Tag: labor

February 28, 2024

Construction contractors and organized labor are keeping their eyes on a federal court in Texas, watching for the next development in a court challenge to the Biden administration’s standard redefining what constitutes a “joint employer.” The National Labor Relations Board […]

January 8, 2024

Hiring isn’t the only ingredient creating what AGC CEO Stephen Sandherr called a “mixed-bag” for contractors this year. Respondents’ top concerns for 2024 included: Rising interest rates or financing costs: 64%. Economic slowdown or recession: 62%. Rising direct labor costs […]

August 31, 2023

DOL’s announcement has been months in the making. During a June 2021 congressional hearing, former Secretary of Labor Marty Walsh told lawmakers the department was reviewing its overtime regulations, and the agency later confirmed a review shortly afterward. The agency […]

January 23, 2023

U.S. contractors have a lot on their minds as they look to the year ahead. Snarled supply chains and rising inflation could bring higher costs and lower profits in 2023. Workforce shortages, which make projects take longer and cost more, […]

December 21, 2022

Construction’s per capita rate of worker deaths is not the highest among industries. The agricultural, fishing, forestry and hunting industry averaged 19.5 deaths per 100,000 full-time employees and the transportation and warehousing rate equaled 14.5. Nevertheless, some of the construction […]

December 13, 2022

No one wants an unsafe workplace, but it’s easy for employees to forget how important things like hard hats, hand protection and reflective gear can be. That’s especially true if they find the equipment or clothing hot, if it limits […]

August 31, 2022

Mitch Landrieu says a one-size-fits-all approach to the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs act won’t work. “What’s happening in North Dakota is not what’s happening in the streets of New Orleans,” said Landrieu during an online event hosted by the National […]

July 28, 2022

On Tuesday, July 19, 2022, United States legislators, labor leaders, PPE manufacturers, and safety experts met at the Rayburn House Office Building in Washington, D.C. to advocate for heat safety and the Asunción Valdivia Heat Illness and Fatality Prevention Act. […]

June 9, 2022

For hourly workers in the trades, pay rose in May by 6.3% year over year, the highest increase since December 1982, according to Simonson. As those wages increased though, earnings in the overall private sector rose 6.5%. The slightly higher […]

March 10, 2022

The objective of the memo is to create good-paying jobs, with the choice to join a union, for workers in traditionally underserved communities, according to a joint statement from DOL and DOT released this week. But it also said it […]

November 3, 2021

The season of the strike is upon us. Nearly 1,400 workers at cereal producer Kellogg Co. went on strike at midnight Oct. 5, as their union contract expired. On Oct. 14, close to 10,000 members of the United Auto Workers […]

October 22, 2021

The falloff in ABC’s recent Construction Backlog Indicator stands in contrast to the optimism expressed earlier this year as the pandemic was showing signs of receding. Despite the challenges, in The Marcum National Construction Survey, released last week, construction executives […]

October 19, 2021

OSHA has wrapped up its latest quarter of fines for the period from July through September. Some contractors were penalized hundreds of thousands of dollars, with the highest fine totaling over $1 million, for a variety of violations ranging from […]

October 14, 2021

At a time when many contractors are looking to help solve their labor woes by bringing in more workers, a new report argues that upskilling strategies can help companies close talent gaps in their workforce and increase retention. As more […]

October 11, 2021

Following the Biden administration’s announcement on Sept. 9 that a federal vaccine mandate would go into effect, the president has been touting its effectiveness and encouraging the shot. Biden said that his administration’s mandate, along with the provision that federal […]

October 1, 2021

The potential issues began with where Champlain Towers was constructed. An academic study found the building had been sinking two millimeters per year since the 1990s due to subsidence, or settling of the ground in what was once a marshland […]

January 26, 2021

Manufacturing and labor groups including the AFL-CIO applauded the order, which tightens policies already in place. “The Trump administration used the right words but never put in place policies to affect meaningful change,” Richard Trumka, president of the AFL-CIO, said […]

May 1, 2020

Labor shortages cause serious problems for the construction industry, and globally, they are only getting worse. The problem is demographic and systemic and will not be affected by momentary economic dips or corrections. The scale of the problem even in […]

October 10, 2019

The construction industry continues to face a substantial hurdle: a labor shortage. Many contractors are experiencing an issue of not having enough people to do the work, and it’s created problems with being able to take on new projects, meet […]

June 5, 2019

In spite of recovering major ground after the Great Recession, the construction industry is still facing troubling skilled labor shortages, with a lack of qualified candidates stepping up to take over the positions once held by industry veterans nearing retirement […]