Why should businesses hire union rather than non-union carpenters?
“The biggest thing would be productivity. You’re going to find the best-trained, most productive work force known to man, as far as I’m concerned. And we have to be. Because a non-union carpenter is traditionally paid 50 to 30 percent less than a union carpenter, total package. And so it’s Economics 101. If you’re going to compete with that guy at a lower wage, you have to produce more. “We have the Carpenter’s Training Center on Holman Road in Millbury. It’s one of the largest training facilities on the East Coast. And we train 60 to 100 carpenters there every week. The carpenters union spends, I think, about $8 million a year in training. An apprentice carpenter spends one week every three months for four years. We call it our carpenter college, ’cause that’s basically what it costs us to train them.” How are unions different now than they were a generation or two ago? “I think unions are becoming more militant again. We are starting to relearn the value of organizing. The basis of t
