Construction work has not been immune to this economic down turn. Arguable one could say that it has been the hardest hit. Private construction projects have been drying up at a rapid rate. Financing is one of the key components to that decline. As banks began to lend less and less, developers and corporations were not able to take the loans that they need to keep projects flowing.
This can be seen in the current casino projects that are proposed in the Kansas City and Wichita areas. Many companies who initially applied lost so much capitol during the last year they had to pull their applications. That sounds like an excuse but if you look to Las Vegas where the gaming industry is based you have massive construction projects that have just stopped. All that capitol tied up has made many of the main players in the casino industry unstable.
Turning our attention to Cerner we see something very different. We see a company that has survived tough economic times and has now begun to look towards the future. They want to build an office complex, a soccer stadium and other ancillary projects. All of which has the potential of creating over 9000 jobs in Wyandotte county. Wyandotte county currently has the worst unemployment in the state. Topping out over 10%
I could make this post about assigning blame to who is holding up the process but that is not the point I want to make. What needs to be realized by all parties involved is what very real, very current problem the Cerner project will go a long way to fix.
Over the last 6 months to a year many construction workers have seen little to no work. That’s Laborers, Carpenters, Plumbers, Electricians, Operators, Glazers, Masons, Truck Drivers just to name a few, add all that up and you have 1000’s of construction workers drawing unemployment. Even the maximum unemployment for many workers is half or a third of what they are used to earning a week.
Unemployment is meant to be temporary. When you are living on it you conserve every dollar you have knowing that you are going to have to make things stretch. Less groceries, less recreation, less money spent in the community where you live; furthering the economic downturn. The ancillary problem is that Kansas Unemployment is stretched paper thin as well. The federal government has propped it up a couple of times already this year.
New problems that are just now appearing could compound exponentially through Kansas communities. Some folks are beginning to reach the end of the road on unemployment, they are also reaching the end of the road on their health insurance. In the construction industry, workers plan on being out of work 3 or 4 months a year. Typically the insurance most of these workers have covers that span of being out of work. Workers running out of unemployment and insurance will become a burden on social services that are already failing under the weight of so much demand.
Why do we need Cerner? We need work. The men and women in the construction industry have very real problems looming ahead. They are not worried about generating revenue to pay off bonds, they are worried about generating revenue to put food on the table, to buy medicine for their children and to make sure they financially survive the winter. Everyone has pushed hard to make this project happen. We in the labor community just hope that push can go a bit further so we can realize another type of capitol many workers in Kansas need, Hope.
