The monopoly is not so much caused by the plumber's or any other union as it is by the small number of suppliers available to Minneapolitans and the resulting effective monopoly. Most of the plumbing and heating firms work all over the metro area and as far away as St.Cloud, Rochester, and western Wisconsin. They thusly have a market of 4,000,000 people or so while Minneapolis has less than 400,000 and falling. It's thusly questionable if it's worth it for a lot of plumbing and heating contractors to jump through the hoops to get a Minneapolis license for less than 10% of the metro market. Add in the fact that most Minneapolis homes are definately "old work" with problems finding obsolete parts, etc.. and it's just not worth the hassle to get licensed in Minneapolis.
So we have a small number of plumbing and heating contractors to choose from here. Each of these contractors is a franchised dealer for one line or another of water heaters and thusly cannot install any other. Bosch, the maker of the highly efficient tankless demand water heater, is a well respected manufacturer and sells a lot of these water heaters in world markets. However, they are relatively new to the american market and most of the contractors are already tied to manufacturers of conventional water heaters. Thusly Bosch's excellent energy efficient water heaters are pretty much frozen out of the market here.
The gas company has enough market power to defy the manufacturers of conventional water heaters and offer more efficient models, but as a purveyor of their fuel they have little incentive to encourage the conservation of same.
hangin' on in Hawthorne
On Monday, November 3, 2003, at 11:48 AM, Dennis Plante wrote:
Dyna:
You pick-out any fixture you want (at Menards) and I'll get it installed for you-to code. Much more cost effectively than the prices you've been quoted to date.
I must admit however, I find it somewhat ironic however that you're complaining about the "strangle-hold" the few City licensed plumbers have on the City of Minneapolis, when it was the plumbers' union that effectively caused this to happen.
As a contractor, I have two price sheets for plumbing work. Work done in Minneapolis and all other locations. The reality - the higher costs have very little to do with the city and a LOT to do with the plumber's union. ALL of my other contractors are able to operate at the same price structure, regardless of the municipality.
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