The Michael Berry Show

One of our show sponsors is the independent electrical contractors

Association and my association with these folks goes back to my very first year on City Council.

Selected in 01, they supported me in 01.

A lot of the business groups supported me because City Council was very anti-business.

You had people who had never been in the private sector who viewed this as an opportunity to tell businesses what to do.

And that's scary to people who have businesses in the city of Houston.

And so the independent electrical contractors ask me to come and meet with them and talk about the issues of their membership.

IEC, as it's known, independent electrical contractors, is basically a trade association

for people who want to go into the electrical trades and there is it's the what's called

merit shop which is the non-union set of companies.

Fisk is a union company.

And the reason they're a union company,

my understand it is, is because they're a national company and in order to get the

contracts in Chicago and New York, which is where they're big, you got to be a union shop.

Well Texas is a right to work state.

You know, when you look at little changes in laws and policies,

and you see the massive difference it makes.

When you look at the states who've seen economic growth and development

over the last 30, 40 years,

it is states that don't have unionized workforces. So if you want to start

a business and negotiate individually with your employee based on market rate as to what you'll pay them

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