Blog
Sampson Speaks at Presser Supporting Penalties for Staging Construction Site Accident
At a press conference at the New York State Capitol last Tuesday, ABC Empire State Chapter President Brian Sampson spoke in support of legislation aimed at fighting workers’ compensation fraud in New York. The legislation (S.8413/ A898) sponsored by Senator Breslin and Assemblyman Weprin in their respective houses would establish staging a construction site accident…
Unions Finally Come Clean
By ABC Empire State Chapter President Brian Sampson In a recent article published by Biznow about declining union membership numbers in construction, the author stated construction unions have a fork in the road ahead of them, and they’re correct. However, they misidentified what the options are. It’s the politicians, not the building trades, that have a decision…
ABC: Government-Registered Apprenticeship Programs Not Keeping Up With Construction Industry Needs
WASHINGTON, Feb. 22-At current rates of participation and completion, federal and state government-registered apprenticeship programs will fail to meet the construction industry’s short- and long-term skilled workforce needs, according to an Associated Builders and Contractors analysis of recently released U.S. Department of Labor data. ABC estimates that the construction industry’s federal and state GRAPs had…
Prevailing Wage Means Doom & Delays
New York State, as a whole, is experiencing a crippling housing crisis that is leaving families with nowhere to turn. This crisis is even more extreme in New York City, which is experiencing a vacancy rate of just 1.4%, the lowest it has been in almost 60 years, according to the city’s Department of Housing…
Project Labor Agreements Will Crush SUNY/CUNY Schools
The Empire State Chapter of Associated Builders and Contractors (“ABC”), representing hundreds of merit-shop contractors and subcontractors employing hundreds of thousands of workers throughout New York, strongly opposes S.6050. This bill would mandate that all SUNY and CUNY construction projects over $3 million have a Project Labor Agreement (PLA) attached. If PLAs are mandated on…
2024 Budget Testimony: Economic Development
Thank you for the opportunity to share our testimony with you and the members of the Senate and Assembly on economic development in our state. The Associated Builders & Contractors, Empire State Chapter (ABC) is a construction trade association representing hundreds of open shop contractors, employing tens of thousands of workers across New York State.…
2024 Budget Testimony: Transportation
The Associated Builders & Contractors, Empire State Chapter (ABC) is a construction trade association representing hundreds of merit shop contractors, employing hundreds of thousands of workers across New York State. We thank the Legislature for the opportunity to speak on such an important topic that impacts the quality of life of every single New Yorker:…
2024 Construction Workforce Shortage Tops Half a Million
WASHINGTON, Jan. 31-The construction industry will need to attract an estimated 501,000 additional workers on top of the normal pace of hiring in 2024 to meet the demand for labor, according to a proprietary model developed by Associated Builders and Contractors. In 2025, the industry will need to bring in nearly 454,000 new workers on…
80% of New York Construction Workers Do Not Belong to a Union
According to an Associated Builders and Contractors analysis of 2023 state union membership data published recently by UnionStats.com, 80% of New York’s construction workers in private industry do not belong to a union. Nationwide, a record 89.3% of construction workers do not belong to a union, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, up from 88.3% in…
ABC: A Record 89.3% of the U.S. Construction Industry Is Not Part of a Union
WASHINGTON, Jan. 23-According to an Associated Builders and Contractors analysis of the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics’ 2023 Union Members Summary released today, a historic low of 10.7% of the construction industry belongs to a union, a decline from 11.7% in 2022. BLS reports that 7.9 million construction workers were not members of a union in 2023.…