The Blog

ABC MA’s Building our Future Scholarship awarded scholarships to six students this academic year who are pursuing a post-secondary construction education, including three scholarships awarded to students enrolled in a trade apprenticeship program with ABC’s Gould Construction Institute and two pursuing construction management degrees at Wentworth Institute of Technology.

On Sept. 7, the Federal Acquisition Regulatory Council’s final rule on the Use of Project Labor Agreements for Federal Construction Projects, which would mandate anti-competitive and inflationary project labor agreements on large-scale federal construction contracts, arrived at the Office of Management and Budget’s Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs for review. This is the final step before the rule will be published in the Federal Register and take effect.

On Aug. 25, 2023, the National Labor Relations Board issued its decision in Cemex Construction Materials Pacific, LLC, which imposes a new framework that greatly expands the Board’s ability to impose unions on employees without a secret ballot election. The Board’s decision overrules precedent that has stood for over half a century.

Despite being litigated for years, the Biden administration’s National Labor Relations Board has revived controversial policy from the Obama era in the form of its Representation-Case Procedures final rule. The direct final rule, issued without notice and the opportunity to comment, essentially restores provisions of the “ambush” election rule of 2014 and rescinds the remaining ABC-supported provisions of the 2019 final rule. The rule will apply to representation petitions filed on or after Dec. 26, 2023, and employers will have less time to respond to representation petitions.

National nonresidential construction spending grew 0.1% in July, according to an Associated Builders and Contractors analysis of data published by the U.S. Census Bureau. On a seasonally adjusted annualized basis, nonresidential spending totaled $1.08 trillion and is up 16.5% year over year.

We all know that construction is a great industry that offers lucrative careers without the need for a four-year college degree – and the massive debt that so often accompanies it. There are few among us who regret our career choice.

The construction industry had 363,000 job openings on the last day of July, according to an Associated Builders and Contractors analysis of data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics’ Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey. JOLTS defines a job opening as any unfilled position for which an employer is actively recruiting. Industry job openings decreased by 23,000 from June but are up by 10,000 from the same time last year.

Associated Builders and Contractors issued the following statement opposing the U.S. Department of Labor‘s proposed rulemaking that would alter overtime regulations under the Fair Labor Standards Act. The proposal increases the minimum salary level threshold to $55,068 annually for a full-year worker and automatically updates the threshold every three years.

Associated Builders and Contractors has announced its opposition to the U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration announcement of a proposed rule, Worker Walkaround Representative Designation Process. The proposed rule would allow an employee to choose a third-party representative, such as an outside union representative, to accompany an OSHA inspector into nonunion facilities.

On June 21, 2023, the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court issued its decision in Adams v. Schneider Electric USA, Inc., addressing the so-called “Cat’s Paw” theory of liability. In reversing summary judgment originally granted in favor of the employer Schneider Electric, the SJC concluded that an employer can still violate the Massachusetts anti-discrimination statute, G.L. c. 151B, where there is evidence that a manager, instructed to lay off employees, furthered a discriminatory corporate policy without even knowing it. The concept, adopted by the SJC, is often referred to as the “cat’s paw” theory of discrimination.