Laborers return to building trades
WASHINGTON D.C. - The Laborers International Union of North America is reuniting with the AFL-CIO Building and Construction Trades Department after two years of disaffiliation.

"We left the building trades for principled reasons and we are going back for principled reasons," said LIUNA General President Terrence O'Sullivan. "We are particularly proud of this mutual agreement as it occurs on the eve of the department's 100th anniversary. It is a win-win for LIUNA and its members, for the building trades and for the entire construction industry."

O'Sullivan said issues that were under dispute with the Building Trades Department have been resolved. Included are issues regarding the Plan for the Settlement of Jurisdictional Disputes, which governs how unions are given the right to perform specific work on jobsites, and disagreements regarding per capita voting within the Building Trades department, a system which has been changed to allow decision-making based on the number of rank and file members, rather than allowing a single vote for each international union, no matter its size.

"We are extremely pleased to have the Laborers back once again as in important part of the building trades family," said Building Trades Department President Mark Ayers. "This re-affiliation agreement is a milestone in the vision and commitment of the department and its Governing Board of Presidents to construct an effective 21st Century Labor organization."

The Operating Engineers also broke away from the Building Trades Department two years ago, and their status hasn't changed. The same applies for the Carpenters union, which split from the AFL-CIO and the Building Trades Department in 2001.

Tumultuous year seen for construction
Nonresidential construction will experience wide variance in demand, materials cost and labor availability, according to the Construction Inflation Alert released March 10 by the Associated General Contractors of America (AGC).

"In 2008, some nonresidential segments will continue to grow, including power and energy, but others such as lodging will slow or decline," said AGC's Chief Economist Ken Simonson. "Diesel, copper and steel are among materials costs likely to accelerate, while others remain benign."

The large increase in diesel fuel prices compared to a year ago, along with the importance of diesel fuel to highway construction, makes it likely that highway costs will go up even more. Conversely, the slumping demand and rising supply of gypsum products may mean nonresidential and multi-unit residential building costs go up a little less than 6 percent.

"These cross-cutting trends make it likely that the producer price index (PPI) for construction "inputs" will accelerate from the 4.5 percent rate of increase that prevailed in 2006 and 2007, to a 6-8 percent range by the end of 2008," said Simonson.