There's an old adage in the construction industry that is painfully true:

Non-union work is 90% marketing, 10% substance.

Union work is 90% substance, and 10% marketing.

Independent industry expert, Ed Merrow, President of Independent Project Analysis, Inc. (IPA), goes on record to tell the world what union workers already know-union work is better.

IPA's findings: "Union workers are 17% more productive than their open shop counterparts." IPA was able to make this distinction after studying hundreds of similar projects, being done both union and non-union and is the result of an extensive "apples to apples" comparison.

IPA's core mission is to conduct research into the functioning of capital projects and project systems and to apply the results of that research to help its customers create and use capital assets more efficiently. According to IPA, the company has developed a series of statistical models that can predict results in a number of key areas including cost, schedule, and performance. Based on collected project data, its analysts can evaluate the practices that historically have driven better results.