Featured – Constructonomics

A Long Road to a Professional Engineering License

John Poole — Sun, 24 Jul 2016 16:33:59 +0000

My boss at my first engineering job told me that a PE license and a dollar will get you a cup of coffee.

Now that’s one heck of a saying, and at 22 years old, I didn’t really get it. I eventually put two and two together and realized that since a cup of coffee costs about a dollar, the PE license may not be worth too much. For this and other reasons, I was always on the fence about getting it. On one hand it could bring some credibility and security to your career, but it could also put you on a very technical path that may be tough to get out of if you’re looking to get into management or running your own business.

**Another popular saying is, “A blog and handful of quarters will get you a cup of coffee.”

I’m really knockin’ ’em dead I guess. **

However, about 15 years into my career, I decided to pursue the license through the Pennsylvania State Registration Board. I did this because I wanted to increase my credibility as a consultant and not have to rely on high risk, hard bid, construction contracts.

This is all great, but I had been doing project management for most of my career and the technicalities and theory of engineering had sunk deep to the bottom of my mind. Like trying to bring the Titanic back to the surface, I would have to refresh and possibly re-learn much of this material. I started the process of collecting data, references, and a year by year synopsis of my career for deliberation by the Board.

There is no doubt that the PA Board was a little reluctant to throw down the stamp of approval for someone who had been working on construction sites their whole career. They asked more than once for more detailed information about how my career has applied the principles of math and science.

Long story short, I eventually got approved to take the test after several requests for detailed information about my work experience. The whole process took about 12 months and several iterations.

I ended up taking an online course to go over all the engineering principles that had been stagnant for years, as per the engineering staffing agency advice. I feel like online courses are the equivalent of exercise classes on video. I don’t know how anybody can do either – you’re just one push of a button away from doing something much more enjoyable. I struggled through it nonetheless and tried to pick up as much as I could. The best part about the course was the two hundred or so practice problems that come with it. I spent several weekends working through these problems and they really helped.

I also had the Civil Engineering Reference Manual (CERM) which is pretty much a staple for the PE exam. However, I found that I didn’t use it that much during the open book exam. The test was much more conceptual than I was expecting and I found myself referencing some other manuals, but mostly just grinding through the problems on my own. The folks at NCEES know that the CERM is used by almost everyone and I got the feeling that they wanted go beyond this reference.

The morning wasn’t that bad – I finished about an hour early. It was very conceptual and hit all phases of civil engineering: civil, structural, environmental, surveying, construction management, and geotechnical.

The afternoon, however, was brutal. I took the construction engineering specific test and it basically tested everything but at a much more complex level. I remember doing a crane analysis problem that gave the loading on a crane and asked for a thickness of the concrete pad necessary to withstand overturning. You’re only supposed to spend six minutes per problem but I remember spending well over ten minutes on this with my pencil burning through calculations. After this exercise, my answer was not nearly any of the multiple choice options. I made a guess and moved on.

There were actually several questions in the afternoon on which I had to make a guess. This is why I thought I failed the test. However, I did not. They don’t tell you your score, but I imagine that I passed it by a slim margin.

Now it’s time to see how it helps, redirects, or otherwise alters my career. I’ll let you know how it goes. In the meantime, here’s a buck, grab a cup of coffee.

Welcome Back AEC – Please Stick Around For A While

John Poole — Sun, 24 Jan 2016 15:10:00 +0000

While we may not often talk about them, we all remember the dark ages. These are the years where work in the architecture, engineering, and construction field fell to levels not seen for, at a minimum, decades. I was not one of the lucky who lived in a castle with a moat, so I was left scrounging and fighting for work (and writing a blog about it). I cringe at the thought of years like 2009, 2010, and (gasp) 2011. According to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics, construction industry unemployment hit a whopping 27.1% in February of 2010.

