Carpenter Issues

Right-to-Work | Prevailing Wage | Davis-Bacon Act

Project Labor Agreements | Collective Bargaining | NLRB

Construction Tax Fraud | Worker Misclassification

Responsible Bidder Language | Protecting Union Apprenticeships

Right-to-Work: Less Power. Less Pay. Less Fair.

What Is So-Called “Right-to-Work”?

Don’t be fooled by the name—”Right-to-Work” laws don’t guarantee anyone the right to a job. Instead, these laws weaken unions by stopping them from collecting dues needed to represent and protect workers. In the 26 states with these laws, unions have less power to negotiate for better pay, benefits, and conditions, while non-union workers unfairly benefit from union efforts without paying dues. It’s a free ride that undermines the strength and solidarity of unions.

The Eastern Atlantic States Regional Council of Carpenters remains vigilant, fighting to repeal these unfair laws where they exist and to block any new attempts to weaken unions.
“Right-to-Work” isn’t just an attack on unions; it’s an attack on all workers—giving big corporations more power, lowering wages, compromising safety, and diminishing worker dignity.

What Members Need to Know:

  • Free Loaders: Non-union workers reap union benefits without contributing.
  • Weakens Unions: Makes forming and sustaining strong unions more difficult.
  • Lower Wages: “Right-to-Work” states see lower pay and fewer benefits.
  • Empowers Corporations: Shifts power to big businesses at workers’ expense.
  • Safety Risks: Higher rates of workplace injuries and fatalities.
  • Less Dignity: Impacts your work hours, training, and retirement plans.

Remember: “Right-to-Work” is a Misleading Attack on Worker Power

Reduce Benefits:

11.9%

People in states with “Right-to-Work” laws are not likely to lack health insurance.

Decrease Safety:

37%

“Right-to-Work” states have a 37% higher rate of jobsite accidents.

Decrease Wages:

15.2%

On average, workers in “Right-to-Work” states make 15.2% less than other states.

Prevailing Wage Laws: Fair Pay. All Day.

What Are Prevailing Wage Laws?

Prevailing wage laws make sure that workers on public construction projects get paid a minimum hourly rate and benefits that match local standards for their job and area. These laws help protect workers and their employers from unfair competition and ensure high-quality work in the industry.
In essence, prevailing wage laws ensure workers are paid a fair rate that reflects the area’s going rate.
Prevailing wage laws also fund training and apprenticeship programs, creating long-term career paths for workers, including women and minorities, by providing equal pay for equal work.

Why Do We Need Prevailing Wage Laws?

​​Protecting prevailing wage laws keeps government spending from driving down local wages. This boosts the local economy by supporting fair pay and job security. These laws ensure union carpenters get fair wages, help build a strong middle class, and create a level playing field for union contractors on federal projects.

How Is Prevailing Wage Determined?

The Secretary of Labor sets the prevailing wage based on the local area where the work is performed.

What Does Prevailing Wage Mean for Workers?

  • Fair Pay. All Day: Prevailing wage laws protect you from being underpaid, ensuring you receive a fair wage that matches local standards and reflects your skills and experience.
  • Perk Protection: These laws make sure that your compensation includes crucial benefits like health insurance and retirement plans, safeguarding your overall financial well-being.
  • Equal Playing Field: By setting a standard wage, prevailing wage laws help maintain fair competition among contractors, rewarding those who provide quality work rather than those who cut costs by lowering wages.
  • No Undercutting: These laws prevent contractors from underbidding projects by reducing wages, which helps maintain fair pay and ensures that all workers are fairly compensated.
  • Local Link: They keep job opportunities and money within the community, supporting local businesses and strengthening the local economy.

If Prevailing Wage Goes Away:

  • Lower Pay: You could face reduced wages, impacting your financial security and quality of life.
  • Unfair Competition: Good contractors may struggle against competitors who lower wages to win bids, leading to a race to the bottom.
  • Crooked Contractors: Without prevailing wage laws, dishonest contractors could exploit workers by underpaying them or cutting corners.
  • Fewer Local Jobs and a Weak Economy: Removing prevailing wage protections could reduce local job opportunities and harm the community’s economic health.
  • Lost Benefits: Essential benefits like health insurance and retirement plans might be at risk, affecting your overall financial stability and future.

