Your Member Liaison | P : 515-450-3414 | E : [email protected]
During these times of social distancing and quarantine, your ABC of Iowa Board has not stopped working for you. Like many of you, we utilized technology to continue our monthly meetings and made progress on several items.

Matt Neumiller of Neumiller Electric, Coralville and Dan Lewis of Lewis Electric, Sioux City have been appointed to openings on the ABC of Iowa Apprenticeship & Training Trust by the ABC of Iowa Board of Directors. We look forward to the expertise and perspective these two will bring to the board. Additionally, Shane Kline, Kline Electric, Des Moines and Scott Black, Black Electric, Grinnell have been reappointed as Chair and Vice Chair of the Trust by the ABC of Iowa Board of Directors.

The Trust will be holding a strategic planning conference on June 29 & 30 to chart the course of action for the next three years. I will be sure to provide updates after they wrap up their planning session. As always, if you have any questions or concerns or need any assistance, please do not hesitate to reach out to me as your liaison to the board.
APPRENTICESHIP & EDUCATION UPDATE
Ginny Shindelar, VP of Education and Training Services
P : 515-985-1175 | E : [email protected]
VIRTUAL GRADUATION
ABC of Iowa is celebrating 40 years of apprenticeship graduations this year. While this certainly isn't how we expected to be celebrating, a pandemic will not stop us from celebrating these graduates’ achievements - and the past 40 years of graduates. On our social media pages this past week we honored the Class of 2020 with videos, photos and lots of “likes.”  Check out our page or visit our website to take a look at all of their achievements .
MEMBERSHIP UPDATE
Jared Harridge, Membership Director
P : 515-681-5620 | E : [email protected]
Our annual night of recognition, the EIC Gala, is ON! While things may look a bit different this year, we're looking forward to honoring Iowa's most innovative and high-quality construction projects and safety programs. Registration is now open so please sign up today. Our event will take place on July 14 at Prairie Meadows in Des Moines. You can find more information here or feel free to reach out if I can answer any questions.
GOVERNMENT AFFAIRS
Sandra Conlin, Director of Government Affairs
P : 515-321-8358 | E : [email protected]
The 2020 legislative session finally ended on Sunday, June 14 th . The session ended later than expected because of the 10 week break the legislature took due to COVID-19.

Two of the main issues we followed this year related to universal licensing recognition and alternative delivery methods. ABC of Iowa was supportive of Governor Reynolds’ universal licensing reform legislation. The bill creates a pathway for individuals moving here from another state. Individuals with a license from another state will be able to obtain an Iowa license with no extra hurdles in most situations.  If an individual is moving here from a state with no license, they may receive a license here only if they had three years of experience in their previous state and pass the exam here. We also followed legislation that would have allowed for construction manager-at-risk to be utilized on public projects. While this bill did not ultimately pass, ABC of Iowa did secure agreements to the language that would have protected our members from a governmental entity giving preference to contractors who are signatory to a union. 

Please contact our lobbyist, Sandra Conlin , if you have questions about these or other issues addressed during this legislative session.
SAFETY UPDATE
Rich Formanek, Safety Consultant
P : 515-681-1542 | E : [email protected]






JUNE IS NATIONAL SAFETY MONTH
The National Safety Council has declared June as  National Safety Month  – a time to “focus on saving lives, preventing injuries, from the workplace to any place.” 

It is ABC’s mission to ensure all of our construction workers get home in the same—or better— condition than when they arrived on the jobsite every day. A culture of both physical and mental safety cannot exist without leadership taking a stand that includes an unwillingness to compromise safety and modeling this belief in their every action. Challenging and transforming the status quo to create a belief that all incidents are preventable creates a culture where safety is considered a moral obligation not just for leadership, but for all employees. 

Our STEP program is one effective way to change the status quo. This program works to improve safety performance regardless of the size of your company or the type of work you perform. It’s a world-class safety management system that utilizes a detailed questionnaire to asses safety processes and policies against 25 key components. The goal is to implement or enhance safety programs that reduce jobsite incidents.  To read more about the benefits of STEP or to apply, click here .

From OSHA trainings, compliance assistance (health, site), employee trainings, equipment certifications and coaching/development, our staff is always looking for ways to help your workplace operate safer for your company and your employees.  Learn more about our chapter’s safety services here .






TAKE THE PLEDGE
The COVID-19 pandemic has underlined the critical need for a leadership commitment to construction worker safety and health by every contractor in America. ABC National is leading the charge to show the nation how our industry puts safety and health first.

To date, 230 companies have taken the pledge, which states:
“I pledge that my company will take all reasonable steps to increase awareness of threats throughout the construction industry and to protect employees in my company and on my worksites. My company commits to implementing a prevention, preparedness and response plan that includes practicable engineering and administrative control measures to prevent injuries and disease and safeguard total human health.”

Will you take the Pledge to Protect Construction Worker Safety and Health? 
Keep In Touch with @ABCofIowa
Monthly Member News - June 2020 | Questions? - Call 515-985-1160