Welcome
to the November, 2015 GMCS REGIONAL CONSTRUCTION INDUSTRY UPDATE.
GMCS is focused on facilitating communication and collaboration
amongst our construction employer associations, constructors, facility owners,
building trades and governmental bodies with an emphasis on creating a
centralized, focused community that actively promotes labor harmony, industry
advancement, contractor opportunities and workforce development.
Is
your firm looking to fill key positions within your organization? With over 25 years of industry contacts &
experience within the Philadelphia metropolitan region and developed industry
relationships to work from, GMCS
has become a powerful recruiting organization in this region’s
construction industry marketplace. Our goal is to provide our clients and
candidates with superior quality recruitment services while maintaining the
highest degree of integrity, confidentiality and professionalism. Go here to find out more about our Employer and Candidate Services. GMCS
maintains an active network of experienced industry professional candidates
that are currently exploring their next career opportunity. GMCS actively
markets these candidates to both regional and national firms as well as
partnering recruitment agencies throughout the country. Interested candidates and employers should
contact Wayne Gregory today at
wegregory@gregorymcs.com to discuss the
best GMCS employment and
recruitment solution for you.
We
currently have several excellent candidates that are interested in making a
move within the regional marketplace. GMCS is making those candidates available
to interested employers at no cost. Interested
firms should contact Wayne Gregory @ wegregory@gregorymcs.com for more
information.
Sponsorship
and marketing opportunities are available to industry stakeholders and
contractors; interested firms should contact Wayne
Gregory @ wegregory@gregorymcs.com for more
information.
Builders
Exchange's longtime leader leaving to focus on work-force development:
Mary
Tebeau is arguably one of the best industry/association executives that this area
has ever seen. She led her organization
like a true leader, always advancing the member’s agenda while never stepping
into their spotlight. She was tireless
in her efforts to support the organization, grow its membership and to enhance
its value, both to the membership and the industry as an inclusive whole. Like me, she is a servant leader that not on
believed in collaboration, but embraced it.
Read
more here….
Johnny Doc to head building trades council:
John
Dougherty, leader of the politically powerful Electricians union in
Philadelphia, expanded his sphere of influence Wednesday with a new title.
Dougherty
was selected to succeed Pat Gillespie as head of the Philadelphia Building and
Construction Trades Council, which represents nearly 40 unions in Philadelphia
and the suburbs.
Read
more here…
PROFILE: John J. Dougherty:
Elections
are a busy time for John J. "Johnny Doc" Dougherty, who, along with
his union, is backing his brother Kevin Dougherty's campaign for a seat on
Pennsylvania's Supreme Court.
Read
more here…
2 Dietz &
Watson employees drive into union picket line
UNION
PROTESTERS who were working a picket line yesterday outside of Dietz &
Watson's Northeast Philadelphia plant twice found themselves having to dodge
the fenders of company employees.
Police
said two members of the Millwrights Local 1906 were struck by a GMC truck that
was driven through a picket line by a Dietz & Watson official about 8 a.m.
Read
more here….
Five Practical Issues Browning-Ferris Creates for
Employers:
National
Labor Relations Board’s decision in Browning-Ferris Industries of California,
Inc., 362 NLRB No. 186 (Aug. 27, 2015), will have significant and far-reaching
effects as it greatly expands the scope of relationships in which the Board can
and will find entities to be joint employers. While the full ramifications of
the Board’s decision remain to be seen, here are five issues, which are
discussed thoroughly by Members Miscimarra and Johnson in their dissent, that
employers will likely face as a result of Browning-Ferris:
Philadelphia
Carpenters union dispute creates headaches for Democrats:
The
The Democratic National Committee ran smack into lingering labor strife this
week during a visit to Philadelphia to plan July's presidential convention.
DNC
officials pulled up to the Convention Center late Wednesday afternoon in two
purple Philadelphia Phlash buses to find a picket line of protesters from the
Metropolitan Regional Council of Carpenters.
They
came. They saw. They drove away.
The
DNC delegation decided against crossing the picket line.
Read
more here…
DMI: Dodge
Momentum Index Jumps in September:
The
Dodge Momentum Index moved 5.8% higher in September to 133.5 (2000=100) from
its August reading of 126.2. The Momentum Index is a monthly measure of the
first (or initial) report for nonresidential building projects in planning,
which have been shown to lead construction spending for nonresidential
buildings by a full year. The impetus behind September’s gain was a 12.0%
increase from the previous month in institutional building planning. State and
local budgets, which finance many projects in the institutional category,
continue to recover from their recessionary weakness. With this support,
planning for new institutional buildings has trended upward over the past year,
although in a saw-tooth pattern. Commercial construction, on the other hand, is
at a more mature stage of its recovery and planning has been relatively more
stable. Planning in the commercial category increased 1.8% in September.
Read
more here…
Post Brothers makes big move into University City:
Liberty
Post Brothers has quietly amassed 550 apartments in a total of seven properties
in University City as part of a strategy to establish a large footprint in that
Philadelphia neighborhood.
The
Philadelphia company has ambitions to spend upwards of $250 million acquiring
multifamily properties over the next couple of years in University City.
Read
more here…
Labor shortage
hurting construction firms' bottom lines: PulteGroup Slides After Builder's
Earnings Miss Estimates:
Homebuilders
are having a difficult time completing projects because of the labor shortage.
That has led to a decline in profits for many of the nation's homebuilders.
