Jobless bennies are taxable
Every year, the Michigan Unemployment Agency sends a press release reminding us that unemployment benefit payments are taxable. And since we don't want any workers in trouble with the state or Uncle Sam, we pass the notice along to you.

"Since jobless benefits are taxable, any workers who received benefits last year from Michigan's Unemployment Agency will need a 1099-G form when preparing their tax returns," said agency Director Jack Wheatley.

He advised claimants who did not receive their 1099-G statements by Monday, Feb. 7 to either visit their local Unemployment Agency office or phone the agency's Claimant Customer Relations Office at (800) 638-3995.

Mental 'treatment' forced on organizer
ABC's 20/20 on Jan. 23 aired the incredible story of union organizer Gary McClain, who was involuntarily committed to a South Carolina mental hospital - allegedly at the urging of his employer - during an Operating Engineers organizing drive.

Last week, according to the AFL-CIO, the National Labor Relations Board issued a complaint and scheduled a hearing to investigate the claims.

According to 20/20, last July at a Tenneco Packaging Co. meeting, McClain asked that a union representative be allowed to speak to company work crews in Aiken, S.C. The next day, managers called the Aiken County Sheriff and reported that McClain was threatening workers and might be a danger in the workplace.

As he drove back to work, McClain found himself surrounded at gunpoint by sheriff's deputies and a K-9 unit. He was taken to a local hospital, where, apparently on the basis of his employer's claims and passed on by sheriff's deputies, an emergency room doctor involuntarily committed him to a mental hospital.

McClain spent the following two weeks in confinement "being forcibly injected with anti-psychotic drugs before legal intervention gained his release," 20/20 reported.

"While I still find it hard to believe such an incident could happen in the U.S., it points up the lengths to which some will go to thwart organizing attempts," said IUOE President Frank Hanley.

McClain has filed suit against the company, the Aiken County sheriff and others.

Drywall demand begins to ease
A construction industry crisis that extended through most of 1999 - a severe nationwide shortage of drywall - has mostly come to an end. The Wall Street Journal reported that "signs point to an easing in demand," but "home builders still grumble about prices, which at close to $160 a thousand square feet, are at an all time high." The price was about $100 per thousand square-feet in 1994.

Drywall prices can be expected to fall, brought on by a leveling demand for the product and a 21 percent increase in capacity for making drywall expected over the next two years. The Gypsum Association reports that about 10 new plants are expected to open around the nation.

There are still delays in getting the product, although they are two or three weeks rather than two or three months as they were last summer.