Until Jan. 30, the TAUC is taking online responses from participants in its annual Union Craft Labor Supply Survey, which was launched in 2015. The group said in the first two years of the survey it has "received a tremendous response from a wide cross-section of the entire industry, including more than 2,500 contractors, labor representatives, owner-clients and construction association representatives."

The TAUC is seeking to do an even better job of getting the word out about the survey, which can be found online at www.tauc.org. "It doesn't matter if you're a union contractor, an owner-client or a member of the building trades - your voice is important and the industry needs to hear from you," said TAUC President Jake Locklear.

The 2018 TAUC Union Craft Labor Supply Survey -- the only union-specific survey focusing on construction and maintenance -- will help create a detailed, data-driven picture of the current state of the labor supply throughout the United States and assist the entire industry in planning for the future and increasing union market share, the group says. This year, new questions have been designed to assess the pervasiveness of absenteeism, as well as assess the effect of labor supply availability on safety incident rates within the construction industry.

"The goal is simple," says the TAUC: "to provide an even more robust data set so that educated action can be taken to strengthen our industry."

Answers to the survey are confidential and will be submitted anonymously.  The responses will be grouped together and analyzed to create a final report that will be made available via the TAUC website.


Federal court ruling upholds silica rules 

WASHINGTON, DC - In a major victory for the nation’s construction workers, on Dec. 22 the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals rejected challenges from construction and other industries and upheld OSHA’s Silica Standard.  The ruling will prevent thousands of cases of silica-related illnesses and hundreds of deaths each year.

The ruling keeps new, stronger standards for workers' exposure to silica dust, which can cause lung cancer, silicosis and various respiratory ailments. Labor unions and others fought for the tougher standards, industry leaders have said the standards are too stringent and costly.

Said a statement from North America's Building Trades Unions: “NABTU’s Silica Subcommittee worked relentlessly throughout this period to keep silica on OSHA’s regulatory agenda and to gather the evidence to support the new standard.  Many of our affiliates and their members actively participated in OSHA’s extensive rulemaking proceedings, sharing stories of their family members and co-workers lost to silica-related illnesses, as well as practical and easily-implemented ways to control exposures and protect workers.  Their testimony and evidence not only supported the standard, but the strong record they created provided much of the basis for OSHA’s defense of the standard in court.

“Our unions look forward to working with OSHA and our employers to implement the standard and eliminate the health risks associated with silica exposure once and for all.”