GAUL Jonathan Gaul, an industrial painter and union member since age 18, considered leaving the union after earning a B.S. degree in computer science in 2004. But Frank MacKinnon, his 66-year-old predecessor, changed Gaul’s course by appointing him training manager; last year, MacKinnon handpicked him over more senior candidates to run the 1,000-member local, which spans four maritime provinces. Related Links: Millennials Bring New Attitudes Who Is a ‘Millennial’? The Millennials: Who They Are, And Why They Are A Force to be Reckoned With Conrado Rodrigues Elizabeth McAndrew-Benavides Ellina Yin Jonatan Schumacher “I wanted someone who would do a better
BENAVIDES “I choose to be an engineer to help the country produce clean electricity and reduce its carbon imprint,” says McAndrew-Benavides, a manager of industry infrastructure at the Nuclear Energy Institute, an industry group in Washington, D.C., that promotes nuclear energy. Related Links: Millennials Bring New Attitudes Who Is a ‘Millennial’? The Millennials: Who They Are, And Why They Are A Force to be Reckoned With Conrado Rodrigues Ellina Yin Jonathan Gaul Jonatan Schumacher Although the 31-year-old is on the leading edge of the Millennial generation, she shares many traits with her younger cohorts, including constant career revamping and a
The Millennial generation will compose the majority of the construction workforce by 2018, according to the U.S. Census. They are entering in a torrent that can either infuse energy into firms or drown them. Each company will choose what happens by how it adapts to new styles of recruitment, management and retention. + Image Photo: Mark Johann 29-year-old mechanical engineer with Leland Saylor Associates in San Francisco says, conditions are tough for the construction industry but, “balancing the knowledge of the older generation with the tech know-how of the younger,” is the path to security. Related Links: Who Is a
Construction's unemployment rate rose in January, to 22.5% from December's 20.7%, partly reflecting the industry's usual winter slowdown, but was improved from January 2010's 24.7% rate. Related Links: Read the Employment Report The Bureau of Labor Statistics' latest monthly employment snapshot, released on Feb. 4, also shows that construction lost 32,000 jobs in January, on a seasonally adjusted basis. About two-thirds of those losses came in the nonresidential specialty trade contractors segment. BLS said another possible factor contributing to construction's January job losses was the severe weather in parts of the U.S. last month. One encouraging sign in the latest
Sticking to what you know is considered an important principle of engineering practice and license law. But what is the best measurement of competence? If the feedback on ENR’s Jan. 24 guest commentary is any indicator, engineers’ opinions about the matter are more varied than the criteria currently used to judge engineering expertise. The commentary by Jon A. Schmidt, an associate structural engineer at Burns & McDonnell, Kansas City, Mo., addressed a new two-day exam for structural engineering, slated for an April rollout. The National Council of Examiners for Engineering and Surveying, Seneca, S.C., is replacing its two eight-hour structural
A University of Texas, El Paso, engineering school alumnus and the Halliburton Corp. are donating $2 million to the school to launch a new undergraduate-degree program in engineering leadership in fall 2012, the school announced on Jan. 19. The UTEP College of Engineering says its Leadership Engineering Program will feature a “broad-based curriculum of engineering design, project management and innovation, along with an emphasis on business, communication, ethics and social science.” Donating most of the money is UTEP engineering graduate Bob Malone, who now is president and CEO of First National Bank of Sonora, Texas, and his wife Diane. Malone
President Obama has nominated Republican Terence Flynn to serve as a board member of the National Labor Relations Board. If he is confirmed by the Senate, the labor panel will have its full complement of five members. Obama also nominated Lafe Solomon, a Democrat and NLRB veteran, to serve as general counsel. Both will need Senate confirmation, which appears likely. The NLRB has begun to work through the backlog of cases that built up over the 27-month period between January 2008 and April 2010, when there were only two members—Democrat and Chairwoman Wilma Liebman and Republican Peter Schaumber—sitting on the
Construction’s unemployment rate showed another year-over-year improvement in November, dipping to 18.8% from November 2009’s level of 19.4% but worse than this October’s 17.3%. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics’ latest monthly employment report shows that construction lost 5,000 jobs in November, on a seasonally adjusted basis, after gaining 3,000 in October. Looking at industry segments, BLS reported that the 6,800 jobs lost in specialty-trade contractors last month more than offset gains in the buildings and heavy-civil construction sectors. November was the second consecutive month in which the construction jobless rate was lower than in the same month of last
A decade after taking over the ironworkers’ union at a particularly low point in its history, General President Joseph J. Hunt, 68, is stepping down, expressing confidence that the union now is one of the most “transparent and progressive” in the building trades. Replacing him—as of Feb. 1 in an expected succession—will be Walter Wise, general secretary since 2008. The union has 125,000 members, according to a spokesman. Hunt took over the top post of the Washington, D.C.-based International Association of Bridge, Structural, Ornamental and Reinforcing Iron Workers in 2001, several months after the resignation of his predecessor, Jake West,
Before a courtroom filled with rank-and-file workers, Michael Forde, former executive secretary-treasurer of the New York District Council of the United Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners, was sentenced on Nov. 19 to 11 years in prison, an additional three years of supervised release and restitution. He pleaded guilty in July to participating in what Assistant U.S. Attorney Lisa Zornberg called a �mind boggling� 15-year racketeering scheme. On July 28, 2010, Forde admitted to taking bribes from multiple contractors, helping contractors cheat the District Council Benefit Funds out of millions of dollars, rigging job assignments, lying under oath, and obstructing investigations