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So far, getting enough hands for day-to-day work hasn't been much of a problem, even with construction projects at Great River Energy's Coal Creek Station and Basin's Leland Olds Station.
Buschong expects that to change soon.
There's a looming mass retirement as hundreds of trades workers like Anvik and Piatz who were here for the first boom and beyond, hang up their tool belts to spend time with their grandkids.
There's also the unprecedented amount of new construction on track, as well as the normal annual outage maintenance work at western North Dakota's power plants.
"Finding labor will be extremely challenging," Buschong said. He expects a 10 percent labor shortage, overall, not only here, but across the country.
"Rather than a plant owner saying, 'I've gotta have 150 people for eight months,' he might get by on 100 workers for 12 months," he said.
The next four years, particularly, represent an outstanding opportunity for the energy industry and a "huge challenge to do it right. There'll be as much opportunity to work as people want," Buschong said.
Among the projects planned or in progress:
-- Minnkota Power Cooperative, based in Grand Forks, plans to invest more money over the next three years to clean up pollution from its Milton R. Young units at Center than any investment since original construction. The co-op's environmental manager, John Graves, said Minnkota will spend $218 million on equipment to remove sulfur dioxide from the plant's emissions to comply with new federal air quality standards.
The work will require as many as 400 workers and will overlap with a similar project at Basin Electric Power Cooperative's Leland Olds power plant, about 20 miles away.
-- The new 600-foot stack at Leland Olds -- more than two and a half times higher than the state Capitol building -- will replace two aging emission stacks and eventually tie into new limestone scrubbing units to remove sulfur dioxide. Work on the estimated $410 million project started last summer.
-- Great River Energy, which is based in Maple Grove, Minn., is two years into a $130-million, seven-year project to replace the brick liner in the emission stack at the Coal Creek plant with welded sections of nickel alloy.
-- In Jamestown, Great River is spending $276 million on a 99-megawatt coal plant integrated with an energy complex that includes Cargill's malting plant and potentially an ethanol plant. Spokesman Lyndon Anderson said the work is calling for hundreds of additional workers, a number that gets pushed as high as 1,000 during maintenance outages.
-- FPL Energy LLC, of Juno Beach, Fla., recently announced plans for the largest wind farm ever developed in North Dakota, an estimated $2 billion project encompassing a 250-square-mile area through southern Oliver and Morton counties.
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Information from: Bismarck Tribune,
http://www.bismarcktribune.com
Jul 06 11:54
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WICHITA, Kan. (AP) -- Call buttons go answered. Bedridden patients aren't turned enough to prevent bedsores, others who need exercise to prevent blood clots don't get it. Nurses who work in pediatric units end up caring for elderly patients.
Back rubs? Forget about it.
A national nursing shortage is about to get worse and those in the industry are concerned it could start affecting the care patients receive.
"You hear a lot of projections of doom and gloom," said Juanita Tate, who runs the nursing school at Wichita State University. "But if you need to go to a hospital, you should go and you shouldn't go scared."
The 129 hospitals in Kansas report a vacancy rate of 8.8 percent, which is about the same as the national average. According to a 2004 study by the division of nursing at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 17 percent of Kansans who currently held a registered nursing license were not practicing.
And with most of the nurses in the state are in their 40s and 50s -- the average age is 42 -- meaning there will be a large hole to fill when that group retires.
A Kansas Department of Labor study estimated Kanas will need 11,350 new registered nurses by 2010 to keep up with demand. It will be tough to do considering Kansas nursing schools produced 1,761 new nurses last year and a teaching shortage had led to hundreds of nursing students being turned away.
The future doesn't look good, but it's already putting a strain on the present. Overworked nurses have felt the stress and they're concerned it'll lead to mistakes that could hurt their patients.
"Some of them say they are nearing the end of their rope," said Paul Harrison, a surgeon who directs trauma care at Wesley Medical Center in Wichita.
The shortage has led to nurses who normally care for two patients in a shift to have three under their watch. Some nurses in one specialty have been forced to help out in other areas where they might not feel quite as comfortable or properly trained.
