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ABC Newsline
ABC members made up 15 of the top 20 ranked by revenue on Engineering News-Record’s 2024 Top 400 Contractors list. ABC member Turner Construction Co. nabbed the top spot, while, overall, ABC members made up 59 of the top 100.
Companies are ranked by construction revenue in 2023 in millions.
The list is available here.
On May 24, ABC joined the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and more than 200 national associations and state and local chambers in urging the Federal Trade Commission to stay the effective date of its final rule to ban noncompete clauses in order to allow for judicial review. The effective date of the rule is Sept. 4.
The letter to the FTC states, “Although the noncompete rule’s legal fate remains in question, it is already imposing significant costs and uncertainty on the U.S. economy. Businesses are identifying existing noncompetes and notifying employees and former employees that their noncompetes may no longer be enforceable. Companies are incurring substantial legal costs as they explore other tools to attempt to protect their investments, and workers are losing training opportunities and bargaining power to negotiate compensation.
“A brief delay would comport with the commission’s mission of enforcing federal law in a cost-effective manner. As set forth in the commission’s current strategic plan, the commission ‘strives to efficiently address the competitive concerns raised by a merger or business practice and works toward a solution that maintains competition in the marketplace without unduly burdening legitimate business activity.’ In keeping with this goal, a brief delay would provide invaluable certainty to the business community and, if the rule ultimately is enjoined, potentially conserve significant resources around the country,” the letter said.
On May 14, ABC joined a broad group of trade associations in filing an amicus brief in support of plaintiffs’ request for injunctive relief against the FTC’s final rule to ban noncompete clauses. Injunctive relief is appropriate and necessary to avoid the immediate and irreparable harm the FTC’s final rule would impose on the hundreds of thousands of American businesses—including construction companies—that appropriately rely on narrowly tailored noncompetes.
Ultimately, this vastly overbroad rule will invalidate millions of reasonable contracts around the country that are beneficial for both businesses and employees. ABC members have valid business justifications for utilizing noncompete agreements, such as protecting confidential information and intellectual property. This new rule will have a harmful effect on their companies as well as their employees, forcing companies to rework their compensation and talent strategies.
Background:
On April 23, the FTC voted 3-2 to issue its final rule to ban noncompete clauses, which goes into effect on Sept. 4. ABC issued a news release opposing the rule.
According to the FTC, under the new rule, existing noncompetes for the vast majority of workers will no longer be enforceable after the rule’s effective date. Existing noncompetes for senior executives can remain in force, but employers are banned from entering into or attempting to enforce any new noncompetes, even if they involve senior executives. Employers will be required to provide notice to workers other than senior executives who are bound by an existing noncompete that they will not be enforcing any noncompetes against them.
FTC Resources on the Final Rule:
To learn more about the final rule and what happens next, read ABC general counsel Littler Mendelson’s analysis.
In April 2023, ABC submitted comments in opposition to the FTC’s unprecedented proposal to ban noncompetes. ABC also joined the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and 280 business groups in submitting comments urging the FTC to rescind the proposed rule.
The final rule is currently being litigated. Continue to monitor Newsline for updates.
On May 22, ABC joined a coalition of business groups in filing a complaint in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas, Sherman Division, challenging the U.S. Department of Labor’s controversial final rule, Defining and Delimiting the Exemptions for Executive, Administrative, Professional, Outside Sales, and Computer Employees, which will change overtime regulations under the Fair Labor Standards Act. Read ABC’s news release announcing the lawsuit.
ABC members and chapter staff are encouraged to register for an ABC webinar on May 30 with ABC general counsel Littler Mendelson to gain insight on the overtime final rule and the legal challenge.
Issued on April 23, DOL’s new final rule increases the minimum annual salary level threshold for exemption in two phases: from the current level of $35,568 to $43,888 on July 1, 2024, and to $58,656 on Jan. 1, 2025. In addition, salary thresholds will update every three years starting on July 1, 2027. ABC issued a news release opposing the rule.
Virtually all of ABC’s members employ workers who qualify for exempt status, and like the unlawful 2016 overtime rule, the DOL’s 2024 rule will reclassify a massive amount of ABC member employees who currently qualify for exempt status as nonexempt. This will disrupt the entire construction industry, specifically harming small businesses, as the rule will greatly restrict employee workplace flexibility in setting schedules and hours, hurting career advancement opportunities.