For those of us that thrive on quantification, the United States Census Bureau puts out values of construction spending. They show 2009 coming in at $906 billion, $809 billion in 2010, and a robust $788 billion in 2011. While 2015 numbers are not yet finalized, October 2015 shows construction spending at a $1,107 billion annual clip, and the AIA projects an increase in non-residential spending of 8.2% in 2016. The Bureau of Labor Statistics shows a construction industry unemployment rate for December 2015 of 7.5%.

Long story short, we’re doing a heck of a lot better now than we were in 2009, 10, or 11.

This is good, and we should be thrilled and feel fortunate that we are working in a thriving industry at the moment. However, while it may not always be pleasant to remember and discuss the bad times, I think it’s important to do so. It may be easier to throw our hands up and say that we can’t control the economy and we just have to play the cards we are dealt. But this is not the kind of attitude that will provide long term success, growth, and improvement.

So what will provide long term success, growth, and improvement?

Well, I’m not really sure, but I can tell you how I’ve learned to navigate the peaks and valleys that we often encounter as members of the AEC industry.

Since we hit rock bottom, I’ve loaded up with State and Federal government work. The pay isn’t the highest and the paperwork and documentation requirements can be tedious, however, it is very steady, they pay on time, and the system can be learned and repeated. A pipeline full of government projects is great to have should things fall apart on the private side.

I also run my own business. This is obviously not an across the board option, and it took me a while to get there, but if you’ve got the the ambition and wherewithal, running your own business can reduce the risk of your income going to zero. In other words, you may lose a client or project here and there, but you probably won’t lose everything all at one time, like you would if you lost a job.

As for the industry as a whole, I actually do throw my hands up. I’m afraid that we (or they) won’t learn from what occurred during the early part of this decade. There are plenty of folks, especially in an election year, talking about not repeating the past, etc., but c’mon, it’s kind of a tough thing to stop.

However, perhaps it can be slowed, or at least become less frequent, so this lively construction market will stay – at least for a while.

Good Faith and Fair Dealing: The Essence of Construction Agreements

John Poole — Sun, 28 Dec 2014 19:41:10 +0000

Everybody loves to get hung up in contract language. On construction projects, contractors, owners, and subs will fire contract language back and forth like missiles in what gets to be an arms race of legalities that negatively affects projects by creating panic and anxiety. When lawyers get involved, the language starts to get twisted and manipulated along with all the facts of what has taken place. You’re left with a contract that can be interpreted in a number of different ways, contractors that have most likely not gotten paid, and all parties thinking they deserve the favorable interpretation of the situation.

I recently finished a project where at the end, I thought I was owed $80,000 and the owner thought that I owed them $20,000 – and this is when the total contract is only $100,000!

I think it’s safe to say that the AIA construction contracts are favorable to the ownership. And in public projects, there will often be supplemental conditions thrown in on top with things like liquidated damages and other caveats and indemnification that work to the advantage of the owner.

But what is the intention of all this heavily lopsided contract language? Is it to give the owner, at their discretion, the opportunity to not make payment to a contractor and perhaps even collect money from them at the end of the project? Absolutely not.

The contracts are written to provide protection to the owner; to be used as a shield and not as a sword. The aggressive and overzealous use of the contract in order to gain advantage to one party violates the one thing that allows agreements between multiple parties to function and exist – Good Faith And Fair Dealing.

Basically, good faith and fair dealing is an implied obligation among parties in an agreement and while there is some grey area associated with what is fair and what is good faith, I’ve found people to agree much more easily on what is fair than on what the contract is attempting to communicate. You would think that enforcing something as subjective as “good faith” and “fair dealing” would be difficult and an enforcement of the more objective contract language would have a better chance of resulting in resolution. But in my experience, it’s the other way around. People actually tend to know the difference between fair and unfair, good and bad, right and wrong. Things get much more muddled when contract language, and legalities are entered into the mix.