And because of high turnover, particularly in acute care areas, there is almost constant training of new people.
The result is that hospitals have been forced to call in temporary nurses or switch nurses or patients from one floor or another -- even one hospital to another.
"A hospital my have an empty bed, but if it doesn't have a nurse to staff it, that bed doesn't exist," Harrison said.
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Information from: The Wichita Eagle, http://www.kansas.com
Jul 06 14:52
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By P.J. DICKERSCHEID
Associated Press Writer
CHARLESTON, W.Va. (AP) -- Think finding a job is hard? Try being over 55 with no high school diploma and limited transportation options in a mostly rural state whose main industries demand good physical agility.
Add the possibility of age discrimination and that's the challenge facing about a third of the estimated 260,000 senior citizens in West Virginia who can't afford to retire, says Janie White, grants management specialist for Preston County Senior Citizens Inc., which serves Boone, Clay, Doddridge, Harrison, Kanawha, Monongalia, Preston and Taylor counties.
To help more struggling seniors find gainful employment, the West Virginia Bureau of Senior Services has developed a four-year plan for the Senior Community Service Employment Program.
About 99,020 West Virginians qualify for the program by being at least 55 with income at or below 125 percent of the federal poverty level, said Tom Dudley, manager of research, development and employment for the state Bureau of Senior Services.
Authorized by the Older Americans Act of 1965, the government-subsidized program pays seniors minimum wage to work up to 20 hours a week while receiving on-the-job training at nonprofits and government agencies, including day-care centers, senior centers, schools and hospitals, among others.
Across the country, more than $432 million is spent on the program, including $5 million in West Virginia for 650 slots, according to the U.S. Department of Labor. Virginia spends about $9.2 million for 1,300 positions. The most funding, about $36 million, helps at least 5,000 seniors in California.
Dudley said West Virginia's program faces some unique challenges. Older workers generally aren't well suited for jobs with the state's biggest industries, which include coal mining, lumber, farming, natural gas production, and chemical and petroleum development.
Jobs are also scarce in rural communities; 79 percent of West Virginia is rural, he said.
Other realities: 16 percent of residents over 55 don't have vehicles and public transit is limited; 61 percent of seniors didn't finish high school.
Dudley said the relatively low educational level of older residents isn't surprising considering they grew up between the Depression and World War II when "work and life" took priority over schooling.
To overcome that, many seniors are encouraged to earn their GEDs as part of their individual training plans, Dudley said.
Many may also need technology training, White said.
"But really the experience and strength of character and unwavering work ethic that the older Americans bring is ... valuable to any business," she said.
State officials have identified dozens of suitable high-demand jobs for seniors, including medical technicians, home health aides, cooks, hostesses, clerks and mechanics. The trick is matching their skills with employers' needs, Dudley said.
The Berkeley County senior center in the Eastern Panhandle has hired seniors to work as assistant cooks, receptionists and adult day-care aides, among other jobs, said executive director Linda Holtzapple.
"They are eager workers, usually very friendly, and they bring a lot of life experience to the workplace because they are older workers," she said.
White counts a man in his late 70s among the program's many successes. The former factory worker who went to work for a startup company was recognized by the manager as a role model for other employees, one who "sets the pace."
White said older workers are dependable. "They tend to be team players, they exhibit good judgment and for a business, the win side is older workers also comprehend the big picture and understand how they contribute to the whole."
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On the Net:
http://www.doleta.gov/seniors/
Jul 06 00:06
By MARK SHERMAN
Associated Press Writer
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Dying of cancer, Thomas Amschwand did everything he was told to make sure his wife would collect on the life insurance policy he had through his employer.
"He was obsessed with dotting every `i' and crossing every `t'," Melissa Amschwand-Bellinger recalled about her husband, who died in 2001 at age 30.
But Spherion Corp., the temporary staffing company where Amschwand worked, told Amschwand-Bellinger she would not receive any of the $426,000 in benefits she believed she was due. When she went to court, Spherion succeeded in getting her lawsuit thrown out. The Supreme Court on June 27 refused to review the case.
