Newsline

During ABC's Legislative Week 2017, an ad entitled ‘ABC Members Build America’ was released via social media. The ad features updated information on the growing nonunion workforce chart, construction industry tax rates and ABC members’ improving safety performance. The ad has been made available as marketing resources for ABC members and chapters.

On May 24, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) released an interpretation letter in response to a question on whether a supervisor’s advice to continue participating in daily stretching exercises constitutes medical treatment for recordkeeping purposes.

Throughout Safety Week 2017, May 1-5, ABC, its members and other industry organizations came together to highlight the importance of safety on construction jobsites.

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration recently announced it had renewed its partnership with ABC’s Central Texas Chapter and promoted the partnership as a success story. In an article posted to its website, OSHA highlighted a number of collaborative programs between ABC and OSHA that led to a significant safety achievement: The 2016 combined Days Away, Restricted or Transferred (DART) rate for participating contractors was 50 percent below the 2015 U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) average.

On April 25, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) issued a memorandum withdrawing a letter of interpretation that stated nonunion employees can authorize an individual “affiliated with a union or a community organization” to act as their representative during agency-sanctioned inspections and other enforcement situations.

On Jan. 9, 2017, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) issued a final rule on beryllium exposure. In the final rule, OSHA includes the construction industry; this was expanded from the proposed stage which focused on general industry. Beryllium is a lightweight but strong metal used in a number of industries. 

Associated Builders and Contractors (ABC) recently released its 2017 Safety Performance Report to further the construction industry’s understanding of how to make jobsites safer through its Safety Training Evaluation Process (STEP). Packed with infographics and practical takeaways, the report documents the dramatic impact of using proactive safety practices to reduce recordable incidents by up to 87 percent, making the best-performing companies 770 percent safer than the industry average. 

Associated Builders and Contractors (ABC) announced the winners of the National Craft Championships, the 2016 National Safety Awards, the National Diversity Excellence Awards and the Excellence in Construction® Awards during its annual conference Workforce Week ’17 in Fort Lauderdale, Fla. Workforce Week is ABC's annual celebration of the best in merit shop construction, recognizing the contributions of members, chapters and craft professionals to the construction industry and their dedication to excellence.

The 2016 National Safety Award Pinnacle, Excellence and Merit Winners are:

ABC member M&D Mechanical Contractors, Inc. of Decatur, Ala. placed themselves in an elite group of small businesses by earning a prestigious Safety & Health Achievement Recognition Program (SHARP) certification from the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA). The SHARP program recognizes small businesses that serve as a model for worksite safety and health and have used OSHA's On-site Consultation Program services and operate an exemplary injury and illness prevention program.