|
AGC's New Leadership Pursues Aggressive
Agenda
Immigration reform among the association's
2006 priorities
By Mark J. Shaw, Editor-in-Chief
In this issue we have the honor of introducing
the new AGC of America leadership and profiling 2006 AGC President
Harry Mashburn of Mashburn Construction Co., Columbia, S.C.
Mashburn talks about his experience as
one of the region's leading design-builders and outlines his
AGC themes and agenda for this year, which include:
> encouraging contractors to become better advocates
for owners;
> establishing early collaboration among all participants
on a project;
> educating the industry about new project delivery
options;
> finding ways to expand the industry's skilled labor
force;
> exploring a new blueprint for the future of product
development at AGC.
He also supports another of the association's
current priorities-working closely with congressional leaders
to find the right formula for immigration reform.
Writer Mary Powers explores that issue
in more depth in an article about the many paths that immigration
reform could take over the next year and how that could impact
the construction industry. She reports that about 20%-or around
2 million-of the overall U.S. construction work force is foreign
born, and more than half of them are unauthorized, with about
17% of all unauthorized workers in the country involved in
construction.
The concern is that the reform movement
is seeking a provision to make employers the enforcers of
laws curbing illegal immigrant workers by requiring companies
to verify the status of all new hires and current employees.
The article illustrates AGC's efforts to find a legal channel
for workers to come to the U.S. and fill jobs not filled by
native-born Americans.
"We have something here that's very
appealing to people in Third World countries-jobs," says
AGC CEO Steve Sandherr. "Immigrants support their families
and they pay taxes." AGC says it does not advocate amnesty
for illegals, but it does want a process developed to allow
workers who have jobs to stay.
Writer Tom Nicholson examines the omnipresent
issue of mold litigation and its impact on the industry, with
a look at a new twist in the ongoing battle-mold-sniffing
dogs. A Connecticut company has established a healthy business
in mold detection using dogs trained to distinguish the scent
of mold and alert their handlers when they detect it.
The article outlines in detail the risks
that contractors face in dealing with mold in today's litigious
climate.
|
