August 2024 eBulletin
MEMBER NEWS
A Word From AGCVA Chair, Arlene Lee
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What does being a part of AGCVA mean to you? For me, it’s being part of a long legacy in a five-generation family business and seeing how our history is intertwined with AGCVA’s history and the construction industry in Virginia. It’s being part of carrying things forward to the next generation. It’s watching so many kids who came to the Annual Convention year after year, watching them grow, and knowing that their parents and grandparents were once those same kids in AGCVA.
Please join us in celebrating the membership anniversaries of these longtime AGCVA members!
Each month, we recognize those celebrating 50 or more years, 40 years, 25 years, 10 years, and 5 years of membership.
We applaud each of you for your commitment to AGCVA.
By virtue of your membership, you have made the AGCVA community stronger and have shown tremendous leadership and dedication to the industry. We are proud to serve each of you, and we thank you for your membership in AGCVA.
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INDUSTRY NEWS
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CNBC
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World Construction Today
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LEGISLATIVE & LEGAL
AGC of America Legal Efforts to Stop the New Federal PLA Mandate are Gaining Traction
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With the addition of two new federal bid protests, AGC of America is aware that four AGC-member construction firms have now filed federal bid protests objecting to project solicitations that require a project labor agreement (PLA). All four protests have led the government to voluntarily suspend the contract awards for the procurements while the protests are still pending. As reported recently in this article, the protests utilize a legal theory that AGC of America helped create with outside counsel at Fox Rothschild. All four protests are pending before the U.S. Court of Federal Claims.
AGC of America neither supports nor opposes contractors’ voluntary use of PLAs on government projects or elsewhere but strongly opposes any government mandate for contractors’ use of PLAs. AGC is committed to free and open competition for publicly funded work. AGC has long maintained that the federal government should not mandate PLAs. Government mandates for PLAs hurt both union contractors and open-shop contractors, and fail to promote economy and efficiency in federal procurement. According to an AGC analysis, the Department of Defense federal construction agencies – which perform the lion’s share of federal construction – rejected PLA mandates 99.4 percent of the time even when encouraged to do so under the Obama Administration. Click below to find more information on AGC-provided information on PLAs.
AGC
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How Generative AI Can Help Fight Construction Fraud
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The construction industry is plagued by fraud, ranking in the top five median losses by industry, according to the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners. In 2024, the same ACFE report indicated that the median loss for the construction industry was $250,000, and the median duration of a fraudulent scheme (i.e. the amount of time a fraud was committed before being detected) was 12 months, with the most common types of fraud in the U.S. construction industry being billing schemes, corruption, expense reimbursements and non-cash misappropriation. Such fraud can take many forms – bid rigging, inflated invoices, falsified documents, defective materials and bribery – leading to cost overruns, delays, quality issues, safety hazards, legal disputes and other serious consequences for project owners, contractors, suppliers and the public.
Detecting and preventing fraud is a vital part of any construction project, but it is also a challenging one, as fraudsters are becoming more sophisticated and elusive, and traditional fraud detection methods, which rely on manual audits, random checks and whistleblowers, are often insufficient. This is where generative AI can make a difference.
Construction Executive CE
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WORKFORCE DEVELOPMENT
Construction Employment Increases In 39 States Between July 2023 And July 2024
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Construction employment increased in 39 states in July from a year earlier, while 29 states and the District of Columbia added construction jobs between June and July, according to a new analysis of federal employment data released by the Associated General Contractors of America today. Association officials noted that demand for projects—and the workers to execute them—remains robust in most states but there is a pressing new to prepare more people for careers in construction.
“Construction employment gains remain widespread, thanks to steady or increasing demand for data centers, manufacturing plants, energy and infrastructure projects,” said Ken Simonson, the association’s chief economist. “But further job growth may be hindered by a lack of training programs for construction careers.”
AGC
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Initiatives to Encourage Students to Enter the Skilled Trades
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The construction industry is rapidly evolving, with skilled-labor shortages being a large pain point for companies across the United States. As the demand for construction and engineering projects continues to rise, qualified skilled trades workers are becoming fewer and farther between. According to a 2024 study conducted by Associated Builders and Contractors, the industry needs an additional 501,000 workers to meet market demand. Another survey conducted by Associated General Contractors noted that 85% of construction firms report they have open positions they are actively trying to fill.
Construction Executive CE
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SAFETY
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Construction Dive
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Youturn Health