While discussing safety in most of my previous columns, my focus has been on traditional safety-related matters: work zone safety, accident prevention, workplace safety, and similar topics. This month’s column is going to take a different turn. About a year ...
Read More »Suicide in construction an unspoken crisis
Exceptional safety performance can be worth big bucks
Associated General Contractors’ Oregon-Columbia chapter (AGC) and the SAIF Corporation have been partners for 26 years. This partnership is made up of a group of AGC member contractors who receive their workers’ compensation coverage through SAIF. This group represents contractors ...
Read More »On the construction workforce: What can we do? 
Every year 1.2 million students drop out of high school. That equates to 7,000 students each day. That’s one student every 26 seconds. About 25 percent of freshmen do not graduate from high school with their class. Think about that ...
Read More »Another business day, another government mandate in Oregon 
Paid family leave. It’s yet another hot-button issue at the intersection of business and state and federal government that will yet again change the employer-employee relationship. The issue has made national headlines as President Trump, in last month’s State of ...
Read More »By building relationships, construction sets itself apart 
At the end of January, the Associated General Contractors’ Oregon-Columbia chapter installed a new president. Brian Gray, the Northwest region president of Knife River Corp., highlighted in his inaugural speech that our industry is one that builds. We build hospitals, ...
Read More »Ensuring safety excellence 
Throughout the devastating recession, companies were forced to downsize. It would be easy to conclude that safety would be another economic casualty of the Great Recession. But the economy can’t be an excuse. AGC is the association it is today ...
Read More »To recruit workers, go where they go 
Thousands of students are entering high schools and colleges at this time of year. At the same time, you cannot read headlines today without seeing something about the next generation of workers and the construction industry’s skilled labor shortage. The ...
Read More »