Monthly Archives: March 2011

Reaching agreement in contract negotiations isn’t always easy, particularly when both parties are under pressure from their constituencies to secure the maximum benefit for their side. It’s similar to trying to divide a pie and making sure that one side … Continue reading →

If a union town such as New York City can find itself using more non-union construction workers, then it should be a real bell-ringer to the whole country that it’s no longer business as usual. In a March 19 article … Continue reading →

UA 290/PMCA’s drug and alcohol policy has been unchanged since 1997. While the policy has pre-employment screening and “for cause” testing, there is no random testing. Whatever one feels about random testing, the fact remains that UA Local 290 is … Continue reading →

There’s a big elephant in the room. That elephant is the rising cost of benefits. It’s not a matter of willingness, fairness or positioning. Rapidly increasing medical and retirement benefits threaten to further hamstring our collective ability to compete for … Continue reading →

Putting ourselves a cut above the rest UA General President Bill Hite makes a compelling case for the need to distinguish UA members from lower-cost, nonunion contractors. This is one of the PMCA proposals that we will help set us … Continue reading →

Welcome to the PMCA blog page In the coming days and weeks, we will be posting short essays about some of the opportunities and issues in the new UA 290 contract, which will be voted upon by members March 31, … Continue reading →