On Feb. 26, the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure passed H.R. 5912, the Expedited Delivery of Airport Infrastructure Act of 2020. This AGC-supported legislation would ensure that Airport Improvement Program (AIP) funds can be used to provide incentive payments to contractors for early completion of eligible projects. Early completion incentives allow owners to identify projects that provide significant public benefits that would be enhanced if the project were completed earlier. Rather than the owner agency establishing unrealistic completion dates, which could discourage some contractors from bidding on those projects, incentive payments allow contractors to determine how best to earn the incentive. AGC applauds the committee for passage of this measure and will continue to support its movement through the legislative process.
There’s still a short time left to register for AGC of America’s upcoming Collective Bargaining Seminar. The half-day seminar will take place in the morning of March 9 at the Bellagio Hotel in Las Vegas, NV. The seminar is part of AGC’s Annual Convention, but AGC members and chapter staff not attending the convention may also attend.
AGC of America on Feb. 4 released a white paper titled The PRO Act: What Union Contractors Need to Know. The PRO Act is a bill that would make vast, transformational changes to labor laws and upsets the delicate balance of rights and restrictions established over decades by the NLRB, courts, and Congress. While the union-favoring legislation presents obvious concerns for open-shop contractors, union contractors may not realize the detrimental impact it could have on them.
March 11, 2020, at the Bellagio Hotel and Casino
Construction-industry collective bargaining negotiations completed in 2019 resulted in an average first-year increase in wages and fringe benefits of $1.67 or 2.9 percent, according to the annual year-end Settlements Report issued by the AGC-supported Construction Labor Research Council (“CLRC”).
The U.S. Department of Labor’s (DOL) Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs (OFCCP) recently announced the release of its new technical assistance guide created specifically for construction contractors. OFCCP intends for construction contractors to use the technical assistance guide as a self-assessment tool to review the practices they have in place to eliminate discrimination and achieve their equal employment opportunity goals.
On Jan. 31, 2020, The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) released a new version of Form I-9, Employment Eligibility Verification. This new version contains minor changes to the form and its instructions. Employers should begin using this updated form as of Jan. 31, 2020.
OFCCP recently announced the release of its new Contractor Compliance Institute (CCI), an on-demand learning management system designed to help federal contract holders meet their equal employment opportunity obligations.
On Martin Luther King Jr. Day 2020, a group of seven student members in Auburn’s Student Chapter of AGC teamed up with Alabama Rural Ministry (ARM) to volunteer for the MLK Day Celebration.
In January of 2019, the new leadership group of Mobile AL CLC met to discuss the goals for the 2019 calendar year. Among these goals were to encourage AGC leaders to guide their young people to CLC, engage current CLC members and recruit others, find new and creative meeting formats and community service projects.