DETROIT – Thousands of highly skilled Michigan carpenters who are trained to work on any construction project are currently out of work and looking for jobs today – a fact that refutes claims in recent media reports of a so-called shortage of skilled tradespeople in Michigan.

“Right now, thousands of Michigan carpenters are ready to get to work and meet the growing demand for skilled workers – and we urge contractors to hire these carpenters, who are the best trained in the industry,” said Michigan Regional Council of Carpenters and Millwrights Executive Secretary-Treasurer Mike Jackson today. “Our carpenters pay for the best training in the world out of their own pockets. These are men and women who are professionals and who can get the job done right, on budget and on time, and they’re ready to help the building and construction industry grow in Michigan.”

The MRCC, which represents 14,000 members, sent a letter to Gov. Rick Snyder and the Michigan Legislature refuting media reports about a shortage of skilled workers capable of meeting growing demands in a recovering building sector. The MRCC also invited  Gov. Snyder and the Legislature to support efforts to put Michigan carpenters back to work.

The MRCC letter read: “Many carpenters in our Council are ready to show up at any job site anywhere in Michigan, get to work right now and help rebuild Michigan’s economy. The problem may be less about worker shortages, and more about whether some companies are willing to pay a fair wage for highly skilled, fully certified carpenters capable of doing any job, producing superior products and saving costs for businesses and customers.

“We invite those in the construction sector who say they can’t find quality, qualified carpenters to look no further than the carpenters who go through privately funded apprenticeship programs, jointly managed by the MRCC and our many private sector contractor partners.”

The letter went on to read: “Every year, we graduate more and more skilled apprentices who join the ranks of carpenters looking for work. We have the capacity to graduate even more carpenters, but either the work simply isn’t out there or, if news reports are to be believed, some companies won’t pay fair wages for skilled workers.

By hiring these professional skilled carpenters, we can resolve the alleged worker shortage, help meet consumer demand and get people back to work in good-paying local jobs.”

Below is the full letter, delivered June 12.

To the Hon. Gov. Snyder and members of the Michigan Legislature:

We wish to let you know that the Michigan Regional Council of Carpenters and Millwrights and our 14,000 members are concerned about misleading news reports falsely claiming that Michigan has a shortage of skilled, trained carpenters. This is NOT true.

As an organization whose members go from site to site looking for work only to be turned down more often than not – our story of the past decade – the MRCC is extremely concerned about these misleading reports.

Many carpenters in our Council are ready to show up at any job site anywhere in Michigan, get to work right now and help rebuild Michigan’s economy. The problem may be less about worker shortages, and more about whether some companies are willing to pay a fair wage for highly skilled, fully certified carpenters capable of doing any job, producing superior products and saving costs for businesses and customers.

We invite those in the construction sector who say they can’t find quality, qualified carpenters to look no further than the carpenters who go through privately funded apprenticeship programs, jointly managed by the MRCC and our many private sector contractor partners.

These rigorous four-year apprenticeships produce the best-trained carpenters around, skilled in the latest tools, techniques and safety methods. 

Our carpenters are trained to get the job done right, on budget and on time. They are drug tested and highly committed to safety. For these men and women, being a carpenter is a profession they are proud to do their entire lives and pass down from one generation to the next. It is a career that helped build Michigan’s middle class and one that deserves our fullest and continued support.

We also wish to emphasize that carpenters pay for their training out of their own money, NOT taxpayer dollars. As you may recall, the State of Michigan has twice before tried to use tax dollars to train people in skilled trades work, and these schemes resulted in failure. We urge you not to replicate this failed experiment that wasted scarce taxpayer dollars. Carpenters strongly believe that government and special interests shouldn’t ask taxpayers to subsidize their training.

Every year, we graduate more and more skilled apprentices who join the ranks of carpenters looking for work. We have the capacity to graduate even more carpenters, but either the work simply isn’t out there or, if news reports are to be believed, some companies won’t pay fair wages for skilled workers.

By hiring these professional skilled carpenters, we can resolve the alleged worker shortage, help meet consumer demand and get people back to work in good-paying local jobs.

We encourage you to join us in promoting the world-class training our carpenters receive through privately-funded apprenticeships and help connect them with businesses in need of workers.

Thank you for your attention to this matter.

Mike Jackson

Executive Secretary-Treasurer

Michigan Regional Council of Carpenters and Millwrights

June 12, 2013

CC. Lt. Gov. Brian Calley

Senate Majority Leader Randy Richardville

Senate Democratic Leader Gretchen Whitmer

Speaker of the House Jase Bolger

House Democratic Leader Tim Greimel

Members of the Michigan Legislature

The scholarship is being made available through the workers’ compensation community, which union carpenters and millwrights are a part of.