In a moment of inspiration, I decided to crack open my contract law book by Justin Sweet, a law professor at U. Cal. Berkeley. I hadn’t read any of it since about 2002 which was well before I got into performing construction contracts on my own and certainly before I was treated unfairly by an owner. At that time, I considered the drying of paint and the growing of grass to be of more interest than contract law, but now that I have about $60k tied up in a construction project that is on its way to court, I’m turning the pages like it’s a Grisham bestseller. Anyway, there is reference to good faith and fair dealing all over Sweet’s book with examples of courts ruling against parties that did not act in good faith. I didn’t notice all of this when I read the book during my contract law class – probably because I wasn’t looking for it.

Sweet sums it up beautifully, stating that, “each party should not only avoid deliberate and willful frustration of the other party’s expectations but should also extend a helping hand where to do so would not be unreasonably burdensome. Contracting parties, although not partners in a legal sense, must recognize the interdependence of contractual relationships.”

Basically, when parties enter into a construction contract, they form a team and they need to act like one – and always in good faith.

Public RFPs: What Do We Do With You?

John Poole — Sat, 15 Feb 2014 15:29:39 +0000

I’ve spent the past four years starting a construction company through the public bidding process. While I have arguably been successful in doing this, it has not come without plenty of headache, heartache, and just plain unimaginable stress.

I’ve probably bid at least 100 public RFPs, but I’ve only been awarded less than 10. I’ve dealt with pretty much everything from erroneous disqualifications to last minute bid deliveries where I tossed my proposal in with only seconds to spare. I’ve been the low bid on projects with over 15 bidders and also the high bid on projects with just as many submissions. I’ve won jobs and had very smooth projects with few problems and I’ve done projects where it’s a battle right down to the last check being delivered. Long story short, doing public construction projects is a tough way to make a living and at times, questionable as to whether it is worth it.

Basically, through the course of attempting to start a construction company through the public bidding process, I’ve laughed, I’ve cried (no joke), and I’ve spent weekends balled up on a couch wondering how I was going to get a job done with the money I had left. I’ve battled with town councilmen, labor boards, owner’s reps, and, of course, our best friends – lawyers. While on perhaps one occasion I considered going to a local bridge like the Ben Franklin or Delaware Memorial and hurling myself off of it, I managed to maintain relative sanity through the process – although there were times when it could have easily gone either way.

I know why the system is set up as it is. The award is required by law to go to the lowest “responsive and responsible” bidder. This is evidently the only way to make the system truly fair and avoid the potential of public money going to contractors that would be in the political or personal best interests of those awarding the contract. And honestly, as much as I’ve thought about it, I can’t really come up with a better way to do it.

I think it’s pretty much established that taking the low bid, especially with a high number of bidders is rarely a good idea. But again, what else do you want to do? If government entities started negotiating contracts directly with contractors, it would become even more of a mess and everybody knows it.

With the system being what it is, when you bid a public project you are also certifying that you will accept the contract that is included in the bid documents along with all the terms and conditions. If you ever read the terms and conditions along with all the supplemental conditions that are thrown into the contracts, you may realize that everything is severely steered to the advantage of the owner and architect. Many of the contracts are a standard AIA agreement, and while they appear to be relatively fair, supplements are often added that would make any right minded contractor run far, far away. However, contractors (including myself) show up time and time again to bid these jobs. Sometimes I feel like we’re all intoxicated by the thrill of winning a bid and we ignore the risk of what we are doing.

But let’s not forget about the most risky contract clause of all. You got it – Liquidated Damages. If you’re in the biz, you probably call them LDs. I’ve been on $100,000 contracts with LDs of, gulp, $1000 per day. Fall a week behind on a project like that and you’re under water real fast.

But let’s get back to the question at hand – Public RFPs: What do we do with you?

I’m actually very good at pointing my finger at a problem and then being much more quiet when it comes to proposed solutions (just a talent I suppose), but if I were to take a stab at improving this process, I think it would come down to somehow avoiding the problems of substantially low bids while still maintaining a fair bidding process free of collusion, nepotism, and overall corruption. But again – how?

