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�鶹��ý 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 �鶹��ý-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 �鶹��ý 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 �鶹��ý 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.

The General Building Contractors Association (GBCA) held its Annual Meeting on January 13, 2020 to look back on the past year’s successes of the association and its members, and to look forward to new initiatives in the upcoming year. This year, the event focused on the construction industry’s future, and featured speakers who spoke about developing young construction leaders and about the importance of supporting workforce development programs.

Union representation across occupations in the construction industry modestly declined in 2019, from 13.8 percent to 13.6 percent of workers employed, according to an annual release recently issued by the Bureau of Labor Statistics (“BLS”). Union membership in the industry also modestly declined, from 12.8 percent to 12.6 percent, but remains considerably higher than the all-industry average in the private sector, which declined from 6.4 percent to 6.2 percent over the year. Construction union representation and membership decreased by a larger margin in 2018 but increased slightly in both 2017 and 2016. The total number of workers in construction (regardless of union affiliation) rose in each of those years. In 2019, the number rose from 8,169,000 to 8,352,000.