Amschwand-Bellinger received a refund of the few thousand dollars in insurance premiums she and her husband dutifully had paid. The total, she said, would not cover the costs of his funeral.
The story has played out often under the federal Employee Retirement Income Security Act. Designed to protect employee benefits, the law has been used by employers as a shield against suits.
Federal appeals courts, interpreting Supreme Court decisions dating to 1993, consistently have said companies that offer health, life and retirement benefits under ERISA cannot be sued for large amounts of money, or damages. Instead, they can be sued only for typically smaller sums such as Amschwand's insurance premiums.
Several federal judges have bemoaned the unfairness even as they have felt constrained to rule in favor of employers.
"The facts ... scream out for a remedy beyond the simple return of premiums," Judge Fortunato Benavides of the New Orleans-based 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said in the Amschwand case. "Regrettably, under existing law it is not available."
The Bush administration has argued that the appeals courts are misreading the precedents and has asked the high court at least twice to clarify the earlier rulings. So far it has refused.
Congress, which could amend ERISA to make clear such suits are allowed, also has taken no action.
The result, in the view of ERISA experts, the administration and some lawmakers, is perverse.
"The beneficiary under the policy didn't get the promised benefit," said Colleen Medill, an expert on ERISA at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. "To say we're just going to return your premiums, that's a total farce. That's not what they paid the premiums for. They paid them for the benefits."
Sen. Patrick Leahy, chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, said at a recent hearing that before ERISA became law, employees clearly could sue for benefits in state courts.
The court rulings, said Leahy, D-Vt., have left people "more vulnerable than they were before the law was passed."
Spherion's decision to deny benefits to Amschwand-Bellinger turned on an odd set of facts. Spherion, which employs about 300,000 people, switched insurers after Thomas Amschwand was diagnosed with a rare form of heart cancer. The new policy did not take effect until an employee worked one full day. Spherion never informed Amschwand of the requirement.
Amschwand asked repeatedly whether there was anything else he needed to do and was told no. He asked that the new policy be sent to him. Spherion never did so.
He died without returning to work. His widow said he easily could have worked a day if that was what it took to activate the new policy. Spherion could have waived the one-day-of-work provision, as it did for other employees but not for Amschwand.
Spherion spokesman Kip Havel issued a brief statement when contacted by The Associated Press after the high court declined to review the case. "We are pleased the court has made its decision and the matter has finally been resolved," Havel said.
The court also recently turned down an appeal from Louis Gerard "Gerry" Goeres, who sued Charles M. Schwab & Co. over hundreds of thousands of dollars in retirement plan benefits.
For 16 months, Schwab mistakenly refused to acknowledge Goeres as the beneficiary in the retirement plan of his domestic partner, Stephen Ward, a Schwab employee who died in 1999. By the time Schwab acknowledged its error, the value of the account had declined by more than $500,000. Goeres sued for the rest. Federal courts dismissed the suit. "Unfortunately, legal relief is not available," U.S. District Judge Charles Breyer said in ruling against Goeres.
"You know the Schwab commercial, `Talk to Chuck?"' Goeres said. "I thought if Chuck knew this, he'd say, 'Oh my God, this is so wrong.' I live on naive dreams."
Schwab said in court papers that Goeres could have taken legal action soon after Ward's death, when he first was told he was not the beneficiary.
Amschwand-Bellinger said the cases show the need for either the court or Congress to provide "some sort of meaningful remedy for employees when employers have a breach of fiduciary duty."
A Texas native who lives in an unincorporated Houston suburb, she has since remarried and has an 18-month-old daughter. She is president and executive director of the Amschwand Sarcoma Cancer Foundation, which she founded with her first husband.
She recognizes that she is more fortunate than many others who have fought similarly futile battles for benefits under ERISA. "What if we had had children and I was a stay at home mom?" said Amschwand-Bellinger, who previously worked for a public hospital system. "What if I was 60 years old, with no skill sets, and I had to go back to work?"
Jul 06 12:27
By KEVIN FREKING and NEDRA PICKLER
Associated Press Writers
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WASHINGTON (AP) -- There's a great unknown about Sen. John McCain's health plan: How many employers would drop insurance coverage for their workers because of his tax policies?
