Most mentors in engineering push kids to excel in math, science and technology so they can succeed in the field. But a Tuscaloosa, Ala., geotechnical engineering firm champions reading skills as its mentoring cause for young students in any career—and the effort is working. Photo: Courtesy of TTL Inc. Photo: Courtesy of TTL Inc. Reading incentive mentor program sponsored by TTL Inc. has boosted student performance, says President McClure. Committed employees at TTL Inc. not only have helped raise stubbornly low reading test scores in several Southern-area elementary schools, they also have sharpened their firm’s connection to local clients and
Even with gloomy news of client cutbacks, results of a new survey of 300 owners are giving construction managers some hope that more in-house project management roles would be outsourced. At the annual convention of the Construction Management Association of America in San Diego, some 1,000 attendees learned Oct. 4 that at least half of owners who responded to the study, done jointly by CMAA and industry management firm FMI, reduced internal staff in the last two years; 18% noted cutbacks of more than 20%. Nearly one-third of respondents to the survey, which CMAA says is "across a wide range
The U.S. has enough skilled workers to facilitate a nuclear-power renaissance, but that expertise could disappear for a decade or more if new projects fail to materialize, a panel of industry experts said on Aug. 30 at a hearing in Washington, D.C. “Accumulating a pool of highly skilled and highly valued and qualified construction workers needed to build nuclear units and maintain them will no doubt be a challenge,” said Sean McGarvey, secretary-treasurer of the AFL-CIO Building and Construction Trades Dept. In Washington, D.C., addressing the Obama Administration’s Blue Ribbon Commission on America’s Nuclear Future, he said the economic crisis
The National Labor Relations Board has ruled that the posting of stationary banners by members of a construction union at a secondary employer’s workplace does not violate the nation’s labor laws. Photo: Pacific Northwest Regional Council of Carpenters Related Links: National Labor Relations Board Ruling Knoxville Carpenters Protest Drywall Contractor Carpenters Target Businesses in Tulsa with Banners Pacific Northwest carpenters’ council website The 3-2 decision, split along party lines, is one of the first major rulings on a controversial issue from the board’s new roster of members. Organized labor considers the case a significant victory. The board has at least
Two years after making its first stab at rejoining organized labor, the Laborers International Union of North America is completing the reunion by returning to the AFL-CIO. The union, which bolted in 2006 to form an independent alliance with two other building trades, had reaffiliated with the umbrella group’s Building and Construction Trades Dept. in 2008. O’SULLIVAN The union rejoins the AFL-CIO after departing four years ago over a bitter dispute about the umbrella organization’s focus on political rather than grassroots organizing. The AFL-CIO re-affiliation becomes effective on Oct. 1. The laborers have shed 300,000 members in recent years amid
Following nine hours of negotiations on July 19, Chicago contractors and unions reached a tentative three-year agreement on wages and health-care benefits to end a three-week strike. The International Union of Operating Engineers Local 150 and Chicago-area Laborers’ District Council reached a settlement with owners’ representative Mid-America Regional Bargaining Association (MARBA) that includes a 3.25% annual wage increase and health-care benefits for three years. The unions originally sought annual increases of 5.3% for three years. A Local 150 press release said the pact means pickets would be “taken down immediately.” “It was a difficult negotiation with good results,” Lissa Christman,
Talks between construction companies and 15,000 striking Chicago-area union workers are set to restart on July 19 after negotiations to end the nearly three-week-old stalemate failed to produce a resolution. The strike, which began June 29, is by Local 150 of the operating engineers’ union and the Laborers’ District Council of Chicago. Their three-year contracts’ expired on May 31. Workers seek a 15% wage hike over three years and a 5% increase in health benefit contributions to offset health-care costs rising 10% to 12% per year. The Mid-America Regional Bargaining Association, which represents contractor employers, originally offered a 3.25% hike
Photo courtesy of Engineers Without Borders Engineers Without Borders-USA Selected for 2010 Turner Prize Engineers Without Borders-USA, a Boulder, Colo.-based group of more than 12,000 student and professional engineers and others—who build sustainable infrastructure in the world’s poorest communities, such as this Guatemala bridge project (below)—has won the 2010 Henry C. Turner prize for innovation, the National Building Museum said on July 12. The $25,000 prize, endowed since 2002 by Turner Construction Co., New York City, and named for its founder, was awarded to EWB-USA for its impact in the developing world and for “instilling a sense of global responsibility
In a troubling sign for construction, the industry’s unemployment rate showed no improvement in June after three straight monthly declines as the industry lost 22,000 jobs during the month, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported. The bureau’s employment report for June, released on July 2, showed that construction’s jobless rate for the month was 20.1%, the same as May’s level, but worse than the June 2009’s 17.4%. Anirban Basu, the Associated Builders and Contractors’ chief economist, says, for construction, “it is clear that this represents another disappointing jobs report.” The total number of construction unemployed fell from 2.44 million in
In a troubling sign for construction, the industry's unemployment rate showed no improvement in June after three straight months in which the rate declined, as the industry lost 22,000 jobs during the month, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported. The bureau's employment report for June, released on July 2, showed that construction's jobless rate for the month was 20.1%, the same as May's level, but worse than the June 2009 mark of 17.4%. Anirban Basu, the Associated Builders and Contractors' chief economist, says that for construction, "it is clear that this represents another disappointing jobs report." The Associated General Contractors'