This scholarship is offered to children with a parent that has suffered a catastrophic injury or fatality compensable under Michigan Workers’ Compensation Law and can demonstrate financial need. The child must be between the ages of 17 and 22 seeking higher education at any Michigan college, community college or vocational or trade school. Awards range from $2,500 to $5,000.

The deadline for applying for the fall/winter 2014 term is Sept. 30.

Information from the Kids Chance of Michigan website is included below. You can also read it at: http://kidschanceofmi.org/scholarship/.

INFORMATION ABOUT KIDS’ CHANCE OF MICHIGAN SCHOLARSHIP

1.  Which kids are eligible for the Scholarship?

To be eligible for the Scholarship, the kid’s parent must have sustained a catastrophic injury or fatality in a Michigan work related accident covered by workers’ compensation.  The parent’s injury or death must be compensable under Michigan Workers’ Compensation Law.  There cannot be any dispute regarding the compensability of the parent’s injury/death.

2.  What are the criteria for the Scholarship?

The applicant must meet standards set by the Executive Committee of KIDS’ CHANCE OF MICHIGAN, LLC.  The standards are based primarily on the financial needs of the student.  The applicant must be a Michigan resident, between the ages of 17-22, and must demonstrate financial need related to the parent’s injury/death.

3.  What is the length of the Scholarship?

The Scholarship is good for one school year or term and may be contingent upon grades.  The applicant may reapply at the end of one school year or term for the Scholarship for following school year or term.  Renewals are contingent upon availability of funds.

4.  What does the Scholarship cover?

Scholarships from $2500.00 to $5000.00, depending on the availability of funds and the number of qualified applicants, are applicable at any accredited college, community college, trade or vocational school within Michigan.  Scholarships are paid directly to the educational institution.  Scholarships may cover tuition and books not covered by other grants and/or scholarships.

5.  What documentation is needed along with the completed application?

The Scholarship Committee will not review your application until it has received copies of all documents referenced in the scholarship application form, (see below) (Additional information may be requested to verify data received)

DOWNLOAD APPLICATION
Scholarship Application in PDF Format
Scholarship Application in Word Format

Please send to:
Kids’ Chance of Michigan
c/o Scholarship Committee
300 E. Long Lake Rd., Suite 200
Bloomfield Hills, Michigan  48304-2376
Phone: 248-205-2760

Source: http://kidschanceofmi.org/scholarship/

Nick McCreary, Canada Coordinator for the MRCC

nick.mccreary@hammer9.com

Office: (313) 832-3887

Learn more about workin in Canada at Carpenters.org

Snyder spoke about priorities hardworking Michiganders care about. Creating jobs, keeping taxes low, reducing the size of government. We discussed the endorsement of the Michigan Regional Council of Carpenters and Millwrights, a more than 14,000-member union with more Republicans and independents in our ranks than Democrats.

During our lunch in downtown Detroit, Snyder emphasized he wasn’t a partisan politician. He looked me in the eye and said if he were elected governor, he would do everything in his power to keep so-called “right to work” proposals off his desk. With his promise, our union endorsed Snyder for governor.

In the same discussion, we promised to stand with Snyder. That included when he announced some of his most ambitious plans as governor: new development projects and a Detroit-Windsor crossing.

We kept our word to Snyder. In December 2012, Snyder broke his to us.

The same man who promised not to take up right to work and who testified before Congress in February 2012 that right to work was “a very divisive issue” lied when he made Michigan a right to work state.

As his party’s standard-bearer, Gov. Snyder’s fraud about right to work is symptomatic of a larger problem that plagues Republicans, who control all branches of Michigan’s government: They can no longer be trusted about anything because the Republican Party in Michigan can’t even keep its most basic promises.

The party that keeps promising lower taxes is raising taxes on retirees, slapping a new health care tax on ordinary citizens and jacking up the overall tax burden of families who are already struggling to make ends meet. As if that’s not enough, Snyder now wants people who drive to pay more, hiding what really is another tax behind the euphemism, “user fee.”

The party that denounces government intrusions is itself intruding into local communities, removing elected officials, installing handpicked outside bureaucrats and reversing voters’ rights. The party that loudly vows to make government smaller is now plotting to hijack Michigan’s Electoral College system and change the rules because it doesn’t like the results of the 2012 elections.

