
I hear ya man...here is another example of what makes me shake my head in disgust...we are bidding a school job in a few weeks. Guess what the prevailing wage is for an electrician in that county? $51.83! Really, how is this reality? Imagine how that job is gonna go as it tries to close out and get ready to open. I can bet some guys will milk that wage!!!

So because of the Unions getting this prevailing wage into law take a look at this worker who was maybe making $45-55k a year with his experience and license and he gets on a job for a year or more making $107, 806 a year. Anyone wonder why the state has a hard time finding money for other things? This is just for electricians.

On this job....(figures are straight out of the bid documents) A laborer makes $20.62 an hour, Ironworker $44.31, Cement Masons $34.31 and on and on. Years ago the schools were built, people made money and all was well except for the spoiled Unions. They couldn't bid these jobs since they paid so much to the men so they scratched the back of politicians and got this law passed to help them compete. Well it hasn't worked very well since they still get almost nothing in the public educational state funded projects. Now, what happens is the private sector is charging the state more for the projects and they are getting tossed together... because you can lose your butt on these jobs if they run over on labor.

I visit these jobs and trust me there is alot of "oh well i'm getting my "X" amount of money I don't care how long it takes" attitude going on. Human nature is what it is.
Amen DJD and the quality of work is no better be it a union man or not! I being an electrician love the wages and as a foreman expect top quality work out of knowledgeable electricians. That is getting hard to find. Even at those wages. State isn't getting what it's suppose to with the wages. As you said cost are cut somewhere and it's in the overall quality of the job.