I would say that going to some kind of value based award process would be best, which is basically a private section model. However, if this were the case, I can’t really see a company like mine winning value based bids when we (I) first started because of the perceived risk associated with new companies with few, if any, employees.

So what do we do with public Request For Proposals?

We need to manage them better on the owner side.

It’s very easy for an owner to skimp on project management or owner’s representation because the money does not go directly into work in place. But if there is more project management, there is more collaboration between contractors, owners, and architects and more overall project communication. This is the key to making these projects more successful.

So let’s pump a little more money into management on the owner’s side and maybe we can avoid all those contractors’ tears – including mine.

What Is Constructonomics?

John Poole — Mon, 02 Dec 2013 22:09:10 +0000

I will often get asked, “What is Constructonomics?”.

Actually, that’s a lie. I very rarely, if ever, get asked that question. I’m not sure why I lied about that, but most likely because that’s how a post like this would typically start.

Nevertheless, I do think about the question a lot – and that is not a lie. I started thinking about it a little bit more when I lost my job during the Great Recession and I will admit that the reasons were very self-interested. The construction industry was railroaded by the financial collapse in this country and I was reviewing every bit of economic news to try to find some glimmer of hope in a world that was crumbling around us. So what did I do then? Well, the same thing anybody would do who has a laptop, a high speed internet connection, and some serious time on their hands. I started writing a blog called Constructonomics.

At the time, I defined Constructonomics as the study of the effect of the overall economy on the construction industry and how the industry reacts to economic stimulus, growth, and decay. And this is truly what it is. At the time, the US government was pouring money into public construction projects through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, so it was also a bit of an observation at how the economy reacts to increases in construction spending.

So really, it was like economics but for construction – Constructonomics. Got it? I guess you could have other industry specific economic studies like healthonomics, or autonomics, but those don’t exactly roll of the tongue as well. There are a few other cool words created by the infusion of economics like Reaganomics, Obamanomics, and how could we forget, Freakonomics. I guess if the words Bush or Clinton fused better with the word economics there would be at least three more nifty words for us to throw around.

But Constructonomics is also a phenomenon. So when you invest in construction work, you get a building or piece of infrastructure, but you also put people to work while improving the world in which we live. So now we have an improved world (either by adding infrastructure or a new/renovated building) and also some improved pocket books of construction trades people, superintendents, and project managers. Now, when the construction work is sustainable in nature, you’ve now got a building that is using less energy which saves money along with all the environmental benefits. There is now a ripple effect going on where economic and environmental benefits stretch beyond the product that was produced for the owner that paid for it. That’s Constructonomics.

So basically, Constructonomics is much more of an area of study and phenomenon than a…..I don’t know, a cool name for a blog or construction services company or something. Well, it is a cool name. But really it’s academic – and that’s no lie.

FYI – Pro Labor Is Not Necessarily Pro Union

John Poole — Sun, 15 Sep 2013 15:12:21 +0000

I’ve occasionally danced around the issue of construction labor unions on this site, but of course I have not taken any definitive stance on one side or the other. While one may think that this lack of commitment resulted from an aversion to being thrown in the Sckuylkill River with two concrete “slippers” on my feet, the reality is that I was very much on the fence about the whole idea of labor unions.

Just to recap, labor union grew substantially as a result of the industrial revolution in the late 1800s. At that time, the need for some kind of representation of labor was an absolute necessity. There were immigrants, children and adults alike working in unsafe and unsanitary conditions while getting paid clearly unsatisfactory wages. And only very few places like the social security office near jackson tn were openly helping out these immigrants get social security numbers so that they could live in the land of the free as a reputed citizen and not as an immigrant.

Now, partially as a result of organized labor and collective bargaining, those days are gone and the working conditions and pay of folks in the construction trades is very fair and respectable – and this is for non-union projects as well. Perhaps this is why union participation has dropped drastically in recent years all around the World. However, Philadelphia stands as what some people call the last real union town.

