OSHA Signs Partnerships to Protect Pennsylvania Construction Workers

OSHA’s Strategic Partnership Program provides opportunities for OSHA to partner with employers, workers, professional or trade associations, labor organizations, and other interested stakeholders. Strategic Partnerships are designed to eliminate serious hazards and enhance workplace safety and health practices in major corporations, government agencies, at large construction projects and private sector industries.

• Shoemaker-Skanska Construction and the Philadelphia Regional Building Trades Council entered into a strategic partnership to protect approximately 300 workers during renovation and construction of a shopping mall complex in Philadelphia. The goal of the partnership is to reduce injuries and illnesses, increase safety and health training, conduct effective health monitoring, and increase the number of employers with safety and health programs.
• P.J. Dick Incorporated entered into a strategic partnership to protect approximately 200 workers during the construction of an insurance office building in Erie. The goal of the partnership is to eliminate serious workplace hazards, prevent work-related injuries and fatalities, and develop an effective safety and health program. For more information, see the news release.

New OSHA Training Institute Education Centers Announced

Northampton Community College in Bethlehem, Pa., and Oklahoma State University in Stillwater, Okla., have been selected as the newest additions to the OSHA Training Institute (OTI) Education Centers network. OTI Education Centers are non-profit organizations that offer training on OSHA standards and occupational safety and health issues to workers and employers nationwide.

Builders Guild website emphasizes construction apprenticeships

A new website for the Builders Guild of Western Pennsylvania is hoping to encourage training in construction during a building boom in the region.

The website for the labor-management organization, comprised of commercial construction trade unions and contractors, focuses on recruiting apprentices into construction trades.

Apprenticeship training is led by each of the 12 trade union through joint apprenticeship training centers, where there is no cost to the student for the three- to five-year programs, during which they are paid on the job. Hourly rates increase after each year of training is completed. 

Summary of NLRB Decisions for Week of October 10 - 13, 2017

Midwest Terminals of Toledo International, Inc.  (08-CA-135971 and 08-CA-136613; 365 NLRB No. 138)  Toledo, OH, October 11, 2017.

The Board adopted the Administrative Law Judge’s conclusions that the Respondent violated Section 8(a)(5) and (1) by unilaterally changing the selection process and criteria for adding employees to its contractual skilled employee list, and violated Section 8(a)(3) and (1) by discriminatorily denying an employee placement on the skilled list because of his union support and activities (while concurring in finding the Sec. 8(a)(3) violation, Chairman Miscimarra, unlike his colleagues, did not rely on any evidence of the Respondent’s contemporaneous unfair labor practice charges).  Specifically, the Respondent hires from an “Order of Call,” which is divided into a “skilled list” of employees who are generally expected to work on a daily basis and a “regular list” of laborers who work more sporadically.  The Board found that the Respondent departed from an established past practice of meeting with the Union to discuss and confer over the selection of employees for skilled list placement before placing them.  Further, the Board found that the Respondent improperly disregarded the contractual qualifications and seniority rules for skilled list placement by selecting certain employees over others.  Finally, as to one such employee, the Respondent’s denial of placement on the skilled list also violated the Act based on record evidence of antiunion animus.

Where are Philly's jobs? Protesters cited at Center City hotel

A dozen protesters, many of them either clergy or members of the hospitality workers’ union, were issued citations Thursday evening as they massed in the lobby of the Aloft Hotel at Broad and Arch Streets, Philadelphia police said.

The protesters said the 179-room hotel, a conversion of the 1920s Liberty Title & Trust Building, received $33 million in government subsidies on the promise of providing 170 jobs, including 115 in a restaurant. The hotel opened Aug. 31 without the restaurant and its jobs, the protesters said

Starwood Hotels & Resorts, now owned by Marriott International Inc., is operating the hotel. No one from the company’s press office responded to a request for comment.

City Council mulls bills on demolition regulation

Philadelphia plans to tighten regulations on demolitions after a year of heightened fears of lead poisoning in construction-heavy residential neighborhoods.

At Thursday’s City Council session two bills were introduced, both drafted by the Department of Licenses and Inspections (L&I).

Dispute among Philly's building trades unions

Inside, patrons play the slots. Outside, unions are in disagreement over who should build signs at the Parx Casino expansion in Bucks County.

Building Trades Council leader John Dougherty has scheduled a meeting Friday morning with union leaders a week after Gary J. Masino resigned as the president of a key BTC subcommittee, the Mechanical Trades District Council of Delaware Valley. Masino is president and business manager of Local 19 of the Sheet Metal Workers International Union. In his resignation letter, Masino says he is resigning over a conflict of interest, accusing another union in the Mechanical Trades of raiding his members’ work.

