It’s getting to be as predictable as the swallows returning to Capistrano; in fact, I alluded to this occurring a few weeks ago but I didn’t know where it would be. Little did I know that traveling up Coastal Highway outside Rehoboth Beach I would see the friendly neighborhood Carpenters Local 2012 complaining once again about a company lowering area standards. I’m guessing that the realty company named actually owns the nearby building being renovated as their offices are in Rehoboth Beach proper.
I suppose it’s a good sign that only a couple of guys were manning the picket, and they weren’t going to be there much longer because it was about to rain – in fact, coming out of my next destination I was caught in a sudden shower. That was a minor slowdown in what seems to be quite a bit of construction going on around Sussex County, although Salisbury has its share of building right now as well; there are a couple of small retail projects being erected along North Salisbury Boulevard as well as two reasonably large apartment complexes in the same part of town and the new artists’ housing just outside downtown. It’s not looking like the peak of activity a decade ago, but at least there is some pent-up movement being made.
Naturally one can argue where the market for new housing and retail would come from given the number of vacant houses and storefronts around town, and the reality is that something that’s showing its age will probably lose its market share to the newer construction. It may be that the new retail construction being built adjacent to the current Greene Turtle location may have several vacancies next door as the Turtle was reportedly relocating down the road to the former Famous Dave’s restaurant and Barnes and Noble has been dogged by whispers about its demise. Even Sussex County acknowledges that abandoned properties are becoming an issue.
So where does the Carpenters Local fit in? Obviously they feel as if they’re not getting enough of a cut. Unfortunately for them, the construction market is not such that wages can be sought as they were during the boom times, plus they have a fairly new training center from which their graduates need work. (It goes back to the point I’ve made about the best aspect of union carpenters is their training.) If jobs can’t be had, there’s little point in setting aside time and effort to be trained in a trade.
To ensure enough work for everyone, we need to first grow good-paying jobs here – not through artificial means like raising the minimum wage, a tactic which only leads to inflation because no additional value is created from the labor, but by securing the means and methods to increase value. I like to use energy exploration as an example because there are private investors willing to create jobs where none existed in order to make a profit for themselves – of course, the workers are going to invest their wages into things they need, in turn creating new jobs. It’s how America was built.
Standing around holding up a picket sign really doesn’t create a lot of value.