Deep Bore Tunnel Contract Awarded
SEATTLE – The Washington State Department of Transportation announced a winner Thursday afternoon for the contract to build a deep bore tunnel under downtown Seattle.
But just a few hours earlier, opponents of the tunnel vowed to defend city taxpayers from being stuck with part of the bill.
The winning bid came from Seattle Tunnel Partners, made up of several contractors: Spanish-owned Dragados-USA, HNTB Corp., which has a Bellevue office, Tutor-Perini Corp. of Sylmar, California, Frank Coluccio Construction and Mowat Construction based in Western Washington.
The value of their winning bid was $1,018,123,002. Read more and view video…
You may have recieved a reminder robocall in error
You may have received a robo call by error on Wednesday evening. This message was for Executive Board members of the following locals: 247,1388,1707, 1715, 1065, 2154, 2067, 1001, 1273, 306, 204, 711, 1699, 2416, 2396. This was a reminder call for you to attend the meeting with UBC Western Vice President Mike Draper this Saturday December 11th at 10:00AM at the Embassy Suites Portland Airport, 7900 NE 82nd Avenue, Portland Oregon. If you are an Executive Board member of any other local you have received the call in error and we sincerely apologize.
Dale Cannon Speaks!
Dale Cannon, Business Manager of Laborers Local 242 in Seattle, Washington recently addressed his membership in their Locals newsletter and called upon its members to rally against the Carpenters, the Operating Engineers and our trade organization, the National Construction Alliance II (NCA II). Mr. Cannon asserts that the sole purpose of the NCA II is to “raid” other construction unions and exert domination over the industry.
Meanwhile, under his leadership his local is following the advice of their International Associate General Counsel Steve Cuddy who advises Laborers locals “Don’t kid yourself…there are too many construction unions in North America….a consolidation is necessary and will happen”. In 2008 Dale Cannon took the unprecedented move of interfering with an active labor dispute between concrete pump truck companies and the Operating Engineers Union by stepping in and signing them to a Laborers agreement. So much for solidarity!
Local 242 is currently asking its members to sign bargaining cards to force their contractors to go through unnecessary elections. Members are being told that unless the elections are held and are successful, they will be non-union immediately. This is not actually true, but it sounds good and is meant to stir up jobsite hate and discontent between crafts. No doubt many LIUNA members will look back years hence and recall the moment when their relationship with their contractors began to deteriorate beyond repair. By that time Dale Cannon will be a dim memory, but his toxic legacy will still live on.
It is worth stating that the Carpenters and the Operators departed the Building Trades precisely because of these kinds of antics. Perhaps Dale should spend a little more time reading the business pages and skip the comics. He would read of legacy contractors barely hanging on, of decent hardworking craft people who are at risk of losing everything. Now is a good time to remember that our contractors are our partners and we are in a life and death struggle to survive…together.
Whatever Dale Cannon’s motivations, he owes it to his members to level with them. They are smart enough to know that we are not a threat to their livelihood or for that matter whatever labor union they want to belong to. It would indeed be ironic if by his choice of tactic he only succeeded in eroding the contractor base that he currently has and that his members take for granted. Given the responses we have heard from the contracting community that appears increasingly likely. No one needs to “raid” you Dale. You are going to drive away the contractors that you already have all by yourself.
