The New England Carpenters Benefit Funds & Iora Health have partnered to offer new primary care doctor's office for members and other adults covered by the Health Fund. The doctor's office convenient after-work hours and has locations in Burlington, MA & Dorchester, MA. Carpenters Care patients, have no co-pays and enjoy free access to fitness & other group classes. Fund participants can join at any time with no commitment and no changes to their benefits. Joining is completely free and voluntary. To become a Carpenters Care patient, call 1-781-222-0930 or go online to CarpentersCare.com to learn more.

NERCC Business Manager Jason Garand recently recorded the following commercial spot for Health New England, the health insurance provider for Carpenters Local 108. The commercial will run on local television stations in Western Massachusetts through May. 

David Rampone, President of Hart Engineering, a signatory contractor based in Cumberland, Rhode Island isn't shy about being a union contractor. Last year he volunteered to be one of the latest union contractors to do a radio ad on behalf of the New England Regional Council of Carpenters. Now, he's published an opinion piece in the Providence Journal explaining why his business is better with a union partnership. Click through to read it.

The following opinion piece appeared in the January 10 print edition of the Providence Journal-Bulletin.

The benefits of employing unionists

DAVID RAMPONE

Regarding Charles Chieppo’s Dec. 20 column, “Unions are 1 percenters in Mass.,” in which he portrayed the construction industry inaccurately:

As the chief executive of a major Rhode lsland construction firm that does work all over New England, I’ll set the record straight. I am the president of Hart Engineering Corp., a general and process mechanical contractor founded over 70 years ago and based in Cumberland.

While I have read several opinion pieces by “public-relations experts” articulating the “evils” of the unionized construction industry, it needs to be pointed out that these experts have no actual experience in the construction industry and draw their conclusions based purely on anecdotal information provided by those who wish to see the unionized construction industry fail.

For the record, the National Labor Relations Act lets construction companies decide for themselves whether to be affiliated with the industry’s trade unions. It is the only industry that has such a provision. Since its inception, our firm has made the business-driven decision to be affiliated with several trade unions — a decision that has been beneficial to both our company and employees.

Currently we employ more than100 union tradesmen and women on dozens of jobs, large and small, throughout New England. These employees receive a fair wage, full health-care benefits and pension contributions — a package that lets them provide their families with a respectable standard of living. And in light of the negative attention cast on public-sector unions in these times, note that unionized construction workers are not guaranteed employment. In fact, Rhode Island unionized construction workers average about 1,500 hours worked a year. They do not receive vacation time, sick days or holiday pay, nor do they receive any benefits if they do not work the required number of hours a year — usually between 1,200 and 1,400, depending on the trade union involved.

Beyond my own company, the performance of Rhode Island’s trade unions and union contractors speaks for itself. There are more than 200 local contractors with union agreements in the Rhode Island area, and there have been more than 50 all-union project labor agreements (PLAs) worth billions of dollars completed in this area, including most of the state’s highest-profile projects. Most of these PLAs have been in the private sector.

These agreements symbolize the marketplace at work. Owners, construction managers and contractors enter into these agreements for one reason only: It is in their best interest to do so. And why? The trade unions in partnership with their contractors invest millions of dollars annually recruiting, training and retraining their workers to provide the safest, most skilled workforce in our industry. In today’s world, owners want their projects completed safely, on time, under budget and to the highest level of quality possible. That is why owners from small firms to Fortune 500 companies enter into project labor agreements.

While there are far fewer PLAs in the public sector than in the private sector, they are becoming more prevalent. However, before any public entity in Rhode Island can implement a PLA, it must complete an independent “objective and reasoned” study that recommends their use.

The trade unions’ record of providing contractors and owners with a safe and productive workforce is unmatched in our industry. Those who oppose them assert that using nonunionized workers would provide the owner with great savings. Unfortunately, those savings are usually the result of substandard wages, failure to provide health-care benefits to employees, or misclassifying employees to pay them a lower wage.

For 70 years we have provided our clients with the safest, most capable and productive work force in the industry, and our employees with a fair wage and benefits for them and their families. We are proud of what we have been able to achieve with our union partners.

David Rampone is president of Hart Engineering Corp., in Cumberland.  

Mark Erlich, Executive Secretary-Treasurer of the New England Regional Council of Carpenters released the following statement regarding today's Supreme Court decision on the Affordable Care Act.

"We are pleased that the Supreme Court did not strike down the ACA. When Carpenters work, we have great health insurance, but the costs continue to skyrocket. Too much of our contract increases have gone to fund health care over the years. The ACA has the potential not only to extend access but to control costs and we support efforts in that direction."

The New England Regional Council of Carpenters recently received an inquiry from a Texas resident, referring to himself as ‘Medicare D Recipient,’ who had received a $100 settlement check in the mail and was inquiring about its legitimacy.

He wrote “I have bought prescription drugs in the past as an individual citizen retiree…I don’t know anything about your union. They claim [this check] is my share of a class action suit…we are afraid it is some kind of scam or identity theft and are afraid to cash the check. Can you shed any light on this?”