In addition, the 2024 rule’s radical increase in the salary threshold for exemption will further complicate the current economic outlook. Multiple industries, like construction, are grappling with uncertain economic conditions such as inflation, supply chain disruptions, high materials prices and workforce shortages, all of which push operational costs ever higher. Specifically, ABC estimates that the construction industry must hire more than half a million additional workers in 2024 to meet demand. The rule’s triennial automatic indexing provision will exacerbate the harmful impact on businesses and add to rampant inflation that is already harming the economy.
On Nov. 7, 2023, ABC submitted comments to the DOL in response to the proposed rulemaking, calling on the DOL to withdraw it. ABC also signed onto coalition comments criticizing the overtime proposed rule, joining 244 national, state and local organizations representing employers from a wide range of private industry and public, nonprofit and education sectors.
DOL resources on the final rule:
Additionally, read Littler Mendelson’s analysis of the overtime final rule.
Lane Grigsby, chair emeritus of Cajun Industries, headquartered in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, was recently awarded ABC’s inaugural Legacy Medallion for Advocacy for his contributions to the merit shop construction industry over more than 50 years.
The ABC Legacy Medallion was introduced in 2024 to recognize transformational leadership by a volunteer leader directly related to living the association’s purpose and objectives as documented in Articles I and III of the ABC bylaws and establishing ABC as the voice of the merit shop.
“Lane embodies the belief that all Americans can best be served by cooperation and following the tenets of free enterprise and democratic government, and that leaders in our industry best preserve these tenets by being active in politics and civic affairs,” said ABC President and CEO Michael Bellaman. “Lane’s authentic, uncompromising commitment to sustaining a culture of giving has propelled the Free Enterprise Alliance and ABC PAC to new heights and led to recognition of ABC as the premier advocate for merit-based principles and fair and open competition. These principles are the key to innovation, achievement and opportunity for all who employ and are employed in the construction industry.
“We thank Lane for these significant achievements and the legacy he has created for the betterment of the construction industry and the nation,” said Bellaman.
An Army veteran who attended the U.S. Military Academy, Grigsby earned a bachelor’s degree in civil engineering at Louisiana State University before founding Cajun Contractors and Engineers in 1973. Today, Cajun Industries is a nationally recognized construction leader providing fully integrated self-performed engineering, procurement and construction services to some of the largest and most renowned companies in the world in a broad range of markets, from oil, gas and energy to refining, chemical processing, manufacturing, infrastructure, disaster response, communication and water quality, among others.
Cajun joined ABC New Orleans/Bayou in 1976 and Grigsby later founded the chapter’s Baton Rouge branch. A strong advocate for merit shop construction at the state and federal levels, Grigsby served on the chapter board of directors for 18 years, is a former ABC state and chapter president and was named ABC’s Man of the Year twice.
From left to right, ABC Pelican Chapter President and CEO David Helveston, ABC National Senior Director of Political Affairs Melanie Pfeiffenberger, Cajun Contractors Chair Emeritus Lane Grigsby, ABC National President and CEO Michael Bellaman and ABC National 2023 Chair of the Board of Directors Milton Graugnard, executive vice president of Cajun Industries.
On May 17, ABC joined an industry coalition in submitting comments to the White House’s Office of Management and Budget in response to the OMB’s request for information on public participation in federal agency policymaking. The OMB issued the request ahead of plans to develop a governmentwide framework, common guidelines and leading practices for public participation and community engagement.
In the comments, ABC calls on the OMB to ensure greater transparency in federal rulemaking across all agencies. Among other concerns, the comments urge the OMB to require agencies to properly engage with relevant trade associations, avoid making policy through supposedly nonbinding guidance documents, provide sufficient notice and comment periods for all rulemakings and prioritize the use of plain language in rulemakings to enhance accessibility for the general public.
On May 21, 20 states led by Iowa and North Dakota joined in a lawsuit against the Council on Environmental Quality, seeking to overturn the ABC-opposed National Environmental Policy Act Phase 2 revisions. The complaint asserts that the CEQ’s new regulations impose unnecessarily burdensome and unworkable new rules that will delay critical projects across the country.