According to sources, the dispute is between the sheet metal workers union and the electricians’ union, the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 98, over who should do work on electronic signs constructed at projects on Market Street and at the Parx Casino in Bucks County.

FMI Industry Survey - 2017 Talent Development in the Construction Industry

In today’s fast-changing and competitive business landscape, engineering and construction firms are vying to attract and retain the best people more than ever. Findings from this year’s talent development study paint a mixed picture of how construction firms are addressing people development.

In many cases, the topics of human resources (HR) and talent development are still being tackled in a very tactical, piecemeal manner, at best. Leading firms, however, recognize the need for a systematic and strategic approach and are investing in the necessary people and resources to set up long-term talent management programs.

Key findings from our study include:

• 89% of participants reported talent shortages in this year’s survey.
• 75% of participants have made changes to their training programs in the last two years, with mixed results.
• 43% of survey participants reported that their firms don’t prepare a formal annual training and development budget.
• Training and development programs aren’t very effective (score of 5.8 out of 10).
• Most firms struggle with performance management (score of 5 out of 10).
• Organizations with the highest employee retention have committed to rich professional development cultures and have effective performance management processes.
• 55% of survey respondents don’t have any formal processes in place for identifying and developing high-potential employees. 

Download the Survey

 

Builders Guild website emphasizes construction apprenticeships

A new website for the Builders Guild of Western Pennsylvania is hoping to encourage training in construction during a building boom in the region.

The website for the labor-management organization, comprised of commercial construction trade unions and contractors, focuses on recruiting apprentices into construction trades.

Apprenticeship training is led by each of the 12 trade union through joint apprenticeship training centers, where there is no cost to the student for the three- to five-year programs, during which they are paid on the job. Hourly rates increase after each year of training is completed. 

Led by the $6 billion Shell ethane cracker plant in Beaver County, construction projects are underway throughout the region that the Builders Guild wants to help prepare workers for, said Jeff Nobers, executive director of the group, in the release.

“The new website gives a much deeper explanation of how the trade apprenticeship programs function and highlights the people who make up the apprentices in the construction trades in our region,” he said. “There is a definitive and immediate need for those who want to build a long-term career and to leave a legacy as being part of the massive and positive changes that are and will continue to occur here.”

Largest Pittsburgh-area Construction Projects

Ranked by Total project cost

Rank	Project	Total project cost
1	Shell ethane cracker plant site preparation	$6 billion
2	Monongahela Locks & Dams replacement/expansion	$2.7 billion
3	Tenaska Westmoreland Generating Station

Source: Pittsburgh Business Times

Summary of NLRB Decisions for Week of October 2 - 6, 2017

Novato Healthcare Center  (20-CA-168351; 365 NLRB No. 137)  Novato, CA, September 29, 2017.

The Board unanimously adopted the Administrative Law Judge’s conclusions that the Respondent violated Section 8(a)(3) and (1) by suspending and discharging four employees because of their union activity and a fifth, neutral employee in order to justify its disciplines of the first four.  A majority (Members Pearce and McFerran) also adopted the judge’s conclusion that the Respondent violated Section 8(a)(1) by coercively interrogating an employee.  Dissenting, Chairman Miscimarra would not have found that the Respondent’s question to the employee was unlawful.

Nurses union fires director over financial irregularities

When Patricia Eakin, a retired Temple University emergency room nurse and the president of a fast-growing nurses union, got the news, her stomach twisted into a knot.

“Of course I feel betrayed,” said Eakin, president of the Pennsylvania Association of Staff Nurses and Allied Professionals (PASNAP).

The news was a Sept. 27 report from the union’s outside auditor: Something was wrong. There had been three years of overpayments for salary advances and vacation advance pay — $131,282 in all, with the biggest amount, $120,687 going to the union’s executive director, William P. Cruice, a lawyer. Smaller amounts were issued to a field organizer and an office administrator. The organizer has been placed on leave and the administrator is being carefully supervised, Eakin said.

Camden undaunted on Amazon headquarters bid, as N.J. backs Newark

Camden County officials say they plan to press forward with their bid to host Amazon’s second headquarters campus, even after the State of New Jersey announced that it would throw its weight — and offers of tax breaks — behind rival Newark’s efforts to lure the e-commerce giant.

Nurses union demands executive director's resignation over alleged 'financial irregularities'

The Pennsylvania Association of Staff Nurses and Allied Professionals said Tuesday it "demanded and received" the resignation of the union's executive director after a routine audit conducted by an outside accounting firm discovered some "financial irregularities."

Bill Cruice had led PASNAP during a period of rapid growth that saw its membership grow by nearly 70 percent last year to more than 8,000 members after it signed nurses at five area hospitals.

