🔒Viewpoint: Merit shops comprise majority of construction workforce

When it comes to counting members, organized labor includes those swinging golf clubs along with those swinging hammers. Dues-paying retirees are counted along with working members. 

This can lead to the perception organized labor is bigger than it is. For example, carpenters’ union Local 336 reported about 1,800 members in the WBJ’s Shop Talk entitled “Striving for progress” on Sept. 19. That number includes retirees.

Local 336’s active membership is actually about 75% of its total membership, according to numbers it self-reported on its annual report to the U.S. Department of Labor. The Local 336 business agent was making the case he had the workforce size to meet project demands. A better approach would be to report the number of actively working members and not a figure including retirees.

People are usually surprised when I mention that most construction workers in Mass. are not union members. In 2021, union members accounted for 20.9% of the state’s construction workforce, according to the independently run Union Membership and Coverage Database. The vast majority of the construction workforce in Massachusetts and nationwide chooses to work for merit shops. These are highly skilled, trained, and diverse craftspeople. Joining a union may be the right choice for some, but as a matter of fact, it is not the choice of most.

Merit shops come in all sizes, including large contractors with hundreds of employees, capable of wide-ranging, complex projects of significant size and scope. Merit shops employ a diverse workforce, and most minority- and women-owned contractors are merit shops.

Merit shop employees earn competitive wages and generous benefits. Those include employer-paid sick leave, vacation and holidays, along with solvent retirement plans with employer matching. They are valued, permanent employees and not temporary workers waiting for the next assignment. Many are long-time employees who have had the chance to advance in their career with a loyal, appreciative employer.

The strength of their workforce makes merit shops flexible to meet project needs. They are fully licensed and may be cross trained in multiple tasks. Merit shops are free of constraints of jurisdictional rules restricting tasks to individual trades or artificial staffing requirements.

Merit shop contractors and their employees relish the opportunity to bid on the next project and show off their skills and work ethic. The Merit Construction Alliance of Massachusetts, Inc. encourages inclusion of all qualified contractors – merit shop and union – in bidding on private and public projects. This way the project benefits from the highest quality at the best price.

Jason Kauppi is president of the Merit Construction Alliance of Massachusetts, Inc., based in Ayer.