BG: First off, you’re equating a lack of prevailing wage with unlicensed contractors. This isn’t correct. I work plenty of projects, largely Commercial with Merit (non-union) labor, that are successful, in terms of on-time and on-budget. The majority are GMP (guaranteed maximum price) or Cost Plus contracts in a Design/Build project. All costs, including Design (architects & engineering), Labor and Materials, are completely transparent – the owner/client knows going in what they’re looking at in terms of project costs. You add a reasonable Contingency that contemplates Change Orders and everyone involved adopts a good faith approach to contract delivery.
The key element is good faith. You work with unions you find out about bad faith dealings right from the jump. I’ve worked dozens upon dozens of jobs using labor from the union halls and have yet to work on a single project where the union(s) didn’t try to screw us. Between work stoppages for arbitrary “changed conditions” (this tactic is used to try and jam Change Order after Change Order down your throat), to calling in OSHA for “unsafe conditions” (one notable case involved a single dead rat onsite that was deemed a “health and safety hazard” to a work crew of large, burly carpenters), to having a shop steward idle a crew of welders because the temp inside the building was “excessively high” (it was 74 degrees).
These guys go into every single project with the attitude of how much of a shakedown can they perform. They could care less about delivering a well-constructed building that’s on schedule and on-budget. In the major metro markets, like Chicago, SF and NYC, they’re politically connected and have been pulling this shit for years. We actually have a budget line for “Asshole Tax”, which is the premium you attach when you work in these markets.
BTW, I am not anti-union by disposition. My grandfather on my mom’s side was a union shop steward for Ford Motor out of Dearborn.
However, you work more than a few projects with these guys and the scales fall from your eyes pretty quick.
