The Business Roundtable, a coalition of 160 big business CEOs, announced July 28 a new "broad-based effort" to recruit and train up to 20,000 new construction workers by the end of 2009 to rebuild the hurricane-ravaged Gulf Coast. Member firms will initially commit $5 million to the initiative, which is being run by DuPont Chairman and CEO Charles O. Holliday and Riley Bechtel, chairman and CEO of Bechtel Group Inc. The effort will involve both union and nonunion training, with other funding from the U.S. Dept. of Labor and unspecified "national emergency grants," reports the Roundtable. It will also work with local businesses, industry trade groups, universities and state and local governments.