A recent article in the Detroit Free Press highlights the excessive outsourcing of transportation work and its negative impact on state staffing levels. Representatives from SEIU 517M, a NASHTU affiliate, are heavily quoted in the article.
SEIU 517M represents about 1,000 engineers and technicians across Michigan state departments and agencies. At the Michigan Department of Transportation, approximately 350 employees are represented by SEIU 517M, down from 416 in 2015. That is a 16% decrease.
SEIU 517M officials say their numbers in state government have continued to shrink while work is outsourced at a higher cost. George Heath, an MDOT inspector, says that outsourcing not only costs more, but threatens public oversight of quality control on transportation projects. “It’s not privatization, it’s profitization,” Heath is quoted in the article.
Both Heath and Kevin Karpinski, a senior labor relations specialist with SEIU 517M, criticized Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer’s approach as short-sighted.
“She not been receptive to any kind of major overhaul,” Karpinski is quoted in the article. He goes on to say that the state could have gotten much more bang for its buck under Whitmer’s 2020 $3.5 billion road bonding plan if more of the design and inspection work was performed using in-house staff.
The article quotes legislative audits in Utah and Ohio that found outsourcing costs around three times as much as state staff. The Ohio report also found that the state could save $21 million a year by performing construction inspection services in-house.
Now, as that five-year plan winds down and Governor Whitmer is calling for a new long-term road funding plan as part of the 2026 fiscal year budget, both Karpinski and Heath are worried that Michigan has let its number of state staff dwindle down to a point where costly outsourcing is unavoidable because the state doesn’t have enough staff to perform the work.
To shore up state staffing, MDOT and SEIU 517M worked extensively together to develop an apprenticeship program. MDOT, however, recently pulled the plug on the program in favor of introducing an engineering assistant position, as an entry-level training ground for future transportation technicians.
To read the full article in the Detroit Free Press, click here. The article is behind a paywall, but you may be able to access it through apple news or another news service.