I went to the Wikipedia page on Labor Unions in the United States and found some interested things while I was also very interested by some information that I did not find. Below is a graph put out by the Bureau of Labor Statistics showing union membership in the United States from 1930-2010.

Obviously, labor union involvement in this country is declining significantly. Wikipedia was not afraid to point this out. However, there was no mention of the labor union ties to corruption and organized crime, or their use of fear and intimidation to maintain their position.

I’ve always found Wikipedia to be a “tell it like is” site with almost every controversial issue at least mentioned, often with opposing opinions presented. However, there was nary a whif of any corruption or illegal activity even remotely associated with labor unions.

C’mon Wikipedia…..that’s BS. Are you guys scared of goin’ swimmin’ with the fishes or something?

Everybody knows, including the United States Department of Justice (link to report) that labor unions were at one time completely controlled by organized crime groups. Also, at one time, labor unions had a hold on almost every sizable construction project in this country. Yikes!

The construction industry is not as strangled by labor unions (a.k.a. The Mob) as it used to be, but still strongly influenced, especially in Philadelphia. In the past few years, there have been several instances of violence, vandalism, and intimidation over the use of non-union labor in and around the city.

So what is the point? Well, my point is that while labor unions served a very legitimate purpose at one time in this country, their presense is a net negative which borders on counterproductive. This counterproductivity is largely a result of corruption, ties to organized crime, and illegal activity.

So what do want us to do? Wow, you really ask hard questions!

Well, while one may think that my answer to this would be to hunt down the leaders of the labor unions and drag them down to the river and……. Rather, I think it starts with management making a commitment to the appropriate treatment of labor. And I don’t want to hear any discussion over what is appropriate and what is not. Yes, there is a little bit of a grey area, but we all know what is clearly outside the lines.

Basically, management needs to be the leader instead of whining about how they are victims in the whole situation. Be creative, and treat non-union employees better and the labor unions will look much less attractive. And by the way, this would put a dagger right into the heart of organized crime as well.

So being pro labor does not have to be pro union – just an FYI.

Web Presense For The AEC Industry

John Poole — Mon, 29 Oct 2012 22:37:23 +0000

The construction industry will tend to lag tremendously behind the rest of this country and perhaps even the rest of the free and modern World when it comes to technology. I’d love to know what percentage of construction organizations even have websites. I did a back of the envelope survey about ten years ago and I think it came in around 10%. Granted, that was ten years ago, and I just built my first Friendster profile, but still, 10% is pretty pathetic.

*Incidentally, Friendster turned down an offer to be bought by Google in 2003 for $30 million which is evidently one of the worst choices in business history. I don’t really know why because they were recently bought for $100 million by some company in Malaysia. But while they are now more of a site for games and things, they were the pioneers of Facebook and got kinda hosed in the whole deal. But hey, $100 million ain’t the end of the World. *

I think architects and engineering firms are a little more progressive when it comes to technology than contractors, but this may be for good reason. Construction services has long been a word of mouth type industry. I’m not exactly sure why, because this could easily apply to other industries, but for some reason, people feel more comfortable with a referral from a trusted source.

Mark Buckshon, who writes the Construction Marketing Ideas blog, wrote an article last year about the three biggest construction marketing mistakes. One of them was, of course, lack of web presence. I’ve found this to be true, but I don’t think many people are looking for construction services by doing web searches. Rather, they are getting referrals or talking to people, and then looking up the companies online. So the web presence, in my opinion is a last minute check to make sure the company has all their ducks in a row. So yes, it’s important. And a good website can definitely set you above those that are less savvy in the web department. Could it change? Yes, and I would like to be on the forefront of that. Will building owners and developers eventually look for construction services through online searches and forums? Perhaps, but until then, let’s just get some good, quality websites up.

