VERY BAD THINGS
Ironworkers’ incompetence offers more reasons to say no to unions
BY MIKE ZIGLER

Mike Zigler is editor of Liberty Watch: The Magazine. After serving as news editor at Las Vegas CityLife and editor-in-chief at the UNLV Rebel Yell, he currently directs internal communications on the Las Vegas Strip. Feel free to reach him at mikezigler@cox.net  Other stories by Mike Zigler

It’s looking really bad for a certain half-dozen union workers from Ironworkers Local 433, all of them contracted with Union Erectors, a Las Vegas company responsible for everything from the Monorail to The Venetian. Now these guys are making Union Erectors better known for nearly burning down the 32-story Monte Carlo Resort and Casino on Jan. 25, after failing to enact a number of basic safety precautions. The irony, of course, is that these workers accomplished all those very bad things union leaders insist non-union labor specializes in: shoddy, dangerous work.

How shoddy and dangerous? Well, let’s just review the investigation submitted by the Clark County Fire Department, which found that the welders did nothing to prevent hot molten metal (known as “slag” in steel and ironworker jargon) from sparking a fire. First, they never laid down any “slag mats” to help contain flammable materials. Second, they were supposed to post a sixth worker on watch to look for signs of fire: sparks, overflowing slag, etc. Third, and most mind-bogglingly, it seems as if the company didn’t even bother to get a work permit for the project. 

One of the many wedges unions employ to create rifts between workers and the companies that hire them is the safety issue. But here’s yet another case of incompetence among union workers, proving that safety is hardly a concern for unions. If worker health and safety were real and genuine priorities at Ironworkers Local 433, then we wouldn’t be reading about the abovementioned failures — no slag mats, no fire watch, no permit — in the pages of the Las Vegas Review-Journal. Rather, we’d be fuming over columns by the Las Vegas Sun’s Jeff Simpson, who continues his jihad against the Tropicana’s new owner Columbia Sussex, and how badly the company is treating its people over there.

Not to defend a company we know little about, but somehow we imagine if Columbia Sussex had been in charge of the Monte Carlo welding job, there would at least have been a permit issued. Count on the howling chorus of Nevada liberals — led by Simpson, naturally — to ignore the latest union mishap and instead focus on how the Trop owners are mentally torturing employees by insisting they wait a few days before cashing their checks. (For which Simpson and others provide absolutely no evidence of.) 

And in spite of the evidence against its workers, Union Erectors has come out against the county investigation, saying that the welders “acted in a safe and responsible manner.” Really? Which part was safe and responsible?

Union membership has been steadily on the decline since the 1950s for the simple reason that unions don’t work. Instead of creating more jobs and better technologies, unionized companies are forced to meet the wage demands of their employees. As a result, such companies suffer from competitive disadvantages against non-union rivals and eventually must merge or go under, devastating the local economy and causing further hardship. Now more than ever American workers recognize that union membership is no longer a necessary or even worthwhile endeavor. Say what you want about Sheldon Aldeson’s pro-war fervor or his bizarre and pointless pissing match with R-J columnist John L. Smith, but the man has stood up to the bullies, making the Venetian an example of what a Las Vegas company can accomplish when it simply refuses to submit to extortion tactics.

Don’t expect the county to hit Union Erectors with a misdemeanor, though. The county and Ironworkers Local 433 are both stridently anti-business and, as their own lack of precaution suggests, anti-employee. If they really appreciated welders, they wouldn’t garnish their wages in the form of taxes and membership dues.

Speaking of appreciation, we need to wrap this up with a quote from CityLife editor Steve Sebelius. Sebelius has been earning devastating fire from this magazine for having poked and prodded the bear that is Liberty Watch for too long. So imagine our surprise when, in a recent blog posting, he demands of Republicans: “[Ron] Paul is clearly better than any of the rest! Nominate him, why don’t you?” We commend Sebelius for saying what too many liberals are afraid to ponder for more than a red-hot Obama minute.

Steve, we take back everything we said about you. Except the stuff that made you angry.