The party that claims to cherish freedom only throws around the words “freedom” and “choice” when they can no longer sell their ideas to the public – from reducing workers’ voices at the workplace and calling that “choice,” to letting unscrupulous companies cut corners and calling that “freedom.”

Snyder and Republicans are playing word games because they know their brand is a pale shadow of what their party once was.

Snyder and the modern Republican Party in Michigan have betrayed the principles many of our union members who support true common-sense conservative ideals embrace. Snyder’s lies and deceptions make it worse. And since his double-cross on right to work, Snyder’s polling numbers have plunged, his approval down by 20-plus points, for good reason.

People see through Snyder and the Republicans and realize they will cheat to win. Snyder tries to sell his gas tax as a “user fee,” claiming it affects only people who use Michigan roads. Yet his right to work laws let people avoid paying the “user fee” of union dues while benefiting from the union process. That’s unfair and people know it.

Head-spinning hypocrisy like this is not doing the Republican brand any favors. And Michigan voters are realizing Snyder and his Republican colleagues are not done hoodwinking Michigan families.

Learn More About Hammer9

“State GOP vs. the people”

As his party’s standard-bearer, Gov. Rick Snyder’s fraud about right-to-work is symptomatic of a larger problem that plagues Republicans: They can no longer be trusted about anything because the Republican Party in Michigan can’t even keep its most basic promises.”

http://www.freep.com/article/20130331/OPINION04/303310106/Letters-Know-whom-to-blame-as-you-file-your-state-tax-returns

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Learn More About Hammer9

(DETROIT) — The economic messages varied greatly this morning depending on which end of the Cobo Center you found yourself.

Inside a crowded room on one end, Gov. Rick SNYDER kicked off an economic summit with the state’s business leaders. Snyder’s focus today was growing and keeping high-quality talent in Michigan.

With recent policy changes, including Right to Work, Saros said, “I cannot believe what my home state’s turning into.”

DETROIT – Inside Cobo Hall, Detroit’s convention arena, corporate CEOs gathered to discuss the state’s economy at Gov. Snyder’s two-day economic summit.

Outside, cheers broke out when Registered Nurse John Armelagos declared, “While the governor entertains his rich friends, we gather for the ‘real’ economic summit.”

Armelagos was joined by several hundred others from We Are Michigan, a statewide labor and community based organization, protesting the governor’s failed policies of austerity and trickle-down economics. He noted in Detroit’s ‘real’ economy, the unemployment rate is “officially about 20 percent but probably closer to 40.”

He said those austerity policies included the stealing of millions from pensioners, the raising of taxes on the states’ poorest by gutting the Earned Income Tax Credit, and defunding education, all to pay for a $1.4 billion dollar corporate tax break.

Armelagos blasted Snyder’s signature legislation, the Emergency Manager Law that undemocratically seizes local control from taxpayers and puts cities under the “dictates of unelected czars.” He said it was just discovered that Snyder’s appointment to run Detroit, Kevyn Orr, can’t even maintain his own taxes. (The Detroit News reported the state of Maryland had four tax liens on Orr’s million dollar home totaling more than $32,000 in unpaid taxes).

He said the Governor’s “worst act” was his signing of Right-to-Work (for less) legislation after right-wing Amway billionaire and former Michigan Republican gubnatorial candidate Dick DeVos gave Snyder what Armelagos called “his marching orders.”

JoAnn Rowland, a twenty five year member of Carpenter’s Local 687 had some sage advice for Governor Snyder. She stated our most valuable resource is not “corporate interests” but “the people of the state.”

She said the construction industry is a leading economic indicator and these days it’s not looking good. “On a daily basis I talk to our men and women. They are struggling, worried they are going to lose their homes, or not be able to feed their families.”

With good reason, she’s a strong advocate for labor rights. “I know myself, as a woman, if it weren’t for belonging to a union, having their support, having them educate me in my trade, I wouldn’t be able to raise my family in the manner I did.” She worried women and minorities might be “especially” hurt if unions are weakened.

Metro Detroit AFL-CIO President Chris Michalakis said we are seeing a widespread shift of taking money from working people and putting it in pockets of big corporations. “It’s a double whammy; we no longer have an elected government.”

Michalakis announced the next major action. On March 28th, the day after Right-to-Work takes effect, everyone is being asked to wear “red” to work. All across the state there will be rallies, candlelight vigils and workplace actions.

Governor Snyder is up for re-election in 2014 and that date is not far from people’s minds. “We gotta kick him out,” said Michalakis.

Photo: John Rummel/PW

http://peoplesworld.org/to-fix-the-real-economy-stop-attacks-on-working-families/