The financial irregularities concerned allegedly unauthorized advancements and expenditures.

Finally completed, 500 Walnut is the latest ultra-luxury building to join Philly's skyline

The condominium tower that made Philadelphia history last year when it sold its penthouse for a record-breaking $17.85 million celebrated its grand opening Tuesday, at a ceremony joined by Mayor Kenney, city officials, and developers from across the region.

The completion of 500 Walnut, the 26-story high-rise that sits across from Independence Hall, marks the end of the more than three-year endeavor by developer Tom Scannapieco to build on one of Philadelphia’s more challenging sites. Even more, with most condos in the building priced between $3.1 million and $9 million, 500 Walnut adds yet another ultra-luxury residential tower to Philadelphia’s skyline — signaling an ever-growing category of high-end real estate in the city as Philadelphia continues to grow wealthier and more attractive.

Group forms to back rail to King of Prussia as vital city-suburban link

A new group of business, civic, and academic leaders backing SEPTA’s proposed Norristown High Speed Line extension to King of Prussia is portraying the project as a crucial link between the region’s largest suburban employment center and Philadelphia’s urban core.

The King of Prussia Rail Coalition was formed to promote the extension after the release late last week of a draft report on the project’s impact, an important early phase of development. Jerry Sweeney, president and chief executive of Philadelphia developer Brandywine Realty Trust, was named the group’s chairman.

The project would branch off the existing line a few stops shy of its Norristown terminus, wending west through about four miles of Upper Merion Township to end near the Valley Forge Casino Resort after stopping at the King of Prussia Mall, the King of Prussia Business Park, and other locations.

Kumho Tire employees vote ‘no’ to union. United Steelworkers to file objection

Employees at the Kumho Tire plant in Macon voted 164 to 136 against representation by the United Steelworkers union.

But it’s not the final move by the union.

“We will file objections to the election because we believe the employer committed many unfair labor practices,” Maria Somma, director of organizing with the steelworkers union in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, said in an email late Friday night. “We will file with the national labor relations board.”

Facade of S. Broad St. health center building designated historic as developers bid for property

The facade of the mid-20th century District Health Center No. 1 building at 500 S. Broad St. has been added to the city’s Register of Historic Places, potentially complicating efforts to redevelop the property after it is vacated before the end of next year.

The Philadelphia Historical Commission’s historical designation committee named the three-story building’s glazed-brick exterior to the register at a meeting Friday, according to a release from the Preservation Alliance of Greater Philadelphia, which nominated the property for the list.

Zoning do-over declined for Post Bros.'s Quaker building project, leaving decision to courts

Philadelphia zoning officials have voted against revisiting their rejection last month of a plan by the Post Bros. property group to convert a decayed North Philadelphia warehouse into apartments, leaving the fate of the structure known as the Quaker Building to be decided in court.

The Zoning Board of Adjustment voted unanimously Wednesday not to reconsider its Sept. 13 ruling against allowing residences on the 900 N. Ninth St. parcel, which is designated for industrial use, city spokesman Paul Chrystie said in an email Thursday.

KOZs proposed, renewed to lure Amazon to University City

Philadelphia is preparing an incentive package for Amazon, in hopes of attracting the corporation to establish its second headquarters in the city. This week, legislation is advancing to help sweeten the offer.

On Tuesday, City Council’s Finance Committee gave a favorable vote to a bill that would renew twelve Keystone Opportunity Zone (KOZ) designations for properties in University City. The bill also gives approval for the city to seek seven additional KOZ designations in the same area, many of which were unsuccessfully submitted for consideration last year. The Wolf administration, however, put a freeze on tax break programs during the budget standoff, so the city’s submissions last year were rejected.

Fishtown apartment, rock-climbing gym project site hits market

Philadelphia developer Michael Samschick’s Core Realty is seeking a buyer for its building project near the Sugarhouse Casino in Fishtown that includes at least 179 apartments and a 22,000-square-foot rock-climbing gym.

Core is asking $11 million for the project at 1100 N. Delaware Ave., according to an email Monday from Rittenhouse Realty Advisors, which is marketing the 45,746-square-foot site with zoning for the development and a lease with the climbing-gym operator already in place.

The plan being marketed calls for the six-story structure with 169 apartments and the gym to be built south of the Edward Corner Marine Merchandise Warehouse building near Delaware Avenue and Shackamaxon Street.

Core representatives said in a November presentation to the city’s Civic Design Review board that they also planned to restore the Edward Corner building, which is listed on the Philadelphia Register of Historic Places, to accommodate 10 residential units and ground-floor commercial space.

They later received permission from the Philadelphia Historical Commission to add three floors to the historic structure for more apartments, the website PlanPhilly reported in April.

Source: Philly.com