Defend Fair Pay and Protect Our Workforce!

Did You Know?

“40% of our hours as a union come from state or federal prevailing wage.”

Thomas J. Flynn, General Vice President
United Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners of America

Davis-Bacon Act: Building Fair Pay Into Federal Projects

What is the Davis-Bacon Act?

The 1931 Act requires contractors on federally funded construction projects to pay wages and benefits comparable to the local prevailing wage.

This law protects taxpayer investments by ensuring public projects are built to high standards, keeps local tax dollars in the community, and supports good-paying jobs for highly trained, skilled local workers.

What Members Need to Know:

  • Fair Wages: Guarantees fair pay and prevents wage cuts.
  • Job Security: Supports a strong middle class and quality work.
  • Training Opportunities: Attracts skilled workers and boosts apprenticeship programs.
  • Equal Opportunity: Ensures fair competition for union contractors.

 

How Does it Protect Members?

  • Protects workers’ paychecks and guarantees they are not underpaid.
  • Members are paid on time as contractors must submit workers’ wages, benefits, and overtime weekly.
  • Contractors won’t receive government payment if they don’t follow the law, ensuring they stay honest.

 

What Happens If We Lose It?

  • You get paid less.
  • You quickly lose work.

 

Why We Need to Keep Davis-Bacon:

Without the Davis-Bacon Act, union carpenters could face lower pay and fewer job opportunities. Protecting this law means protecting your paycheck, job security, and the quality of work in our communities.

Davis-Bacon Act tips the scales in your favor!

The EAS Carpenters Union collaborates with bipartisan officials who support this critical law, regardless of party affiliation.

Project Labor Agreements: PLA Saves The Day!

What Is A Project Labor Agreement (PLA)?

A Project Labor Agreement (PLA) is a pre-hire contract between construction unions and contractors that sets the rules before a project starts. It also ensures local and diverse workers and businesses are included in a project.
PLAs benefit workers and taxpayers. They create opportunities for safe, good-paying jobs, community investment, and cost savings.

What Does It Mean For Union Members?

  • Consistent Jobs: Reliable work for union carpenters on major projects.
  • Fair is Fair: PLAs ensure you get the wage and benefits you were promised.
  • Safety First: PLAs enforce stringent safety standards and include training and inspections, improving safety for carpenters.
  • Build Your Skills: PLAs support career training and advancement.
  • Skill Utilization: PLAs prioritize skilled, trained workers, highlighting union carpenters’ expertise and craftsmanship.
  • Work Local: PLAs often require local hiring, helping union carpenters find jobs in their communities.

What Does It Mean For Your Community?

  • No Delay with PLA: Union labor under PLAs is more productive, cutting project costs by 4%, reducing costly overruns and delays, and saving taxpayers money.
  • Cost Conscious: PLAs do not increase project costs; in fact, they often lower them. Union labor’s higher productivity and lower injury rates contribute to this efficiency, again saving taxpayer money.
  • Community Standards: PLAs protect local standards and prevent undercutting by non-union contractors.
  • Decreased Job Interruptions: PLAs help prevent work stoppages and keep projects on schedule, which keeps communities moving.
  • More People Benefit: PLAs support equal employment for diverse individuals and businesses.

Did You Know?

Projects without a PLA:

2X

2x as likely to face 10%+ cost overrun and 25%+ delay

Source: Mechanical Industry Advancement Fund 2022 Independent Project Analysis

Collective Bargaining: Power In Unity

What Is Collective Bargaining?

A Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) is a contract that sets wages, benefits, and working conditions. Every union contractor signs one, and it can be updated regularly.

Collective bargaining uses group strength to ensure union members get the best possible deal at work.

What Does It Matter For Union Members?

