LANSING – The “war on licensing” in the construction industry doesn’t stop with the electricians – the elevator industry has a battle going on, too. House Bills 4970 and 4971...

Construction employment rose by 20,000 in September and the industry’s unemployment rate fell to a six-year low of 8.5 percent, while construction spending increased for the fifth consecutive month in...

DEARBORN – For the second straight year, Boilermakers Local 169 hosted the National Apprenticeship Contest – and produced the winner of the competition. Christopher Opalewski, a graduated Local 169 apprentice,...

By Robert Reich Former U.S. Secretary of Labor An old friend who has been active in politics for more than 30 years tells me he’s giving up. “I can’t stomach...

Union fix for health care law? Maybe Part of the Obama Administration’s Affordable Care Act went into effect on Oct. 1. Several building trades union general presidents have expressed opposition...

LANSING – Don’t even bother. That was the message Michigan Attorney General Bill Schuette sent to the state Supreme Court on Oct. 7, as he urged the justices not to...

DETROIT – Nearly a century after it opened, it’s the David Whitney Building’s turn to make a triumphant resurrection. Like so many buildings in downtown Detroit that have been renovated,...

“No matter how cynical you get,” comedienne Lily Tomlin said, “it is impossible to keep up.” Case in point: After “decades of discussion and bureaucratic red tape, OSHA finally issued...

LANSING – The sweeping reforms to state government that have taken place over the past two years have mainly been economic. For the state’s licensed trades workers, now things are...

ESSEXVILLE – Over the last two decades, emissions control upgrades installed at Consumers Energy’s Karn-Weadock Generating Complex have made the plant vastly more complex than it was when it first...