As far as social media goes – I just throw my hands in the air. Anymore, I can’t keep track of Facebook, Twitter, et al. It’s just too much for me with all the other stuff going on. I actually provided some commentary on this back in 2011 and there was some spirited commentary on both sides of the fence. So I guess my opinion is that it won’t hurt and could draw people to your site and maybe toss your info in the direction of other potential clients. So by all means, get a Facebook page and Twitter account. However, I don’t think Friendster will help you out too much anymore.

Since most of us are busy running companies (and sometimes writing blogs), we may not have the wherewithal to create websites and update our twitter feed every thirty five seconds. Luckily, there are companies that do this and better yet, some of these companies specialize in the AEC industry. A specialty in AEC is, in my mind, a necessity when it comes to selection of a marketing consultant or really any service provider for that matter. The AEC industry is at a minimum, an anomaly and at a maximum, a planet from a different universe.

One of these companies is NuCitrus Technolgies based in Lansdale, Pennsylvania. NuCitris provides website development and social networking services as well as software services and application development. I recently met with Julia Markow with NuCitris and she explained these services at length. NuCitrus is trying to work mainly with small and emerging companies and even more specifically, those who are members of the AEC industry.

The Arrival of Revel

John Poole — Sun, 03 Jun 2012 22:18:07 +0000

Back in the early part of 2008 we were in a very strange crossroads in this country. Everything was going so well, but it was kind of like one of those sunny days where you just barely see the darker clouds forming over the horizon and the temperature drops just enough to notice. Right about when the first drops of rain begin to fall, people start running for shelter.

I moved from a hotel project in Vail, CO to Wilmington, Delaware to work for a steel contractor on the Revel Casino in April 2008. This kind of move, while probably overly aggressive and not necessarily right, was consistent with the lunacy that was going on in not only the financial industry but almost every industry at that time. It was like there was nowhere to go but up and nothing was going to stop us from pushing things harder and harder. Well, the tensile strength of bubble gum became the limiting factor in determining when this joyride was going to end and in exactly 11 months from my move to the east coast, I was standing in an unemployment line and wondering how the frick this happened.

I found myself uttering these same words (to myself of course) when I strolled through the operational Revel Casino for the first time this weekend. Even though I hold a bit of bitterness toward this place, I do think it is a pretty fantastic casino and absolutely what Atlantic City needs as it competes with casinos in Pennsylvania and Delaware. Thank the PayPal casino UK movement for making it easier to transfer funds into casinos, no more bringing huge amounts of physical cash. I think New Jersey Governor Chris Christie felt the same way when he spearheaded a $260 million tax credit plan to refinance the project after it was halted in the spring of 2009 with the exterior nearly complete. However, there was still plenty of work (mostly administrative) left on the project despite what was being told to the thousands of employees being discarded.

And for the record, after thinking briefly about skipping out on my bill at a Tapas restaurant in the casino, I decided against it as if the place wasn’t responsible for up-heaving my life. For this, I am very proud of myself.

Morgan Stanley was the 90% owner of Revel Entertainment and sunk about $1.2 billion into the project. In 2009 they put their stake of the project up for sale and then in the bank’s fourth quarter 2010 earnings statement, Morgan Stanley noted a decline in the value of its investment in Revel to $28 million.

For the love of God, Morgan Stanley lost $1 billion on Revel (Don’t worry, I think the execs still got a small bonus that year just to keep their beaks wet). For those of you who don’t feel like doing the math, Morgan Stanley’s stake in the casino had decreased in value by 97.5%. Hopefully the termination of my five figure salary eased the pain for them a bit.

But honestly, this isn’t (entirely) about poking fun at greedy banks and casino owners, because the building is truly awesome and was the product of some of the most talented architects, engineers, and contractors we have in this country. I watched (and helped a little) a member of my team at the steel contractor develop steel fabrication and erection sequences that made my head explode. I started calling the job the “Manhattan Project”, but unfortunately, while rather bright, I didn’t exactly bring Einstein-like ingenuity to the team. It was still kinda fun though.

