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This year’s National Craft Championships featured a record 210 participants, with competitors from 32 states showcasing their skills in Fort Lauderdale, Fla. In addition to being honored at NCC, this year’s competitors have also gained significant coverage in their local media. Leading up to and in the month since NCC, competitors have been featured in 23 news outlets.

ABC Workforce Week ’16 attracted well over 500 attendees, with 55 educational sessions, 50+ exhibitors and plenty of excitement. Surveyed shortly after the conference, 91 percent said they planned on returning next year. Highlights included the ABC Innovation Theater, where attendees got a chance to see into future of the construction industry with the latest in software technology, a live exoskeleton demonstration and drone display. ABC Workforce Week '16 was a remarkable demonstration of what makes our association great.

WASHINGTON, D.C., March 23 – Associated Builders and Contractors (ABC) today issued the following statement in response to the release of the U.S. Department of Labor’s (DOL) final “persuader rule.” The rule will greatly limit the ability of employers, particularly small businesses, to obtain advice from labor relations experts, and in turn deprive employees of their right to obtain balanced information about union representation.

On Feb. 18, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) announced new procedures  that give a charging party access to a respondent’s position statement and supporting documents in the course of an employment discrimination investigation.  Under these procedures, the charging party or the party’s representative may request to view the respondent’s position statement and its supporting attachments if they were filed in response to an EEOC demand made on or after Jan. 1, 2016.  Once the EEOC releases the statement, the charging party will have twenty days to file a response; however, this response will not be available to the

March 8 (BNA) -- The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission has issued a simplified one-page fact sheet to help small businesses better understand their responsibilities under federal anti-discrimination laws, the agency announced March 3. The fact sheet, which is available in 30 different languages and links to other EEOC resources available to small businesses, is a product of the agency's small business task force led by Commissioner Constance Barker (R).

ABC recognized the country’s top construction projects as well as leading company-wide safety and diversity programs at the 26th annual Excellence in Construction® Awards gala March 2 in Fort Lauderdale, Fla.

ABC’s General Counsel, Maury Baskin of Littler Mendelson, Washington, D.C., argued against the National Labor Relations Board’s (NLRB) controversial “ambush” election final rule on March 3. Baskin argued against the rule, also known as Representation-Case Procedures, in the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals, New Orleans, La. on behalf of ABC of Texas, the Central Texas Chapter of ABC and the National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB). A ruling in the case is expected in the late spring or early summer.  

On Feb. 25, 2016, the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL), Wage and Hour Division released a proposed rule to implement Executive Order 13706 requiring certain federal contractors to offer employees up to seven days of paid sick leave annually, including paid leave for family care. ABC’s General Counsel Littler Mendelson, P.C prepared an in-depth analysis of the DOL proposal, which can be read here. 

ABC congratulated the winners of its 2016 National Craft Championships competition during the March 4 Careers in Constructions awards held during the association’s Workforce Development Conference, March 1-4, in Fort Lauderdale, Fla.