The contractor members of the Building Trades Employers Association [BTEA], the largest association of union contractors in New York, have always responded when New York faced its most serious challenges: 9/11, Superstorm Sandy and today the COVID-19 Pandemic.
The coronavirus relief measure the Senate passed last night will provide construction employers and employees with critically needed access to capital, expedited cash flow, worker benefit protection and critical tax relief, among other measures.
Thanks for your business and for working through this difficult situation with us. It is our goal to continue serving you as long as we feel we can do so safely, and as long as all of us are permitted to operate.
As the spreading of the coronavirus continues to keep officials at all levels scrambling, one thing remains constant in the U.S.—construction. Officials in both the construction industry and unions want to keep it that way, and have joined together to keep jobsites exempt from required shutdowns.
States like Illinois, Ohio, Indiana, Michigan and Wisconsin have made construction activities exempt, but how long they will remain that way is unclear.
On the night of March 20, the state of California's Governor Gavin Newsom's office issued a full list of Essential Critical Infrastructure Workers on their COVID-19 resource page. The update clearly outlines construction as an essential service during the COVID-19 outbreak.
The sheer volume and pervasiveness of COVID-19 cases has construction industry trade groups and others questioning the practicality of current U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration rule that requires workplace exposures to the virus reported and recorded.
On March 19, Walls & Ceilings Publisher Jill Bloom interviewed the magazine’s Editorial Director Mark Fowler and Trent Cotney CEO of Cotney Construction Law.