The final rule, which takes effect July 1, implements wide-ranging changes to the federal environmental review and permitting process. The changes reverse important streamlining provisions from the ABC-supported 2020 NEPA rule and add new layers of complexity to the NEPA process.
ABC previously joined a coalition submitting comments opposing the rule, and issued a statement condemning the final rule upon its release.
On April 4, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency issued a proposed rule on Cyber Incident Reporting for Critical Infrastructure Act Reporting Requirements. The rule, in alignment with the CIRCIA Act (signed into law as part of the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2022), imposes new cyber incident and ransom payment reporting requirements for companies deemed to have responsibility for critical infrastructure.
Specifically, entities potentially covered by the rule fall under any of 16 critical infrastructure sectors. All construction contractors are likely to fall under one or more sectors, and would then be subject to the proposed rule’s requirements if they are either:
The proposal would require that these covered entities report any substantial cyberincident within 72 hours, and any ransom payments made in response to a ransomware attack within 24 hours. A substantial cyber incident is defined as a cybersecurity breach resulting in one or more of the following:
The proposed rule also imposes new recordkeeping requirements related to cybersecurity. Companies that fail to fully comply with the rule would face subpoenas, and federal contractors could be subject to acquisition penalties, suspension and debarment.
More information on the rule is available on CISA’s website.
ABC will comment on the proposed regulations. The deadline for comments is July 3.
ABC has provided resources and webinars on new cybersecurity requirements affecting the construction industry at abc.org/cybersecurity.
ABC’s Massachusetts chapter and a coalition of merit shop contractors successfully blocked the Springfield Water and Sewer Commission’s plan for a project labor agreement mandate on a $325 million water filtration plant.
The project is expected to create as many as 500 jobs in all trades. The commission extended the deadline for general contractor to bid on the project by nine days, until June 13.
“Notwithstanding the lip service the PLA pays to being open to all bidders, it most assuredly is not,” wrote Hampden Superior Court Judge Michael K. Callan in the decision to issue a preliminary injunction against the PLA. “The evidence before the court is that the PLA poses such a significant disadvantage to open shops as to render a competitive bid impossible. For all intents and purposes, the PLA excludes open shops from bidding, as it essentially requires bidders to execute an agreement to use union laborers on the Project.”
“This ruling makes it clear that PLAs discriminate against open shop contractors and reduce competitive bidding,” said ABC Massachusetts President Greg Beeman. "This is a great victory for open competition that benefits our members and the taxpaying public."
MassLive commended the decision in an editorial:
“Kudos to Hampden Superior Court Judge Michael K. Callan for dismantling the flimsy excuses used by the Springfield Water and Sewer Commission to justify using an anti-competitive ‘project labor agreement’ on its $256 million West Parish Water Treatment Plant upgrade.
“The commission’s own consultant, the engineering firm of Hazen and Sawyer, had provided a written report in November that adding a PLA to the project would increase the cost of roughly $15.5 million.
“Judge Callan found that this report had been ‘buried’ and that, instead, the commission board, which voted 2-1 in January to impose the PLA, had been influenced by ‘extensive lobbying efforts’ by union representatives.”
“It’s refreshing to see the legal system and the media see anti-competitive and costly government-mandated PLAs for what they really are,” said ABC Vice President of Regulatory, Labor and State Affairs Ben Brubeck. “We are hopeful that the judge in ABC’s critical lawsuit against the Biden administration’s outrageous push for PLAs on all federal construction projects of $35 million or more will have a similar perspective and rule in favor of taxpayers and fair and open competition.”
ABC’s Lawsuit Against Biden’s Federal PLA Policy Progresses
ABC and its Florida First Coast chapter filed a lawsuit in federal court on March 28 to stop the Biden administration’s unlawful scheme to mandate project labor agreements on construction contracts procured by federal agencies. ABC’s complaint asserts that President Joe Biden lacks the legal and constitutional authority to impose a new federal regulation injuring economy and efficiency in federal contracting and illegally steering construction contracts to certain unionized contractors, which employ roughly 10% of the U.S. construction workforce.
“ABC has heard from large and small federal contractors—including firms signatory to union agreements—and concerned federal agency contracting officers that the Biden administration’s controversial PLA policy has already stifled competition and raised costs on federal construction contracts in Florida and across the country, said Ben Brubeck, ABC vice president of regulatory, labor and state affairs, in a news release about the lawsuit.” This policy will continue to do so absent a successful legal challenge.”
