President Trump continues to court construction unions, telling the North America’s Building Trades Unions annual legislative conference that he wants to rebuild infrastructure, streamline project permitting and reduce undocumented labor.
The Iron Workers (IW) and the Ironworker Management Progressive Action Cooperative Trust (IMPACT) have announced a new paid maternity-leave benefit, a groundbreaking move that officials hope will boost recruitment and retention of women workers.
Efforts to improve lagging construction productivity have largely failed, notably in the U.S., but skills shortages and increasing constraints on migration likely will inflate pay and force productivity improvements across the globe, according to a recent construction-industry survey and forecast by the McKinsey Global Institute.
Sen. Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.) is pushing legislation that would suspend the Davis-Bacon Act’s prevailing-wage provisions on federal highway construction contracts.
After the federal government temporarily halted construction on a portion of the Dakota Access Pipeline project in North Dakota, disputes continue, pitting protesters against construction crews and unions against each other.