The chief executive officer of the Associated General Contractors of America, Stephen E. Sandherr, issued the following statement in reaction to the passage in the U.S. House of Representatives today of the Protecting the Right to Organize (PRO) Act:
“House Democrats today voted in favor of idling workers, stripping their privacy, and denying them the opportunity to establish their own businesses. The PRO Act, which passed largely along partisan lines tonight, includes a host of measures that are anti-worker, anti-privacy, and anti-recovery. The measure, for example, will deny workers the absolute right to a private union election ballot. It also forces employers to disclose private details about their workers to unions, including their home addresses, emails, and shift schedules.
“The measure authorizes a host of long-prohibited labor actions, including secondary boycotts, where unions can picket firms that are not involved in a dispute with that union. These boycotts will force many workers to suffer, without pay, for disputes where they do not stand to benefit. The PRO Act also discriminates against independent contractors. This means workers will no longer be able to successfully establish their own businesses and become their own bosses.
“The broader impact of the PRO Act, should it be enacted, is a new era of labor unrest that will stifle future economic activity and job growth. Instead of helping deliver higher wages and better benefits, the PRO Act will provide labor uncertainty, stagnant economic growth, and diminished entrepreneurial opportunity. That is why the Associated General Contractors of America, including our union and open shop members, will continue to oppose this measure and take every possible step to prevent its passage in the Senate.”
Related Stories
| Aug 11, 2010
BIM adoption tops 80% among the nation's largest AEC firms, according to BD+C's Giants 300 survey
The nation's largest architecture, engineering, and construction companies are on the BIM bandwagon in a big way, according to Building Design+Construction's premier Top 50 BIM Adopters ranking, published as part of the 2009 Giants 300 survey. Of the 320 AEC firms that participated in Giants survey, 83% report having at least one BIM seat license in house, half have more than 30 seats, and near...
| Aug 11, 2010
Integrated Project Delivery builds a brave, new BIM world
Three-dimensional information, such as that provided by building information modeling, allows all members of the Building Team to visualize the many components of a project and how they work together. BIM and other 3D tools convey the idea and intent of the designer to the entire Building Team and lay the groundwork for integrated project delivery.
| Aug 11, 2010
Great Solutions: Healthcare
11. Operating Room-Integrated MRI will Help Neurosurgeons Get it Right the First Time A major limitation of traditional brain cancer surgery is the lack of scanning capability in the operating room. Neurosurgeons do their best to visually identify and remove the cancerous tissue, but only an MRI scan will confirm if the operation was a complete success or not.
| Aug 11, 2010
Great Solutions: Collaboration
9. HOK Takes Videoconferencing to A New Level with its Advanced Collaboration Rooms To help foster collaboration among its 2,212 employees while cutting travel time, expenses, and carbon emissions traveling between its 24 office locations, HOK is fitting out its major offices with prototype videoconferencing rooms that are like no other in the U.
| Aug 11, 2010
2009 Judging Panel
A Matthew H. Johnson, PE Associate Principal Simpson Gumpertz & HegerWaltham, Mass. B K. Nam Shiu, SE, PEVP Walker Restoration Consultants Elgin, Ill. C David P. Callan, PE, CEM, LEED APSVPEnvironmental Systems DesignChicago D Ken Osmun, PA, DBIA, LEED AP Group President, ConstructionWight & Company Darien, Ill.
| Aug 11, 2010
Inspiring Offices: Office Design That Drives Creativity
Office design has always been linked to productivity—how many workers can be reasonably squeezed into a given space—but why isn’t it more frequently linked to creativity? “In general, I don’t think enough people link the design of space to business outcome,” says Janice Linster, partner with the Minneapolis design firm Studio Hive.