Worcester Business Journal

wbjournal.com | October 17, 2022 | Worcester Business Journal 33 Merit shops comprise majority of construction workforce V I E W P O I N T E D I T O R I A L W hen it comes to counting members, organized labor includes those swinging golf clubs along with those swinging hammers. Dues-paying retirees are counted along with working members. is can lead to the perception organized labor is big- ger than it is. For example, carpenters' union Local 336 reported about 1,800 members in the WBJ's Shop Talk entitled "Striving for progress" on Sept. 19. at number includes retirees. Local 336's active membership is actually about 75% of its total mem- bership, according to numbers it self-reported on its annual report to the U.S. Department of Labor. e Local 336 business agent was mak- ing the case he had the workforce size to meet project demands. A better approach would be to report the number of actively working members and not a figure including retirees. People are usually surprised when I mention that most construction workers in Mass. are not union members. In 2021, union members accounted for 20.9% of the state's construction workforce, according to the inde- pendently run Union Membership and Coverage Da- tabase. e vast majority of the construction workforce in Massachusetts and nationwide chooses to work for merit shops. ese are highly skilled, trained, and diverse craspeople. Joining a union may be the right choice for some, but as a matter of fact, it is not the choice of most. Merit shops come in all sizes, including large contrac- tors with hundreds of employees, capable of wide-rang- ing, complex projects of significant size and scope. Merit shops employ a diverse workforce, and most minority- and women-owned contractors are merit shops. Merit shop employees earn competitive wages and generous benefits. ose include employer-paid sick leave, vacation and holidays, along with solvent retire- ment plans with employer matching. ey are valued, permanent employees and not temporary workers waiting for the next assignment. Many are long-time employees who have had the chance to advance in their career with a loyal, appreciative employer. e strength of their workforce makes merit shops flexible to meet project needs. ey are fully licensed and may be cross trained in multiple tasks. Merit shops are free of constraints of jurisdictional rules restricting tasks to individual trades or artificial staffing requirements. Merit shop contractors and their employees relish the opportunity to bid on the next project and show off their skills and work ethic. e Merit Construction Alliance of Massachusetts, Inc. encourages inclusion of all qualified contractors – merit shop and union – in bidding on private and public projects. is way the project benefits from the highest quality at the best price. Jason Kauppi is president of the Merit Construction Alliance of Massachusetts, Inc., based in Ayer. A restaurant only open for two days a week hardly seems like a model for the future of the hospitality industry, but maybe its owners realize something the rest of the world is just catching onto: Pre-pandemic life will never fully return, and it's time for businesses to innovate in ways they may not have thought of before, embracing a changed future where they find success in new ways. e co-owners behind the five-month-old Wooden Bar in Worcester have taken the concept of lean startup to an extreme. Christopher Ly and Spencer Mewherter took over the lease from a closed-down brewery and renovated the space by relying on their construction backgrounds and a network of friends. ey have kept their food costs to a minimum, and the business is open when they're available and have enough customers walking through the door to make the expense worthwhile. As Staff Writer Kevin Koczwara points out in his "Playing by their own rules" story on page 6, in a business sector ravaged by the COVID pandemic, the restaurant industry is keeping a close eye on the Wooden Bar model. Rather than paying to staff, stock, and support a restaurant for long hours in order to squeeze out a net profit when they are really busy, Wooden Bar is simply open for those moneymaking times. e hospitality industry is still struggling with staff shortages, and the business lunch crowd is significantly lighter than BY JASON KAUPPI Special to WBJ The above Editorial is the opinion of the WBJ Editorial Board. The Viewpoint column, the A Thousand Words cartoon, and the Word from the Web commentary represent the opinions of their authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of WBJ or its staff. WBJ welcomes letters to the editor and commentary submissions. Send them to bkane@wbjournal.com. A T H O U SA N D WO R D S B Y R A M Ó N L . S A N D O V A L Starting lean Jason Kauppi it used to be. Rather than fight the rising tide, this new restaurant is starting small and seeing where it goes. Of course, it helps that Ly has a pedigree from marquee Providence eatery North and is supported by chef James Mark, who has been nominated for the prestigious James Beard Foundation Award. Not many businesses can operate on such a small scale, and even other restaurants will target different customers and different times of day, but the takeaway from Wooden Bar is to find a model that works for you and your business, eschewing the elements of the business not contributing much. Food trucks have taken this concept, too, to minimize the overhead costs while still delivering a great product. It's a lesson in a way to launch a business when you don't have much startup capital to burn, and you want to test if passion can be translated into a successful brand, regardless of the sector. Wooden Bar's minimalist model may lead to the restaurant opening more widely or more frequently, or it may lead to the eatery's closure. e hospitality industry is notoriously difficult. Even North shut down aer 10 years of reshaping the Providence restaurant scene. Maybe Wooden Bar will keep tweaking their plan till it finds its own version of success, opening only when its owners can swing it, creating food they care about to a small, but impassioned, fanbase W W

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