Saturday, July 31, 2010
April 2004 issue - Vol.4, No.7, 24 pages

   We Mean Business. Illinois Business.
 
 

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Steel price hikes hammer commercial construction

   At the end of 2003, his vendors forewarned Doug Von Alst that steel prices could climb 8 percent during the first quarter of 2004. But by March 2004, his prices were running 80 percent to 100 percent higher than what he was originally quoted, and product availability and delivery had become as unpredictable as the prices.
   "A letter came saying that quotes were no longer being honored," said Von Alst, who is vice president [continue]

Contractors recently given reins to settle job site trade duty disputes
By KERRY L. SMITH

   In the past 90 days, the means by which jurisdictional disputes can be resolved on a job site have changed dramatically. Rather than the American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations ruling on which trade does what when skills and talents overlap (as of January) it is now up to the contractor's discretion.
   Tim Garvey, executive director of the Southern Illinois Builders Association, said labor unions are undergoing a marked transition in terms of who can approve which trade performs tasks that are considered in a "gray area" when it comes to overlapping skill sets.
   Until the start of 2004, when a question arose at a job site as to whether a carpenter or a cement mason, for example, could perform the task, many times all work halted on a project while the commercial contractor awaited a decision from a specially-called, three-person arbitration panel sanctioned by the AFL-CIO. The panel [continue]

 
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