Construction Informer

Was it McGuire, or Maguire, who orchestrated the first attempt to create a day set aside to honor the contributions made by the American workers to the strength, prosperity and well-being of the country?

To this day it is unclear whether the credit for Labor Day should go to Peter J. McGuire, secretary general of the Brotherhood of Carpenters, or, Matthew Maguire a machinist, and later the secretary of one of the machinists locals. But according to the Department of Labor, recent research indicates it was Matthew who proposed the holiday in 1882. It was New York’s Central Labor Union, at which Maguire was serving as secretary, that adopted a Labor Day proposal and set up a committee to advance the idea.

Eventually, after many states first adopted their own Labor Days, the U.S. Congress made it a national holiday in 1894.

But, what does it mean now, 114 years later in an era when few survive who can remember labor activists being hanged for inciting work stoppages to protest 12-hour days, disgusting and unsafe working conditions, six day workweeks and no benefits or vacations? Or that the holiday was grudgingly thrown as a bone to the labor movement out of fears that socialism might be gaining some ground.

It appears that to most people today the holiday is just a day off and a time to relax, socialize and eat hot dogs. It could be fitting that the holiday has evolved to this state - in its own way a tribute to the strides that have been made in humanizing the American workplace. Could it be that so much progress has been made that the reason for the observance just becomes more and more obscure as time passes?

If that is the case then perhaps it’s time to replace Labor Day with a holiday by another name that will appease the modern, struggling masses. Anyone for Consumers’ Day?

The U.S. Census Bureau is a wealth of information about much more than just the population. Economics figures prominently in the agency’s efforts and in December most businesses with paid employees should have received the 2007 Economic Census forms.The Census Bureau tabulates all the data it collects and then makes it available to anyone who wants to know economic things like how one industry compares to another in a given location or how many dollars in business a particular type of contractor sells for each employee. Much of this info is used in business planning, gauging competition and assessing efficiency.

Right now the most recent data is from 2002 but is still quite revealing. Here are some highlights.

• For every dollar of payroll, construction businesses bring in on average $4.71 in sales. The construction of buildings has the highest return per payroll dollar coming in at $8.36 while specialty trade contractors have the lowest return per payroll dollar with an average of $3.26 in sales.
• New housing operative builders, builders who finance all construction costs themselves, have the highest return with $13.25 in sales per dollar of payroll. Compare that to the lowest return per dollar of payroll which is $4.42 for those in the business of industrial building construction.
• There are 596 residential building establishments for each one million residents and there are 139 nonresidential building establishments for each one million residents.
• The construction trade with the lowest average dollars of sales per dollar of payroll is the painting and wall covering trade. These firms average $2.80 in sales for every dollar in payroll.

If you want to compare your company’s efforts to other national averages here’s the page to begin. In order to contribute to the next round of statistics the census forms need to be returned by Feb 12, 2008.

The practice of making resolutions for the New Year goes back a long way to a time when the New Year actually started in the spring. According to Jerry Wilson the Babylonians celebrated the first new year 4,000 years ago. Wilson also writes that the Babylonians were the first to practice the art of resolution-making and typically their resolutions would be something like remembering to give back borrowed farm equipment.

When it comes to ancient history there is always more than one story and so Gary Ryan Blair points out that the Romans were the driving force behind making resolutions.

The tradition of the New Year’s Resolutions goes all the way back to 153 B.C. Janus, a mythical king of early Rome was placed at the head of the calendar.

With two faces, Janus could look back on past events and forward to the future. Janus became the ancient symbol for resolutions and many Romans looked for forgiveness from their enemies and also exchanged gifts before the beginning of each year.

Janus was the god of beginnings and also the guardian of doors and entrances so its presence as the symbol of the new year was most fitting. Now, as then, we look toward the New Year as a time for opportunities and positive change, so resolutions are a natural inclination now.

While it’s typical for individuals to make resolutions I don’t see any harm in groups of people doing so either. After all, in groups we can often resist the desire to ignore what we’ve decided to be resolute about. Construction, as an industry, could use a few resolutions. Since architecture and engineering are so closely tied to construction this list works for those groups as well.

