A shortage of skilled labor along the Gulf Coast inspired global engineering construction company Fluor to open a craft training facility near Houston, where students are trained at no cost to them.
One of the organizations we’re proud to partner with at Construction Citizen is Neighborhood Centers in Houston, where they’ve now officially launched a new workforce initiative aimed at helping 1,000 people find living wage, middle-skill jobs. Those are good-paying careers that require more than a high school diploma or its equivalent but less than a four-year degree.The initiative, called ASPIRE, is already connecting people with various training programs. Some of those programs include a cost for the student but others don't cost anything for the individual. Many of the applicants so far are making around $13 to $15 per hour with the goal of transitioning to around $21 per hour.The official kickoff was last Wednesday when JPMorgan Chase President and CEO Jamie Dimon visited Houston to present Neighborhood Centers with a check for $1 million.
May 05, 2016
A broad cross section of construction and construction-related business associations are asking leaders in both parties in Washington to make career training a priority this year.
April 29, 2016
Last week, the Construction Citizen team updated you on the fact that lawsuits about worker misclassification have been ramping up all across the country. The battle is playing out on multiple fronts – particularly in court houses and in the halls of state legislatures. The problem is at crisis levels across many industries, especially construction, and federal regulators have signaled they are getting more serious about reining it in.Put simply, worker misclassification is cheating. It happens when a business pretends its workers are independent contractors when, by law, those people should be paid as employees. There are many legitimate uses of contract labor, however, which is why the IRS has this test to determine who can and cannot be classified that way.
April 20, 2016
Across the country, there are more and more examples of businesses facing legal consequences because they were misclassifying workers as independent subcontractors when, by law, those people should have been treated as employees and compensated as such.As Construction Citizen has documented over the years, there are many legitimate uses of contract labor. There is also, however a scourge of certain employers abusing the designation to dodge taxes, health benefits and other costs associated with having employees on payroll. Misclassification happens when a business intentionally uses contract labor to gain an unfair competitive advantage.
April 13, 2016
Braddock compares recent articles: “Some stories focus on the fact that women are finding fantastic careers in construction while others suggest it is too difficult for women to gain traction in the business.”
April 01, 2016
The El Paso City Council is moving forward with plans to further crack down on companies that deny pay to their workers.
March 22, 2016
A construction executive in New York is charged with underreporting his payroll so that he could reap $2 million in insurance premium breaks.Prosecutors in Manhattan said Michael Cholowsky and his company allegedly concealed more than $3 million in payroll resulting in a fraudulent premium reduction over the course of a year starting in April of 2014.The Manhattan District Attorney’s office released a statement saying that the “indictment stems from an investigation into a construction site fatality that occurred last year at the former location of Pastis restaurant in the Meatpacking District. In April 2015, a 22-year-old worker was killed when an improperly secured trench collapsed and fatally crushed the victim.
March 16, 2016
Attorneys expect an appeal in the case of a construction worker who died in an accident on the Kyle Field jobsite in College Station at the Texas A&M campus.That's after a Harris County jury in Houston awarded $54 million to the family of Angel Garcia, who was using a loader bucket to catch concrete debris during demolition at the stadium. The loader had a 2,700-pound carrying capacity but was bearing a 3,340-pound concrete section as another worker was using a circular saw to cut the piece from a support column, according to the Occupational Safety and Health Administration.
March 02, 2016
Read about a program through which more than 150 veterans have been trained in pipefitting and welding since it started in 2014, and watch a video of a welding instructor talk about the program.
February 25, 2016