  • Your Voice Is Heard: Unions negotiate on your behalf, ensuring your needs and concerns are heard.
  • Fair Play: CBAs provide clear ways to resolve workplace issues, like grievances and arbitration.
  • Better Security: They secure better wages, benefits, and safety measures for workers.

Unions Use Their Strength to:

  • Boost Pay and Benefits: Unions leverage collective power to win better employment terms.
  • Improve Conditions: Unions push for safer and fairer workplaces.

National Labor Relations Act: Fairness Enforcer

What Is The National Labor Relations Act?

The National Labor Relations Act (NLRA), a federal law since 1935, protects your right to improve working conditions and join a union without fear of retaliation.

The NLRA established the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) which enforces these laws to protect your rights and ensure fair treatment.

Think of the NLRB as a union’s umpire, calling fair and foul in the workplace. They ensure workers can join or skip unions, fight unfair practices, and get a fair say—all while keeping the peace with a five-person board and a General Counsel appointed by the U.S. President.

Why Should Union Carpenters Care About the NLRA & NLRB?

  • Union Power! Ensures you can join a union and bargain collectively.
  • Union Muscle! Upholds laws that back union activities and fair negotiations.
  • Supports Your Voice! Helps resolve disputes and protect your rights at work.
  • Collective Is Effective. Lets you take collective action, like strikes, to push for your rights.
  • Fairness Enforcer! Handles complaints about unfair treatment by employers.
  • Nationwide Coverage! NLRB judges handle and decide unfair labor practice cases nationwide, with the General Counsel overseeing investigations and prosecutions.
  • Appointees Matter. Having pro-labor advocates on the NLRB means that workers’ interests are represented at the highest levels.

Did You Know?

A pro-union President matters when it comes to NLRB appointments.

In 2023, unions won over 70% of NLRB elections—the highest rate in 15 years.

Since 2021, the NLRB secured 54% more reinstatements for illegally fired workers than the previous administration.

This success came as the NLRB introduced rules, making it easier for workers to join a union.

Source: Center for American Progress

Construction Tax Fraud: Cheaters In The Industry

What Is Construction Tax Fraud?

Tax fraud in the construction industry hurts everyone—workers, taxpayers, honest contractors, and local communities. Cheating contractors commit tax fraud by misclassifying workers as independent contractors, committing wage theft, using labor brokers, and paying workers under the table.

These tactics allow them to dodge taxes, avoid paying workers’ compensation, and skip out on local taxes that fund public services like schools, infrastructure, and social programs. The result? Workers are underpaid and unprotected, and communities lose vital funding for essential services.

Why Tax Fraud Hurts Us All:

  • Cheaters Cheat Us All: When contractors avoid taxes, they drain funds meant for public services like schools, roads, veterans’ services, and social security.
  • Unfair Competition: Honest contractors are undercut by those who lower their costs illegally.
  • Billions in Losses: Every year, tax fraud costs the public $10 billion, leaving the rest of us to pick up the tab.
  • Workers Get Burned: Fraudsters cheat workers out of fair pay, overtime, benefits, and protection from injury.

What Needs to Be Done:

Our members work tirelessly to educate the public about construction tax fraud, but it’s not enough.

We need stronger enforcement from our leaders and government agencies to hold these fraudulent contractors and labor brokers accountable. Raising fines, closing loopholes, and increasing resources for investigation and prosecution are critical to stopping these greedy practices.

Key Terms Members Should Know:

  • Wage Theft: Workers get shortchanged on pay and overtime.
  • Tax Dodgers: Contractors fake records to dodge taxes.
  • Misclassification: Workers are wrongly labeled as independent contractors to avoid benefits and protections.
  • Under-the-Table Payments: Cash payments evade payroll taxes and worker protections.

Don’t Let Tax Cheats Off the Hook!

Educate, organize, and demand tougher enforcement to protect workers and our communities.

The EAS Carpenters Union stands against tax fraud. Learn how to fight back!

Did You Know?

A cheating contractor can gain a 30% bidding advantage, putting honest wages and safety at risk.

