Local media outlets welcomed this year’s National Craft Championships (NCC) by covering several individual competitors trips to NCC. Newspapers from Alabama, Louisiana, Pennsylvania and Texas published stories on competitors in the Welding-Structural, Sheet Metal, HVAC, and Electrical: Commercial-Industrial competitions.

The ABC New Orleans/Bayou Chapter broke ground April 11 in St. Rose, La. on Phase Two of their training campus master plan expansion, which includes an additional 18,000 square feet of classrooms, laboratories and welding booths for its apprenticeship and craft training program, as well as its safety and management education program.

Nonresidential fixed investment decreased 2.1 percent and residential fixed investment fell 5.7 percent during the first quarter, according to an April 30 release by the Bureau of Economic Analysis. Overall, real gross domestic product (GDP) expanded just 0.1 percent (seasonally adjusted annual rate) during the first quarter of 2014 following a 2.6 percent increase in the fourth quarter of last year. 

The ABC student chapter at Montgomery College, Rockville, Md., was named the 2014 Student Chapter of the Year, which recognized them for their outstanding and extensive programming, community service and involvement with ABC during the past year. The student chapter will be honored at the Careers in Construction Awards ceremony May 2 in Birmingham, Ala.

ABC awarded Lloyd Evans, hiring and training administrator for Watson Electrical Construction Co. LLC, Wilson, N.C., as its 2014 Craft Instructor of the Year. Evans will be honored during ABC’s Workforce Development Conference May 2 in Birmingham, Ala.

ABC's quarterly Regulatory Alert provides an overview of the federally mandated rules, regulations and enforcement actions from the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL), National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) and other federal agencies. Below are brief summaries of current issues, as well as links to more detailed information and guidance. If you have any questions, please email [email protected].

ABC is seeking volunteers with recognized experience and expertise in a craft to judge the 2014 National Craft Championships on May 1 in Birmingham, Ala. ABC members who are interested in participating should submit a judge’s form, found on the NCC website, to [email protected] indicating which craft competitions they would like to judge.

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers April 21 published a proposed rule that aims to clarify the definition of "waters of the U.S." under the Clean Water Act which would significantly expand federal control of land and water resources across the nation—creating additional permitting and regulatory requirements. The public has until July 21 to submit written comments on the proposed rule.

On April 10 and 11, ABC General Counsel Maury Baskin testified in front of the National Labor Relations Board in Washington, D.C., on the board’s proposed “ambush” election rule.  In his testimony, Baskin asked the NLRB to withdraw the proposed rule, which would shorten the amount of time from when a union files a representation petition and an election takes place to as few as 10 days.

Many ABC members were greeted with a significant tax increase this tax day, April 15. Construction contractors who survived the recession already paid the highest effective tax rate of any sector, and now they face even higher taxes thanks to rising marginal rates, reinstated limits on deductions, and new surtaxes on wages and income stemming from the health care law.