The Republican presidential nominee-in-waiting has proposed that everyone buying health insurance get a refundable tax credit, $2,500 for individuals and $5,000 for families. At the same time, he would treat employer contributions toward health insurance like income, meaning workers would have to pay income, but not payroll, taxes on it.
McCain's Democratic rival, Barack Obama, says the plan would "shred" the employer-based system that provides health insurance to about 158 million workers.
Most health analysts won't go that far, but both liberals and conservatives say McCain's approach would strengthen the individual and small-group insurance market. And by strengthening that market, it will pull in workers now covered through their jobs.
The workers most inclined to make that transition will be younger, healthier ones who most likely will be able to buy a policy on the individual market for less than their tax credit, said Paul Fronstin, a senior research associate at the Employee Benefit Research Institute, which studies employee benefits.
To the degree that happens, the employer-based market will become less healthy as sicker, older workers stay with their employer-based coverage while more of the healthier workers move to the individual market.
"What you'll see happening is average cost in the employer-market will go up and average cost in the individual market will go down," Fronstin said. "You'll start to get into a cycle where people at the margin start to leave employer coverage for individual coverage. At some point, employers will start to ask: Why am I doing this if my workers don't value it anymore? If I don't need to do this to be competitive in the labor market, why should I do it?"
Joseph Antos, who studies health care policy at the American Enterprise Institute, a conservative think tank, said it's predictable that McCain's proposal would move more people into the individual market because some workers could simply get a better deal there. Not only are the premiums typically cheaper for younger, healthier workers, but any difference between the tax credit and the premiums can be redirected into a health savings account.
"This stuff about shredding the employer market, that's just campaign rhetoric in the sense that nothing changes real quickly in this country," Antos said. "We're not going to see employers drop coverage en masse, and the reason is health insurance benefits remain an important tool for attracting good employees and retaining good employees."
Employers began offering health insurance as a benefit during World War II, when a labor shortage increased competition for workers. Wage controls limited employers' ability to offer higher salaries, so they offered benefits like insurance, pensions and longer vacations to attract the best employees. Health benefits were not a major expense initially, but they have become a significant part of payroll as health care costs have spiraled upward.
As much as Americans complain about the cost of health care, they like the fact that employers pick up most of their health insurance expenses. They also like that their share is taken from their paychecks on a pretax basis, and fear anything that could jeopardize that prized benefit.
A poll of employer-insured voters conducted by the Kaiser Family Foundation found that nearly two-thirds thought it would be harder to find a plan that matches their needs and handle administrative issues if they were buying insurance on their own. Eight in 10 said they thought it would be harder to get a good price for insurance or get coverage if they were sick.
Antos said large companies that compete vigorously for workers would keep the benefit. Individual losers could include those workers with high insurance premiums, such as company executives or union workers in the automobile industry. Winners would be younger people who find a basic policy without many bells and whistles appealing.
"It would be a mixed bag for the employer system. On the one hand, it's a much more generous tax subsidy than what currently exists for low- and middle-income workers," said Len Burman, co-director of the Tax Policy Center, a part of the Urban Institute and the Brookings Institution. "On the other hand, since you can get the credit outside work, some employers would probably drop coverage."
Burman said a family earning $60,000 with a typical employer-provided insurance policy that costs $12,100, of which the employer pays more than 70 percent, gets a tax subsidy amounting to about $3,400 under current tax law. Under McCain's proposal, that subsidy increases to $6,700, Burman said.
Dan Crippen, an adviser who helped McCain craft his health plan, rejects contentions that there would be any kind of rapid transition from the employer-based system. He said the benefit of the plan is that it would give people who change jobs frequently a policy they can take with them.
"We've talked to a lot of employers who have no interest in giving up their insurance now no matter what the system would be," Crippen said. "Frankly with the demographics coming into all of this, the retirement of my generation, our country is going to be hard up for workers and employers are going to once again be needing to attract workers, just like the onset of the employer-based system in World War II. That's what employers are telling us they will have to continue to do to attract workers."
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On the Net:
McCain: http://www.johnmccain.com
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