On Friday, the U.S. Justice Department filed a brief in response to ABC’s April 26 motion for a preliminary injunction. A date for a hearing and oral arguments has not yet been set.
For more information on ABC’s campaign to push back on federal, state and local PLA mandates with other construction industry stakeholders, visit BuildAmericaLocal.com.
On May 21, ABC joined the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and a coalition of business groups in filing a lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texas, Waco Division against the U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration’s Worker Walkaround Representative Designation Process final rule. Read the news release announcing the lawsuit.
Effective on May 31, the final rule will allow employees to choose a third-party representative, such as an outside union representative or community organizer, to accompany an OSHA safety inspector during site inspections, regardless of whether the workplace is unionized or not.
Now, construction employees and employers could face serious safety concerns because the final rule has the potential to allow anyone on a jobsite. There simply is no business case for this final rule and no benefit during a compliance inspection.
By allowing outside union agents access to nonunion employers’ private property, OSHA is injecting itself into labor-management disputes and casting doubt on its status as a neutral enforcer of the law. This final rule negatively impacts the rights of employers while simultaneously ignoring the rights of the majority of employees who have not authorized a union to represent them. OSHA’s rule also poses unnecessary risk to the individual joining the inspection and others on the jobsite if the authorized person is not trained to safely walk a construction jobsite. The rule does not include any requirement that the authorized person be equipped or conduct themselves to the same standards as OSHA safety inspectors. Further, the final rule fails to answer who is legally responsible if the third party gets injured during the inspection or harms someone else.
In addition to the lawsuit, on May 17, ABC, as a steering committee member of the Coalition for Workplace Safety, and 57 other employer organizations sent a letter to members of the U.S. House of Representatives urging them to pass Rep. Mary Miller’s, R-Ill., Congressional Review Act resolution to nullify the final rule.
The CWS letter states, “The resolution is vital to safeguarding the mission of workplace health and safety inspections. Without this legislation, OSHA CSHOs will be forced into an impossible position of policing labor disputes, for which they are simply unequipped. It would protect employers against individuals looking to further their own agendas and safeguard their property rights. It would also protect workers’ right to have their voice heard when determining workplace representation.”
Background on the final rule:
On March 29, OSHA announced its Worker Walkaround Representative Designation Process final rule and ABC issued a news release opposing the rule.
OSHA Resources on the final rule:
On Nov. 13, 2023, ABC submitted comments urging the DOL to withdraw its Worker Walkaround Representative Designation Process proposed rule. ABC also signed on to comments submitted by the Coalition for Workplace Safety and Construction Industry Safety Coalition.
Continue to monitor Newsline for further updates on the lawsuit.
On May 14, ABC joined a broad group of trade associations in filing an amicus brief in support of plaintiffs’ request for injunctive relief against the Federal Trade Commission’s final rule to ban noncompete clauses. Injunctive relief is appropriate and necessary to avoid the immediate and irreparable harm the FTC’s final rule would impose on the hundreds of thousands of American businesses—like construction companies—that appropriately rely on narrowly tailored noncompetes.
"Ultimately, this vastly overbroad rule will invalidate millions of reasonable contracts around the country that are beneficial for both businesses and employees. ABC members have valid business justifications for utilizing noncompete agreements, such as protecting confidential information and intellectual property. This new rule will have a harmful effect on their companies as well as their employees, forcing companies to rework their compensation and talent strategies."
On April 23, the Federal Trade Commission voted 3-2 to issue its final rule to ban noncompete clauses. The rule is effective Sept. 4, 2024.
ABC issued a news release opposing the rule:
“The final rule to ban all noncompete agreements nationwide—except existing noncompetes for senior executives—is a radical departure from hundreds of years of legal precedent,” said Ben Brubeck, ABC vice president of regulatory, legal and state affairs. “Ultimately, this vastly overbroad rule will invalidate millions of reasonable contracts—including construction project contracts—around the country that are beneficial for both businesses and employees.”
ABC members have valid business justifications for utilizing noncompete agreements, such as protecting confidential information and intellectual property. This new rule will have a harmful effect on their companies as well as their employees, forcing companies to rework their compensation and talent strategies.