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Last year was one of the deadliest on record for construction workers since 2011. The findings produced by the Bureau of Labor Statistics indicated that the rate of deaths in 2023 was still unchanged from the previous year’s survey. The fatality rate (9.6 per 100,000) has... View full entry
At the end of last year, we described 2022 as the year that “architecture’s labor movement roared back to life.” In 2023, the movement kept the volume on 'high.' Across the U.S. and internationally, reforms in labor conditions continued from the top down and the bottom up. Throughout the... View full entry
The UK’s Section of Architectural Workers (SAW) has announced its affiliation with Unite, one of the UK’s most influential trade union groups. The move will see SAW operate under the same union group as the UK’s wider construction sector. When it was established in 2019, SAW was affiliated... View full entry
The construction of the Sydney Opera House was a famously fraught saga, but as the city’s landmark turns 50, former workers remember a quite different atmosphere on the site itself. — The Guardian
Trade unionists and other workers were not the only sources of labor disputes on the site, as Jørn Utzon memorably quit midway over a payment dispute on the 14-year construction project that became essentially the Brooklyn Bridge of the Southern Hemisphere when it finally opened on October... View full entry
Construction input prices ticked up 1.5% in August, the first increase in six months, due to a surge in energy costs, according to a new Associated Builders and Contractors’ analysis of U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics Producer Price Index data released Thursday. — Construction Dive
These readings come as a shock as the flattening of costs suggested that inflation was cooling. According to a separate analysis from the Associated General Contractors of America, a major increase in diesel fuel costs in August drove the overall increase in materials prices. The producer price... View full entry
Employees of Sage and Coombe Architects have declared the formation of a new union within the New York office, the firm announced via a social media post late Thursday. “Sage and Coombe Architects is pleased to announce it has recognized a union as requested by a committee of firm employees... View full entry
The nationwide demand for labor is dulling, but construction still faces a shortage of workers. Construction counted 363,000 job openings at the end of July, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, a decrease of 23,000 jobs from June. — Construction Dive
As noted by the chief economist for Associated Builders and Contractors (ABC), Anirban Basu, job openings, across all industries, are at the lowest level since March 2021, and the rate at which workers are quitting their jobs has returned to the pre-pandemic norm. The demand for construction... View full entry
President Joe Biden on Thursday announced plans to increase protections for workers facing extreme heat, as temperatures across the U.S. soar and large swaths of the country face heat advisories. — HR Dive
The President’s announcement comes as close to 40% of the U.S. population faces heat advisories, according to the National Weather Service. The country currently has no federal standards on workplace heat safety, and there has been no timeline for the finalization of one. As reported by HR Dive... View full entry
With record-high temperatures impacting millions around the world, a spotlight has been cast on the workplace conditions of construction workers, who currently aren’t protected by any strict standard regarding extreme heat. According to a heat tracker by The New York Times, approximately 27% of... View full entry
With much anticipation, voting results for Snøhetta's U.S. employees and their fight for a union have come to a decision. After following Snøhetta's journey towards unionizing back in May and June of 2023, their efforts have fallen short. Thanks to active report updates from New York Times labor... View full entry
[C]onstruction is a risky job, and even more so for undocumented immigrants, who often work under informal verbal agreements. And for women, being vastly outnumbered on every construction site means more pressure to accept lower pay and mistreatment. That’s why, as more immigrant women don hard hats in New York City, advocates are training them to stand up against exploitation – and transform the construction industry itself. — The Guardian
More than half of New York City’s 200,000-plus-strong construction workforce are immigrants. Myriad abuses abound in informal labor markets, adding to a dangerous climate that last year saw fatalities reach a three-year high. The women featured in the Guardian article also... View full entry
The architecture faculty of the Rhode Island School of Design has expressed its “unequivocal support” for striking workers on the campus. The strike, now approaching two weeks in duration, is being carried out by 60 movers, custodians, and ground service staff, represented by the Teamsters... View full entry
Construction workers died at a rate of 9.4 per 100,000 full-time equivalent workers in 2021, the BLS reported, down from 10.1 in 2020. That rate has hovered in that threshold for at least a decade. The new per capita figures are the lowest since 2011, but still don’t break the trend.
Worker death rate across all industries was 3.6 per 100,000, the highest since 2016.
— Construction Dive
Among the demographics, immigrant Hispanic & Latino workers were almost twice as likely to die than their U.S.-born counterparts, highlighting an underreported problem nationwide. Slips, trips, and falls were among the most commonly-recorded causes of death, followed by transportation... View full entry
In any future analysis of architectural workplace conditions, the impact of 2022 cannot be understated. Throughout the year, our editorial played host to a wide variety of labor-related developments in the profession, from top-down efforts to improve salary transparency to bottom-up unionization... View full entry
A survey of architectural professionals conducted by a U.S. union coalition has revealed widespread dissatisfaction with pay, hours, and agency in workplace decisions. The survey of 436 professionals was led by the Department for Professional Employees, whose 24 affiliated unions include the... View full entry
