ABC’s National Craft Championships won the Spirit of EEC Award during the Engineering and Construction Contracting Association’s Perspectives Conference on Sept. 8 in San Antonio. ABC national chair-elect Milton Graugnard; NCC Chair Bill Lastinger; retired NCC Committee member Mike Stilley; Brandon Mabile, 2020 Young Professional of the Year and businesses development manager at Performance Contractors; and NCC director Jarrell Jackson accepted the award at the conference.

Associated Builders and Contractors responded to the Biden Administration’s launch of the Apprenticeship Ambassador Initiative, saying that while raising awareness about apprenticeship is commendable, the promotion of only government-registered apprenticeships is not.

ACE Mentor Program of America is offering a chance to do just that with their Trades Day events. Trades Day is meant to excite and introduce students to a variety of construction and building trades by giving them access to real-life, hands-on, interactive trade stations. The purpose of Trades Day is to introduce students to trades to expose them to the entire industry, not just a part of it.

Through its Build Your Future initiative, NCCER is expanding its career exploration tool, CareerStarter, to provide direct connections between entry-level job seekers, local training programs and employers.  

ABC opposes Democrats’ partisan reconciliation package, which would raise taxes in an economy pointed toward recession, exacerbate inflation and cost American jobs. New, restrictive labor policies included in the most recent proposal make the package even more damaging.  

The U.S. Department of Labor announced on July 12 the selection of the initial cohort of 207 officials and organizations chosen to serve as Apprenticeship Ambassadors to share their experiences and collaborate with the department to champion apprenticeship opportunities. ABC’s Virginia, New Mexico and Pacific Northwest chapters were among those selected.

ABC highlighted its achievements in recruiting diverse audiences to careers in construction nationwide and outlined goals championing inclusion, diversity and equity in a letter to the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission for a May 17 hearing on race, sex and national origin discrimination in construction.

The Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act delivers $550 billion of funding to improve our nation’s infrastructure, and the construction industry stands ready to deliver on the law’s promised revitalization of America’s roads, schools, bridges, utilities, and transportation systems.

ABC sent out an action alert for ABC members to urge their members of Congress to remove unnecessary, job-killing provisions in the US Innovation and Competition Act/America COMPETES Act bills.

On April 27, ABC sent a letter to a congressional subcommittee warning of the negative impacts of imposing government-mandated project labor agreements on infrastructure spending.