The construction schedule took lunacy to the next level. During the winter of 2009, we erected steel for twenty hours per day. This involved running two 10 hour shifts of iron workers and lighting the 20 acre site like an amusement park. The overtime operation was tremendously costly and proved to be all for naught as the project was then halted for two years in the spring.

Although it could have gone either way for a period of time, I was able to survive the Revel Casino project, and for that I am honestly grateful. However, there were others that were not so lucky. Tragedy struck the project management team when three executives at Revel, a project manager from Tishman Construction, two members of a New Jersey glazing contractor, and two pilots were killed when their private jet crashed after a botched landing in Minnesota en route to a meeting with a glass supplier. Also, in 2011 three concrete workers were struck by lightning on the site, killing one.

There will always be a special place in my self-employed heart for the Revel Casino. From all the blood, sweat, tears, and even loss of life on the construction of the Revel Casino we are left with a truly magnificent building. I just kinda hope that after all of this we can look a little more closely at the storm clouds beginning to form and take note of the temperature drop. Perhaps we can then seek a little shelter prior to the skies opening up and the rain beginning to pour. However, I’m afraid that I’m asking for a lot.

The Straight Talk On Labo(u)r Unions

John Poole — Sat, 28 Apr 2012 17:21:32 +0000

Isn’t it kind of weird that labor is spelled labour in the United Kingdom? I guess this is true for a few other words like organization (organisation) and catalog (catalogue). But I think it is safe to say that I don’t really care at all which way they are spelled (spelt in the UK) – I get the point either way.

But regardless of the spelling, labor (labour) unions in the construction industry are like the pink elephant in the room that nobody dares to speak of.

*Incidentally, the saying is in fact the “elephant in the room” and not the “800 pound gorilla”. While these sayings are often confused, the 800 pound gorilla refers to a powerful individual or group that will do whatever it pleases while the pink elephant is merely a significant entity that is obviously present. While construction labor unions can act and have acted as the 800 pound gorilla, in the previous reference they are clearly the pink elephant. *

So why are construction labor unions the pink elephant in the room? For a few reasons. One, labor unions in any industry are a political topic with strong feeling on both sides. Politics, much like religion, are topics that are only broached at settings that are sure to not erupt in uncontrollable violence. However, I think even a dose of political banter may cross the lunch room table or the water cooler before the topic of construction labor unions arise. The reason for this is downright fear.

Lets be clear that labor unions are in place to protect, well, labor. And at the time they were established this was absolutely necessary. They were formed because management was taking advantage of labor and were not a result of labor ganging up on management. The US labor posters for employers back then were very interesting, it’s worth a little research session for the curious. Also, it is very important to note the origin of labor unions in any discussion of the topic, because I think people very easily forget.

Now, it is my belief that while unions were established for a very good reason, they have now grown to a point where they are no longer serving the purpose for which they were formed and can at times border on counterproductive. This is evidenced, in my mind, by two incidents that occurred in Philadelphia over the past few years.

Philadelphia has often been called the last real union town. I moved here from the largely non-union construction market of Colorado and hit the east coast union construction world like a hammer hitting a half embedded nail (very hard).

I was running a small project non-union about 15 miles outside the city when an incident took place in the same area. It involved members of the local iron workers union beating a non-union contractor with baseball bats over the non-union erection of steel for a Toys R Us. These are the tactics of fear and intimidation that give unions a bad reputation and sours the work that has been put in to create organizations that work toward better craftsmanship and fair treatment of labor. I had a few sleepless nights after hearing about this incident that occurred only a few miles from my job. Dreams of aluminum connecting with with side of my face were not very pleasant.

The other incident took place on the Comcast building which is now the tallest building in Philadelphia. The Comcast building was designed to have flushless urinals to reduce the impact on water usage. The union claimed that this was taking millions of dollars right out of the pockets of union plumbers. Somehow (and I’m not sure exactly how they did this) the union insisted that hundreds of feet of cast iron pipe (yes cast iron, not PVC) be installed in the building. The pipe was installed and it now sits unused in the Comcast building.

