Lost in the flood

Union lobbyists keep issues afloat despite budget deficit

By Sean Ryan
Daily Reporter Staff

Wisconsin's union lobbyists are focused on preventing the government's preoccupation with the $1.1 billion budget deficit from burying the construction industry's interests in the next year.

"It is tough to talk about anything really exciting with a ($1.1 billion) deficit," said Joe Oswald, government and community affairs director for the Wisconsin Laborers District Council. "We want to concentrate on infrastructure and make sure that with all the cuts that are being made, they don't cut transportation. Our legislative agenda is preparing to make sure that everything is set when we start recovering."

The budget deficit, coupled with Gov. Scott McCallum's pledge to not raise taxes, would make the Department of Transportation's purse an attractive target, said Joe Wineke, political coordinator for the International Union of Operating Engineers Local 139. He said state Assembly Republicans already introduced a bill that would take $1 million from the DOT to reform Wisconsin's voter registration system.

"What that has to do with roads, I don't know," Wineke said. "Our goal will be to protect any raids on the transportation funds and not to hurt school construction. That is going to be a tough one."

Oswald said he would keep an eye on the transportation fund, but he expected state legislators to avoid dipping into it. He said legislators recognize that infrastructure improvements are vital to helping Wisconsin's economy grow out of its recession.

"Even though we are always watchful that bad things could happen, the fact that they haven't is testament to the Legislature's commitment," Oswald said. "I think for the most part, people look down the road and see how important this is."

Protecting their rights

Phil Neuenfeldt, Wisconsin State AFL-CIO secretary-treasurer, said he hoped the budget concerns would not drown out worker-rights issues that construction industry lobbyists have backed for years.

"We still have an agenda of worker rights and economic security, and we are going to be looking for things like minimum wage and wage-lien priority that don't cost the government anything," he said. "With the amount of time and analysis and effort and discussion, our fear is that deficit issues might get lodged into the debate. It just makes things more complicated."

Power struggle

"Our goal will be to protect any raids on the transportation funds and not to hurt school construction. That is going to be a tough one." Joe Wineke Political Coordinator International Union of Operating Engineers Local 139

Neuenfeldt said he was uneasy that the budget debate would hinder the development of a new mercury-emissions standard by the state Department of Natural Resources. The standard will determine what air-quality controls the state's power plants will need in the future.

"When you get into this deficit situation, who knows what is going to happen," Neuenfeldt said. "The whole issue of energy is a big issue. This is one of those things that I'm afraid will get lost in the budget discussion."

Development of new power plants in the state would be on hold until the DNR finalizes a new standard, said Bill Skewes, executive director of the Wisconsin Utilities Association. He said developers of two proposed power plants -- in Oak Creek and Port Washington -- and the 2,000 union workers who would build them are waiting for an answer.

"That's a lot of paychecks riding on this decision," Skewes said. "It's really important that we know how these issues will be resolved. We could have to find some other way of generating electricity other than coal. That would mean we would have to build more natural-gas power plants."

Oswald said he was not concerned with what the new standard would dictate as long as the state decides on something.

"There's a number of power companies that are looking to increase capacity, and some changes in law would have to go through first," he said.

Skewes said the DNR set a March deadline to suggest a standard to the Legislature, leaving little time to vote on the measure before the Senate goes on break March 23.

Life after veto

All three lobbyists said they were trying to resurrect the prevailing-wage reforms that would force contractors to maintain their prevailing-wage data as open records. McCallum vetoed the measure from the state biennial budget last August.

Wineke said forcing contractors to provide wage records on request could be asking too much of them. But it could be the only way to reform the current rules, so he said he would join other unions in supporting it.

"I'm not sure the open records law was meant to go into private business," Wineke said. "But if that's the best we can do, I'll try to do it to work for something else. But if I had my magic wand, I would not go that far."

Wineke said he did not know when a legislator might introduce a bill or who that legislator could be, but the reform's success hinges partially on November's gubernatorial election.

"The whole world changes for us if (Wisconsin Attorney General Jim) Doyle gets in there," he said. "Prevailing wage will be strengthened."

Continuing coverage

David Newby, Wisconsin State AFL-CIO president, said his organization's main concern was helping workers survive the recession by extending state unemployment insurance-coverage periods. In January, the Wisconsin Department of Workforce Development's Unemployment Insurance Advisory Council recommended that the Legislature extend coverage an extra eight weeks, he said.

"Had it not been for labor's involvement in that process, that probably wouldn't have happened," Newby said. "Now we have to get a decent package passed at the federal level."

The U.S. House of Representatives in December passed its economic stimulus package to grant a 13-week extension of unemployment benefits to workers who lost their jobs after the recession began in March, said Bruce Hagen, Wisconsin DWD Unemployment Insurance Division administrator. The bill was put on hold when the Senate went on break before it could review the plan.

"Unfortunately, Congress went home for Christmas without putting good gifts under the trees for the people who are unemployed," Hagen said. "If Congress passes that legislation, the extended benefits will be paid out of federal funds instead of state trust funds."

Hagen said any state or federal plan would include provisions ensuring contractors' taxes don't increase due to the extensions.

"As a contractor, if they lay off a lot of people and we have to pay for a lot of people out of our account, their taxes would go up," he said. "The contractors of Wisconsin will not be charged for these extended benefits."

Hagen said he expected a proposal to hit the state Legislature in March.

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