• Build it right the first time. Sure it may cost more and yes it will take more time but we owe it to ourselves to create the very best we can.
• Be resolute in curbing waste. As an industry we generate a lot of material that needs to be disposed of and that limits our effectiveness at creating in a sustainable manner.
• Look for opportunities to uplift our people. Catch them doing things right, and mention it. Thank our partners for doing their jobs well. Find innovative ways to promote from within. Offer training and higher educational opportunities. Have meaningful rewards programs. Set a higher standard and require people to reach it. Have some fun.
• Focus on what is going the way we want it to go. It’s a sad fact that we spend 97% of our time focusing on the three percent of things that aren’t going according to plan. We will get exactly what we put our energy into so why not make it what we want?

Happy New Year!

It doesn’t seem likely the increasing costs of health care in the US can be sustained. According to the National Coalition on Healthcare (NCHC), “Unless something changes dramatically, health insurance costs will overtake profits by 2008.” This was taken from a 2004 report by McKinsey and Company.

The NCHC and others show health care costs accounting for 16% of the gross domestic product (GDP) and one-fourth of the federal budget. Just to put that into perspective Switzerland, Germany, Canada and France all have health care spending between 9.5% and 11% GDP and those countries insure everyone. US health care spending is expected to reach 20% of the GDP by 2015.

Small businesses, the employers of the lion’s share of employees in the U.S., are struggling to keep costs affordable but are losing ground. So more and more of them are turning to Wellness Programs to help out. These programs focus on educating your workforce about healthy lifestyles and then offering opportunities for them to practice healthier lifestyles. There are companies you can hire that will do an assessment of your company and put together and even administer a program. But with some thorough planning you can implement your own.

A case study of one of the early adopters of a wellness program shows the company was able to keep health insurance cost growth to a very low level, drastically reduce employee turnover and send their worker’s compensation costs into a nose dive.

The Canadians have quite a bit of experience with this and at their Centre for Occupational Health and Safety they have a page with steps to developing a wellness program. Here is a Wellness-Program that I created using some of their information and adding some of my own to that. This will get you started at making your own program. You will need to assign resources and work with the hours. I set it up to be a project that was worked once a week on Wednesday so if you change those parameters to what will work for your organization then you can compress or expand the project accordingly.

For those of you who don’t have MS Project here is the same thing in MS Excel.
Information Improvisation: Men who are looking for weight loss options should not buy adipex if they are already using cialis. This may lead to hazardous drug interactions. For side effects like hair loss, one can use hair and skin care products and essentially stop smoking at once. Aromatherapy candles can be used to get rid of cravings for smoking.

There is some recognition that while talking “green” advances green practices it doesn’t necessarily make environmental considerations as ubiquitous as profit considerations. I think there is a strong analogy between the value of profit and the value of the mind - they both make great slaves but are terrible masters. Environmental considerations hinge on the other aspects of being human like feelings and values and as such they will not be wholly considered until we allow them to also come forth from those places.

In an ideal world everything we build would grow not only from our logic but also from our feelings. This would make taking the environment into consideration as natural as taking profit into consideration. This however, is not an exercise you start with minds that have been steeped in the prevailing business thoughts of the industrial revolution. This requires minds that are still impressionable and open like the ones that will be conceiving the structures of the future.

So, one way to get “green” into the fabric of building is to encourage its use by students. When it comes to sustainability for example the Portland Cement Association (PCA) sponsors an International Student Design Competition each year where architecture students create sustainable solutions beyond the limitations of profit and cost. The competition is hosted by the Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture (ACSA). The picture below is from last year’s competition.

At the University of British Columbia School of Landscape Architecture students participated in a competition to design eco-friendly gardens and two of them were showcased at the Vancouver Sun Garden Show in the spring. In a trusting fashion the designers of the competition allowed the students to design their own priorities for sustainable design.

Of course there may be people whose feelings about “green” are negative and who would probably default to profit or some other focal point whenever they are faced with green considerations. But out of other views and feelings grow the dissenting propositions that help to keep things balanced. After all we don’t want green just for the sake of green.

06-07 Concrete Thinking for a Sustainable World
Competition Winner - 3rd PLACE (Structure Category)Students: Francois Riverin, Sylain Lagacè, & Philippe Lafrance-Boucher, Université Laval
Faculty Sponsors: Claude Demers, Marie-Claude Dubois, & Andre Potvin, Université Laval Project Title: PLAiNsight
Courtesy PCA and ACSA.