The whole Comcast situation was obviously non-sense and sheds negative light on construction labor unions (i.e. 800 pound gorilla). So what should we do? Well, that’s the bazillion dollar question.

I think the first thing is that the unions need to cut out the violence and intimidation along with the non-sense installation of construction work that isn’t even used. Beyond that, I’m not really sure. I would suggest that the unions trim the fat and lose the corruption. This just doesn’t help, and only leads to more anti-union sentiment.

Beyond this, I’m not really sure how to handle it, and from what I gather, nobody else really does either. Like most large established institutions, there is a lot of old structure that rakes in a ton of money and is tremendously difficult to shake.

If there is any time in the history of history for the construction industry to make strong positive change it is right now. We’ve been broken down to nearly nothing and establishment and convention didn’t really work too well over the past several years (or really ever).

So you can spell it labour or labor, but if we continue with fear, intimidation, violence, and non-sense, we’re going to be labo(u)ring along a very treacherous road.

I encourage anyone who reads this to sign up for a WordPress account and leave comments, but let’s keep them constructive (no pun intended). I think it is time that this issue is discussed and an online forum is a great way to do it while perhaps coming closer to improvement. Your opinions are welcome. Thanks -JP

2012….A World That Keeps On Pushin’ Us Around

John Poole — Thu, 19 Jan 2012 02:35:03 +0000

In keeping with the yearly tradition of the Constructonomics blog I’d like to propose a theme song for 2012…..So if the theme song for 2011 was, “Stayin’ Alive”, I couldn’t help but try to peg 2012 with something like, “Livin’ On A Prayer”. However, I won’t. Not because we’re less than halfway there, but because this would be far too pessimistic.

While “Free Fallin'” may be a little bit of an exaggeration, I was thinking about something more like Tom Petty’s, “Won’t Back Down”, where Petty confidently boasts, “In a World that keeps on pushin’ me around, but I’ll stand my ground, and I won’t back down”. Petty suggests that even at the gates of hell, just don’t back down.

Don’t worry Tom – we won’t!

I looked all over for some positive construction industry forecasts for 2012 and well, I didn’t really find any. But why?

Everybody says how the economy is improving which may or may not be true, but the unemployment rate in the US appears to be decreasing. However, the construction employment is still tremendously stagnant. I suppose this is because construction improvement woefully lags the rest of the economy – lucky for us.

While I couldn’t find any economic info that made me want to “Whistle Dixie” (maybe next year’s theme song?), I did find a great report for construction economic data put out by the Gilbane Company. While not overly positive, this report gives a great snapshot of what is going on and what can be expected. If you’re into all the graphs and tables and things like that, you’ll love this.

It’s kinda funny that you’d think a website called Constructonomics would put a bunch of tables and graphs and stuff up as well but instead it has a bunch of touchy feely mumbo jumbo making analogies to rock songs from 1989. Go figure that one…

But before we give our Carharts to Goodwill and pawn the Hilti gun (neither of which I have ever owned), just take a deep breath and try to relax in the midst of industry-wide unemployment and underemployment. Ok?

Now, everyone just needs to realize that things will improve and while it may not be this year, it will definitely be next year. How do I know this? Well, I don’t, however, I did read something from the AIA saying that architectural billings will be up nicely this year, which means….Plus, I stayed at a Holiday Inn Express last night.

But seriously, it has to. As companies hire more people they are going to need more office space to work and more hotels for travel. As consumers make more money they’ll need more retail space for shopping and bowling alleys etc. for having fun. It’s only a matter of time.

How much time? I don’t know. But until that time comes we’ll fight, claw, and scrape our way through what hopefully turns out to be the worst downturn of our careers.

And of course……We Won’t Back Down.