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The construction trades once provided unionized craftsmen a route to the middle class and a sense of pride and dignity often denied other blue-collar workers. Today, union members still earn wages and benefits that compare favorably to those of college graduates. But as union strength has declined over the last fifty years, a growing non-union sector offers lower compensation and more hazardous conditions, undermining the earlier tradition of upward mobility. Revitalization of the industry depends on unions shedding past racial and gender discriminatory practices, embracing organizing, diversity, and the new immigrant workforce, and preparing for technological changes. Mark Erlich blends long-view history with his personal experience inside the building trades to explain one of our economy's least understood sectors. Erlich's multifaceted account includes the dynamics of the industry, the backdrop of union policies, and powerful stories of everyday life inside the trades. He offers a much-needed overview of construction's past and present while exploring roads to the future.

Intro -- Cover Page -- Title Page -- Copyright -- Dedication -- Contents -- Acknowledgments -- 1 A Tale of Two Cities -- 2 Snapshot of an Industry -- 3 The Heavy Hand of the Business Roundtable -- 4 Misclassification as a Business Model -- 5 Immigration, Payroll Fraud, and the Underground Economy -- 6 Technology and the Future of Construction Work -- 7 Building Under a Roof -- 8 Many Rivers to Cross: Organizing and Diversity -- 9 Regulators and the Challenge of Enforcement -- 10 Restoring a Pathway to the Middle Class -- 11 Building a High Road Future -- Notes -- Index.

The misclassification of employees as independent contractors has been the focus of recent attention as a result of the implementation of that employment model by ride-share and other gig employers. But the practice long predates the emergence of the gig economy, particularly in the construction industry. This article traces the history of misclassification in construction and the subsequent emergence of a cash-based underground system of compensation, which have lowered standards and been among the major causes of the decline of union density in the industry. In addition, the author examines the regulatory environment at the federal level, which has largely enabled misclassification as well as attempts by state agencies to adopt more aggressive enforcement policies.

This paper reports a rare anatomical variant of the facial artery (FA) - namely, a double FA pattern - which has significant implications in a wide range of surgical and aesthetic medicine disciplines. The study involves a case report and literature review of the FA and its variants. The case is that of a 61-year-old female cadaver with a unilateral FA variant branching pattern discovered during a cadaveric dissection for an anatomy course. The dissection revealed an unusual supply of the typical FA distribution by two separate branches from either side of the maxillary artery. The first branch, termed FA1, followed a typical FA course arising from the external carotid to supply the lower portion of the face lingual, inferior labial, and mental arterial branches. The second branch, termed FA2, arose superior to the maxillary artery near the origin of a typical transverse facial artery, to supply the upper portion of the face superior labial, lateral nasal, and angular arterial branches. No direct communication between the two branches was observed grossly dissection. The observed branching pattern has not previously been reported in literature and has critical implications for surgical planning and intervention. This study emphasizes the importance of understanding variant FA anatomy in procedures requiring precise anatomical knowledge of arterial supply to the face. Duplicate and/or secondary facial arteries necessitate careful consideration for their potential consequences on the success of surgery of the head and neck, dermal fillers, and embolization for epistaxis procedures.

In 1926, Walter Gropius, one of the pioneers of modernist architecture, predicted a “fundamental shift of the entire construction business toward industrialization” and went on to insist that “housing will be created no longer at the construction site, but instead at specialized factories with all the ready-to-assemble components,” assuring ample capacity and affordability.¹ The allure of building indoors in a controlled environment instead of in the mud, muck, and maelstrom of a conventional site has long motivated some architects, engineers, and construction futurists to promote the virtues of a factory system with assembly lines akin to auto, steel, and other

For the first three-quarters of the twentieth century—particularly in the three decades after World War II—U.S. construction workers were among the best paid blue-collar workers in the world. A career in construction was a pathway to the middle class for those “labor aristocrats.” During the last fifty years, that era has been replaced by a segmented new equilibrium. Aggregate real wages for all workers have declined, but not evenly across the board. Union trades workers make up a smaller percentage of the total construction workforce, but they continue to earn above average wages and benefits. Some non-union contractors

Aggressive activity on the part of federal and state regulatory agencies is a precondition to the creation of a more level playing field, but the ultimate burden of representing workers and elevating standards rests squarely on the shoulders of the unions. The complacency that dominated most leaders’ mindsets during the decades of union hegemony has not yet been completely replaced by a new paradigm in a more challenging environment. At the level of organizational structure, the decline in membership did force unions to streamline and reduce the number of struggling local unions. The Carpenters, for example, established regional councils in

Technology has been linked to the potential for human liberation for centuries. Writing nearly two hundred fifty years ago in Wealth of Nations, the founding text of classical economics, Adam Smith marveled at the power of machines to “facilitate and abridge labour” and allow one to do the work of many. Famed economist John Maynard Keynes, while concerned about the hazards of technological unemployment, predicted in his short but influential 1930 article, “Economic Possibilities for our Grandchildren,” a not-too-distant future in which the combination of “science and compound interest” would present man with a new and permanent problem—that is,

The Roundtable’s political and organizational program created a context for a workplace that enabled the growth of misclassification as an employment strategy. The increased use of independent contractors in construction was a crucial part of the broader breakdown of the system of labor relations during the 1980s. A large swath of corporations in many industries sought to reduce the fixed aspect of labor costs represented by a core workforce and to eliminate implicit employment guarantees by contracting out work more freely, developing subcontracts for business services, and using more part-time, freelance, and temporary workers. At the time, economist Audrey Freedman

The contemporary construction site would look familiar to someone who walked on a job at any time over much of the last century. Many of the innovations and inventions that remain common practices today were developed in the aftermath of World War II. The post-war interstate highway system, the increased demand for housing, and the extended economic boom prompted new materials, machines, and methods. The use of steel columns and beams and reinforced concrete had already successfully divorced the structural frame from the building envelope. The erection of partitions and ceilings had been separated from load-bearing structures, allowing architects and