Labor rates emerge as issue for Cobo Center exhibitors By John Wisely / The Detroit News
Glenn Blanton, director of the civic center department, which manages Cobo, said he hopes to meet with labor unions and contractors to discuss ways to make the center more cost-competitive. Labor leaders don’t dispute how much the exhibitors pay, but they note much of the rate is a markup charged by contractors.
“I wish my guys were making that,” Ken Briggs, business agent for Local 58 of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers said of the $82 an hour that exhibitors pay for straight-time electrical work at Cobo Center. “I’d be king.”
Briggs said his union charges Metro Services Organization, the exclusive electrical contractor at Cobo, $48 per hour, of which $33 is wages and $15 is fringe benefits.