Construction Equipment
Ag Equipment
Roadbuilding
Dealers
Business
Technology
Tag: immigration
Workforce
Obama unveils immigration reform shielding 5 million from deportation; challenges Congress to “pass a bill”
During a defiant speech from the East Room of the White House Thursday night, President Barack Obama unveiled sweeping immigration reforms that would shield nearly 5 million undocumented immigrants from deportation and make it easier for highly-skilled immigrants to work here. There are currently 11 million undocumented immigrants living in the U.S. and an estimated […]
November 21, 2014
Business
How Immigration reform could bring an end to construction’s skilled worker shortage
What’s “step one” in ending the skilled worker shortage currently plaguing construction companies across the U.S.? If you ask Stan Marek, it’s immigration reform. Marek, the CEO of Houston-based Marek Construction, recently penned a fantastic blog post discussing the necessity of immigration reform to the construction industry’s future. With more than 30 million men and […]
January 6, 2014
Construction Equipment
After sharp decline during recession, illegal immigrant population shows signs of a rebound alongside construction
A new report released today by the Pew Research Center’s Hispanic Trends Project indicates the sharp recession-induced decline of illegal immigrants living in the United States has stalled. Traditionally drawn to occupations in construction and the service sector, the illegal immigrant population peaked at 12.2 million in 2007, but declined with the recession as the […]
September 23, 2013
Workforce
Construction industry lobbyists continue to fight for more guest worker visas as immigration bill moves to House
As the House of Representatives prepares to consider the immigration bill that recently passed the Senate, construction industry lobbyists are preparing for their final chance to increase the limit on guest worker visas offered to the industry. According to a report from the Washington Post, construction industry advocates say more than 200,000 new workers will […]
July 1, 2013
Business
Recent talks suggest Congress has put transportation funding on the back burner
After attending last week’s Transportation Construction Coalition (TCC) fly-in visit with Congress, John Latta, the editor of our sister site Better Roads, writes that the overall feeling among the contractors and agency officials that were there is that lawmakers do not share their sense of urgency about securing funding for transportation infrastructure. “A common theme they heard […]
June 11, 2013
Business
Immigration bill gains Senate committee’s approval, retains limit on construction visas but increases H-1B visas for highly skilled workers
With a 13-5 vote Tuesday night, the Senate Judiciary Committee approved an immigration bill that would give 11.5 million immigrants living in the United States illegally a chance at citizenship, the Associated Press reported. The bill retains the new guest worker program, called the “W-Visa,” that would make a maximum of 200,000 visas available each year. […]
May 23, 2013
Workforce
Lower pay, higher costs, immigration enforcement involved in California construction companies’ struggle to find workers
Same story, different place. Just like their counterparts in Minnesota and other metro areas across the country, construction companies in California, particularly home builders, can’t seem to find enough workers to fill growing demand for work, reports the Los Angeles Times. The main reason for the struggle is the same too. In the wake of […]
May 9, 2013
Business
Caterpillar’s chief technology officer urges Congress to support manufacturing, highly skilled workers in immigration reform
Caterpillar’s Chief Technology Officer Gwenne Henricks recently testified before the Senate Commerce Committee and urged lawmakers to support manufacturing and highly-skilled immigrants in whatever form of immigration reform is passed into law. Henricks told the committee that such reform is necessary in order to allow the United States to better compete in the global economy […]
May 9, 2013
Business
Construction, other industries speak out against guest worker deal
Just when it looked like the final hurdle to immigration reform had been cleared, dozens of business groups, including half a dozen representing construction professionals, have called into question a new guest worker program agreed to by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the AFL-CIO. As we recently reported, the new guest worker program, called […]
April 12, 2013
Business
Caterpillar CEO calls for more visas for foreign engineers, path to legal status for undocumented immigrants
During a speech at the Illinois Business Immigration Coalition in Chicago, Caterpillar CEO Doug Oberhelman said his company has a hard time retaining talent and filling lower-skilled positions due to the hard time its foreign workers have in obtaining a visa to stay in the U.S. “Today, we (employers) have gaps in our workforce. We have […]
April 5, 2013
Business
Construction jobs limited to 15k visas per year under new guest worker agreement
The path toward a final deal on immigration reform has likely been cleared now that the country’s business and labor unions have reached an agreement on a guest worker program for immigrants. The New York Times reports that on Friday Sen. Charles Schumer, D-New York, held a conference call with U.S. Chamber of Commerce President […]
April 1, 2013
Workforce
Why construction unions are wrong in fighting immigration reform
Ah politics! Strange bedfellows. Even stranger enemies. One would think the universal brotherhood of union workers would welcome with solidarity the teeming masses from south of the border. But that is certainly not the case if those Hispanic workers have construction skills. Buzzfeed Politics is reporting that the AFL-CIO in the pending immigration bill is […]
March 26, 2013
Page 1 of 2
Next Page