Having been a union contractor for 13years (57 yo business) and then going to work for a non-union general contractor...no compariosn! The non-union guy works his tail off because he's "not protected" by "big brother".

Yes..unions have a great history in our our American heritage, but to significantly reduce the chance for a non-union contractor to bid public works projects is just un-American IMO. I take my hat off to the labor laws. They've been establised for a reasom, and rightfully so. But.....

I've been on a project for 2.5 years where the ratio is 80/20 union to non-union craft. It's just SICK seeing the non-productivity of the union based workers as a whole. Our company/employees has been called every name in the book, and only because the "brotherhood" is jealous that we make the "brotherhood" look bad on a daily productivity basis. I do productivty/schedule updates and submit them to the owner on a weekly basis, and I've heard many times how the GC/owner wish that the "brotherhood" could perform at least half as productive as the non-union craft.

I think it's just unfair that there's discrimination abounding reagrding PUBLIC contrats. If a person wants an organization to mange their job hunting and retirement, that's fine. But don't judge another person that may do the same trade as less of a person if they want to manage their OWN money and benefits. Very small minded. Just sad for Americans in general.