Labor/Employment

The lobbying group for construction workers said Friday that members of their industry who had lost their jobs during the economic difficulties of the last few years are finding new work, but often it is not within their industry.

Statistics released by the Bureau of Labor Statistics Friday showed that in the midst of the national unemployment rate dropping to 8.1 percent, 16,000 new manufacturing jobs were created. But the same numbers showed the transportation sector lost 17,000 jobs.

The Associated General Contractors of America, based in northern Virginia, said the numbers added up to a muddled employment situation for the construction industry.

“The plunge in the unemployment rate for former construction workers from 17.8 percent in April 2011 and 21.8 percent two years ago is good news for them,” AGCA economist Ken Simonson said in a statement released Friday. “Unfortunately, few of them have found jobs in construction, which actually employed 1,000 fewer workers than it did in April 2010.”

The transportation sector lost 17,000 jobs in April, despite a monthly jobs report showing the overall unemployment had dropped to 8.1 percent.

Statistics released Friday by the Bureau of Labor Statistics showed the nation's economy added 115,000 jobs in April. But the agency said that 11,000 public transit and ground passenger jobs were lost, as were 7,000 couriers and messengers. 

The Senate voted 45 to 54 to defeat a Republican-backed motion of disapproval on an NLRB rule speeding up union elections.

One of the more prominent voices in the labor movement for infrastructure spending passed away on Sunday. 

In a statement Monday, the Building and Construction Trades Department (BCTD), AFL-CIO, said it was saddened by the sudden passing of Mark Ayers, who had been president of the union since October 2007. 

“President Ayers was a labor leader of vision, innovation, passion and integrity, and it was through his leadership that North America's Building Trades Unions were on the path to success and increased market share for the union construction industry,” said the union.

“Mark Ayers was a true trade unionist in every sense of the word, and it was through that commitment to bettering the lives of working families that he was able to offer so much to his country, his family, and to the labor movement.”

Ayers, a Navy veteran, was director of the Construction and Maintenance Department of the International Brotherhood of Electric Workers (IBEW) before being elected in 2007 to lead BCTD. He also led the Union Veterans Council.

Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa) has launched an investigation into alleged ethical violations by a Republican member of the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB).

In a letter sent Monday to NLRB member Terence Flynn, the chairman of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee asked for several documents stemming from a report by the NLRB’s inspector general (IG). That report, released more than a week ago, found Flynn had broken ethics rules by divulging confidential information about the NLRB’s internal workings to former board members and lawyers outside the agency. 

Harkin said he was “troubled” to hear of potential ethical misconduct at the NLRB and asked for more information on the matter.

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce has joined a court challenge against President Obama's recess appointments to the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB).

The Chamber, along with the Coalition for a Democratic Workplace, has filed a motion for leave to intervene in a case involving Noel Canning, a contract canning and bottling division of the Noel Corp. The business, based in Yakima, Wash., was involved in a dispute with a local Teamsters union, and the NLRB last month ruled Noel Canning violated the National Labor Relations Act.

Congress is under pressure from an unusually wide range of industries and groups to pass a spending bill for transportation.

Legislative efforts to combat driver fatigue have become a huge issue for bus operators and companies.

Your morning transportation speed-read:

A New York Democratic lawmaker called the $260 billion transportation measure being considered by the House a "train wreck" on The Hill's Congress Blog.

Sen. Daniel Ino­uye (D-Hawaii) is basing his support for candidates running for Honolulu mayor on their positions on a rail project there.

A strike by workers at Frankfurt, Germany's, airport is continuing until Friday.

Nevada has approved "self-driving" automobiles on its roads.

Your morning transportation speed-read:

A woman is accusing the Transportation Security Administration of re-scanning her at airport security because employees thought she was "cute."

Workers at the airport in Frankfurt, Germany, have gone on strike over their pay and working conditions.

Amtrak is celebrating its first high-speed railway outside of the Northeast.

Baltimore-Washington's Thurgood Marshall International Airport set a passenger record in 2011.