One in five contractors commits tax fraud.

Worker Misclassification: Paycheck Cheats

How Shady Employers Cheat Workers and What You Can Do About It!

What Is Worker Misclassification?

Worker Misclassification is when an employer wrongly labels a worker as an independent contractor instead of an employee.

Misclassification takes billions each year from honest people and gives it to cheaters.

Why Do Companies Misclassify Workers?

In the U.S., employers must pay taxes and benefits for employees. But independent contractors? They’re on their own. With misclassification, shady employers can mislabel workers as independent contractors to pad their profits.

Employers do this to avoid paying taxes and save money, all while denying their workers the rights, income, and benefits that are guaranteed under the law.

Why Is Misclassification A Menace?

  • Wage Robbery: This sneaky move snatches away fair pay, overtime, and protections from workers.
  • No Fair Play: Honest contractors lose jobs while cheaters game the system.
  • Forced into a Corner: Some workers are pushed into unfair and unsafe conditions, even under intimidation.
  • Tax Scam Alert: Communities lose out on crucial revenue thanks to this con.

What Can You Do?

  • Support honest contractors and fair competition.
  • Hold corrupt contractors accountable for using wage-stealing subcontractors and labor brokers.
  • Support enforcement of labor laws.
  • Support elected officials who endorse strong labor laws.
  • Talk to colleagues about this problem.

Union to the Rescue!

The EAS Carpenters Union is here to shield our members from these cheaters and their dirty tricks. Learn more about efforts to stop tax fraud and protect workers. https://stoptaxfraud.net/

Did You Know?

Up to 2.1 Million U.S. Construction Workers
or 19%- Are Illegally Misclassified or Paid Off the Books

Workers Suffer $1.9 Billion in Overtime Wage Theft

Families Pay $5.1 billion More In Taxes As Crooked Employers
Shift Their Tax Obligation Onto Workers

Learn More

 

Source: The Century Foundation 2023 Report

Responsible Bidder Language: Smart Bids, Strong Builds

What is Responsible Bidder Language?

Responsible bidder language is a set of minimum requirements contractors must meet when bidding on taxpayer-funded projects, like schools, bridges, and libraries. It ensures the community gets high-quality work, not just the lowest price.

What are the Key Benefits of Responsible Bidder Language?

  • Quality Over Cost: The lowest bid isn’t always the best option. Responsible bidder language prioritizes safety, quality, and fair pay.
  • Local Jobs: It ensures local workers, who are trained and skilled, are hired for the job.
  • Safety and Training: Contractors must prove participation in apprentice programs, ensuring workers are properly trained.
  • Legal Compliance: Contractors must show they follow the law and have the necessary insurance and qualifications.

Why Does It Matter?

Responsible bidder ordinances safeguard taxpayers. They protect against contractors who may offer low bids but deliver poor results, costing more in the long run. By setting standards for who can bid, communities get reliable, safe, and long-lasting infrastructure.

Protecting Union Apprenticeships: Earn As You Learn

Why Union Apprenticeships?

With the rising cost of education, union apprenticeships offer a powerful alternative for future construction workers. But what exactly is an apprenticeship? It’s a hands-on training program where workers learn skills on the job while earning a paycheck—often called “Earn as You Learn.”

These programs are funded by contractors and unions like the EAS Carpenters and provide cutting-edge education in state-of-the-art facilities. They also enforce strict safety standards to ensure that workers, as well as the public, remain safe.

Why Protect Union Apprenticeships?

Recently, some politicians and non-union construction groups have tried to weaken these high-quality programs by pushing for new, watered-down “apprenticeships.” These would lower standards, harm the industry, and put future workers at risk.

What’s at Stake?

  • Free Education: Union apprenticeships provide an affordable path to learning a skilled trade.
  • Safety First: Apprentices meet strict safety and training standards.
  • A Strong Future: The next generation deserves the best training to succeed in construction and fuel our economy.

We need to protect union apprenticeships to ensure high-quality training for the skilled workers of tomorrow!

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