Construction professionals say the industry must do a better job of attracting
and training young people. "There is not a market in the country where
we're not experiencing some pressure," said Richard Dugas, PulteGroup's
CEO. "There is no question about it."
Read
more here…
Construction
Employment Rises in 35 States and D.C. Between September '14 and '15; But Only
23 States Add Jobs from August to September:
Construction
employment expanded in 35 states and the District of Columbia between September
2014 and September 2015 yet only 23 states added jobs between August and
September, according to an analysis released today of Labor Department data by
the Associated General Contractors of America. Association officials said the
fact as many states lost construction jobs as added them last month was likely
due to a combination of labor shortages and uncertainty about a host of federal
investment programs.
Read
more here…
Hearing set in
Ardmore community's battle over Dranoff project:
The
Save Ardmore Coalition sued Dranoff Properties in August claiming that $10.1
million the Philadelphia developer received from the state through
Pennsylvania’s Redevelopment Assistance Capital Program, or RACP, was a
“misappropriation of public funds for improper and inappropriate private
use."
The
group also questioned why "Dranoff Properties is the only developer in
Lower Merion Township - one of the wealthiest townships in Pennsylvania - to
demand that taxpayer money subsidize the construction of a luxury apartment
development."
Read more here…
Construction company skirted workplace law, DA says:
A
Bethlehem construction firm will be charged with violating Pennsylvania's
Construction Workplace Misclassification Act and one of its principals will be
charged with perjury following a Northampton County investigative grand jury's
probe.
ENR Project of the Year and Best Higher
Education/Research Project: University of Penn Nanotech Center Raises the
Curtain on Research
With
the opening of the Krishna P. Singh Center for Nanotechnology, students and the
general public are getting a rare glimpse into research practices at the
University of Pennsylvania. In designing and building a facility with a very
open layout and visible laboratory spaces, the team has created a space that
defies conventional thinking about research facilities.
Read
more here…
Year-to-Date Collective Bargaining Yields Average
First-Year Increase of 2.5%:
The
AGC-supported Construction Labor Research Council (CLRC) has released its
second report of the year on collective bargaining settlements in the
industry. Settlements reported between
January and September 2015 resulted in an average first-year wage-and-benefit
increase of 2.5 percent or $1.25. For
newly negotiated multiyear agreements, the average second-year increase was 2.6
percent or $1.32, and the average third-year increase was 2.6 percent or
$1.38. The average first-year increase
is higher in both percentage and dollar amount than that of recent years, but
the second- and third-year increases are relatively flat, CLRC reports. CLRC further observes that the most common
first-year increase amounts to date in 2015 lie in the $1.21-$1.40 range, which
is much higher than those of the prior two years, which lie in the $0.81-$1.00
range. The percentage of settlements
with no increase has significantly declined – from 8 percent in both 2014 and
2013 to just 2 percent so far this year.
Read
more here…
New PBGC Projections: Solvency of Multiemployer Program
Fund Extended Three Years; Condition of Single-Employer Program Continues to
Improve:
The
projected insolvency date for the insurance program for multiemployer pension
plans, which cover more than 10 million Americans, has been delayed by three
years, according to the FY 2014 Projections Report released today by the
Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation. The risk of program insolvency has
decreased over the near term due primarily to the new premium revenues
anticipated under the Multiemployer Pension Reform Act of 2014 (MPRA). It is more likely than not that the program's
assets will be depleted in 2025, compared with 2022 in last year's report, and
the risk of insolvency grows rapidly thereafter.
Read
more here…
Development
team picked for large site fronting Delaware River:
The
Plans call for the construction of a complex that will have 550 apartments and
30,000 square feet of retail space along with public spaces focused around the
extension of the Spring Garden Street corridor from Delaware Avenue through to
the river’s edge.
A
rendering shows how Festival Pier and other nearby parcels could be developed.
This is not what is being proposed but an idea that was part of DRWC's master
plan.
Read
more here…
ABI: Strong Rebound for Architecture Billings Index:
The
Architecture Billings Index (ABI) returned to positive territory after a slight
dip in August, and has seen growth in six of the nine months of the year so
far. As a leading economic indicator of construction activity, the ABI reflects
the approximate nine to twelve month lead time between architecture billings
and construction spending. The American Institute of Architects (AIA) reported
the September ABI score was 53.7, up from a mark of 49.1 in August. This score
reflects an increase in design services (any score above 50 indicates an
increase in billings). The new projects inquiry index was 61.0, down from a
reading of 61.8 the previous month.
Read
more here…
This
e-mail newsletter has been provided complimentary to Associations and industry
stakeholders by Wayne Gregory of Gregory Management & Consulting Services (GMCS).
Wayne Gregory has been the recognized regional leader in the areas of Labor
& Industry Relations since 2005 and is continuing to serve the industry and
its multi-employer Associations under the GMCS brand, Knowledge,
Trust, Integrity and a unwavering commitment to Serve the
industry. From Association Management & Executive Leadership
services, Owner Representation, Government & Legislative Affairs &
Subscription Services and Labor & Industry Relations, let GMCS help your
Associations and organizations to forge a new and clear path forward.
We
hope that you enjoy the new newsletter format and welcome all comments and
suggestions regarding these changes. You may forward those to Wayne
Gregory @ wegregory@gregorymcs.com.
Best
wishes to all for a safe, prosperous, healthy & harmonious 2015.
Sincerely,
Gregory Management & Consulting Services
Audubon, PA 19403
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