The Building Tradesman Newspaper

Many U.S. construction firms plan to start hiring again and most contractors predict demand will either grow or remain stable in virtually every market segment this year, according to survey results released Jan. 21 by the Associated General Contractors of America. ..

LANSING – Gov. Rick Snyder’s state of the state speech on Jan. 16 went heavy on “benchmarks,” statistics and self-congratulation about his perception of Michigan’s progress, but it was light on most everything else. ..

LANSING – Michigan continues to experience a relatively low rate of fatalities in the construction industry, but there was an unwelcome increase in 2013. ..

WASHINGTON – Congress failed to extend unemployment benefits for some 1.4 million jobless workers – including about 45,000 in Michigan late last year and again earlier this month. ..

RTW benefits are only ‘anecdotal’ ..

(By Mark Gruenberg, PAI Staff Writer)  ..

WASHINGTON (PAI)—With 72,000 more unemployed workers losing their jobless benefits every week, organized labor and its civic, religious and congressional Democratic allies turned to public pressure to push resurrection of the benefits through a hostile GOP majority in the U.S. House. ..

(By Craig Becker) ..

CINCINNATI – The full U.S. Court of Appeals has refused to reconsider a previous ruling by one of their three-judge panels, which essentially upheld a Michigan law that bans state and local governments from entering into project labor agreements. ..