With Financing Frozen, Construction Workers Feeling the Pinch

Posted by: Tim Halbur

22 February 2010 - 1:00pm

Construction unions are reporting that 30% of their members are still unemployed or between jobs. Public projects are raising hopes, but as one carpenter's union spokesperson puts it, "The private sector is dead."

Kevin O'Leary writes, "Commercial construction workers are in a bind. Before, if work dried up in Boston or Seattle, carpenters, electricians and plumbers would pack up and go to Las Vegas or Texas or Alaska. "Now there is no work anywhere," says Mark Erlich, whose New England Regional Council of Carpenters represents 22,000 union members in six states. "The largest problem is the continued lack of financing," says Jerry Rhoades, executive secretary treasurer of the Florida Carpenters Regional Council."

Full Story: The Great Recession: Will Construction Workers Survive?

Source: Time, February 6, 2010