The settlement check was in fact legit. It was the result of the class action lawsuit brought by the New England Carpenters Health Benefits Fund and an AFSCME health fund in New York against First DataBank, Inc. and McKesson Corporation that alleged that those two companies artificially inflated the “Average Wholesale Prices” of drugs that were used by millions of consumers, especially Medicare recipients (read more on NERCC Blog).

Alex Sugerman-Brozan of Krakow & Souris, LLC, responded to the inquiry as the law firm representing NERCC, not the attorneys who brought the case against McKesson.

In his letter to Medicare D Recipient, Sugerman-Brozan wrote that settlement in the class action lawsuit against McKesson was recently approved, which allowed checks to be sent to those entitled to reimbursement.

He went on to explain that often individuals who are entitled to receive money from such lawsuits often miss out due to paperwork, for a variety of reasons: it is not filled out properly, lost, forgotten, or not received at all. In the McKesson case, however, the Court was able to use information from Medicare to identify consumers who had paid for a portion of their medications, so that checks could be issued to those consumers without the consumers have to fill out any forms or paperwork. This resulted in many tens of thousands more consumers getting checks than would have otherwise occurred.

Sugerman-Brozan explained that Medicare D Recipient had received the check it because the settlement administrator determined that he was among the consumers in the class, and the check was issued most likely based on information from Medicare.

Medicare D Recipient responded enthusiastically to this explanation and wrote, “THANK YOU VERRRRRRRRY MUCH. This addresses all my Q. Take the rest of the day off.”

To learn more about the case and the settlement, visit McKessonAWPSettlement.com.

The Carpenter Vision Center is owned and operated by the New England Carpenters Health Benefits Fund. It offers complete eye examinations and the largest selection of frames available under the Plan. The Vision Center is located at the Carpenters Center, 750 Dorchester Ave, Boston, MA and offers afternoon, evening and Saturday appointments.

Carpenters Union members, spouses, and children are eligible for routine eye exam and glasses (2 pairs of single vision-distance and near – or 1 pair of bifocals) once every two years. The facility offers over 200 Covered Frames for men, women, and children and over 80 Collectors Frames for men and women available for a $50.00 co-pay. A large selection of Safety Frames is also available.



While the facility is utilized mostly by members, spouses, and children of the Carpenters Union who have benefits through the New England Carpenters Benefits Funds, the facility is also a Davis Vision Provider. Any outside individual who has Davis Vision as their Vision Benefit is allowed to receive an eye exam and glasses through the Vision Center. The cost is billed through their Vision Insurance.

The Vision Center has three exam rooms and four doctors. There are two Optometrists who perform routine eye exams, one Ophthalmologist who comes in once a month to see patients with medical issues and one Contact Lens Doctor who is available on Wednesdays only.



The Vision Center is conveniently located off of Route 93 (get directions here) at the Carpenters Center, 750 Dorchester Ave. There is plenty of parking available; the facility is an 8-minute walk from the Andrews Square station.

Hours of Operation:
Monday 8:30am - 4:30pm (to book appointments only)
Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday 12:00pm - 8:00pm
Friday 8:30am - 3:00pm
Saturday 8:00am - 4:00pm

Call 617-782-0100 to make an appointment.

The Board of Trustees for the New England Carpenters Benefit Funds has made a significant change in the Guaranteed Annuity Fund rules relating to withdrawals. The change, which goes into effect August 1, 2010 was sent to members in a mailing and reads as follows:

“If no Employer Contributions are received on your behalf for twelve (12) consecutive calendar months, you are eligible to apply for withdrawal of 50% of your account balance up to a maximum of $50,000; whichever is less.

Due to the difficult economic times in the past few years, the Board felt that this change would benefit the members who are facing financial hardship.

You must understand that if you do apply for withdrawal, the amount you receive will be subject to the mandatory 20% Federal Tax and 5.3% Massachusetts State Tax. You may also be subject to a 10% Federal penalty if you are under age 55.

For withdrawal forms, please contact the Fund Office at 1-800-344-1515.”

Michel Pare, former President of Ben & Sons Drywall Contractors in Connecticut has been sentenced to a year and a day in prison, along with two years of supervised release in connection with a pension fraud investigation. Once a major nonunion player in the drywall industry, over the course of two years the company failed to transfer more than $175,000 it withheld from workers to a pension plan. He has been ordered to pay restitution in that amount to impacted workers. Pare was sentenced to jail time for admitting to making false statements when he signed annual reports for benefit funds that he knew were false.

At one time or another, every NERCC staff member was chasing Ben & Sons or talking to carpenters working for the company, uncovering misdeeds. Congratulations to them for finally seeing justice served. The Hartford Courant covered the story.

The first floor of the building will hold shop and training space for the Boston Carpenters Joint Apprenticeship and Training Fund. The building already has high ceilings, which makes it a good fit for the use. The JATC will also use space in the second floor for administrative offices and classrooms.The training center will be joined on the second floor by the Carpenters Vision Center, an office offering services of First Trade Union Bank and a representative of the Massachusetts Carpenters Combined Benefits Fund who will serve as a “help desk” for members.The third floor of the building will include the New England Regional Council of Carpenters, the New England Carpenters Labor Management Program, organizing offices and some local union offices.