For over a year, union carpenters and other trades workers in New England have been lending their time and valuable skills to assist in the construction of a hospital in Mirebalais, Haiti. After the devastating earthquake, the hospital is a source of hope in many ways. NERCC's Mark Erlich recently visited Haiti and wrote a piece for CommonWealth magazine about this amazing project.

Click here to see pictures taken by Mark Erlich during his trip.

Work by the members of Carpenters Local 275 and Turner Construction at the soon-to-be-open Wellesley High School was featured at the top center of Boston.com today. The online arm of the Boston Globe posted close to 20 large photos detailing various aspects of the project.

You can view the images here.

After more than fifteen years of conversations in offices and run-ins on jobsites, the New England Regional Council of Carpenters and Mark Richey Woodworking have come to terms on an agreement for the company to become union and its employees to join Shop and Mill Cabinet Local 51.

Richey operates a 130,000 square foot fabrication shop in Newburyport, Massachusetts where they produce architectural millwork. The company now plans to aggressively market themselves to union general contractors, some of whom have turned down Richey in the past in favor of union produced millwork.

"This is a major accomplishment for both the Carpenters union and Mark Richey," said Mark Erlich, Executive Secretary-Treasurer of NERCC. "Though we’ve always advocated for union shops, we recognized that Richey produced high quality work. We now look forward to helping them expand as a union shop in markets throughout New England."

While some construction companies struggle to keep the doors open, Suffolk Construction continues to take advantage of opportunities to grow. Yesterday they announced the purchase of Roel Construction, a San Francisco-based general contractor that boasted $300 million in business last year, according to the Boston Herald.

Suffolk has continually grown its book of business locally and nationally. It is the largest general contractor in Massachusetts as ranked by the Boston Business Journal according to dollar volume of contracts. ENR ranks Suffolk as the 31st largest contractor in the United States, with $1.7 billion in revenue. They profiled owner John Fish in the magazine a year ago.

Roel is not the first company Suffolk has bought during the current recession. A year and a half ago it purchased Boston-based William A. Berry and Son, boosting its presence in the health care segment of the industry. It also purchased Dietze Construction Group, a Washington, D.C. area contractor last year, which helped Suffolk increase its work in the mid-Atlantic region.

Suffolk Construction has a regional agreement to hire union carpenters and union carpentry subcontractors for all of its projects in New England. It signed that agreement in 1997, after having signed a similar agreement for its Massachusetts work in 1991.

Suffolk was also the general contractor for the Carpenters Center, the headquarters for the New England Regional Council of Carpenters, which was completed in February of 2010.

Eight senior representatives managing renovation and construction of Walmart and Sam's Club stores came to the Carpenters Center last week to talk to over fifty union contractors about future building projects in New England. The retail giant reviewed their internal contractor prequalification process and talked in general terms about upcoming projects in a two-hour meeting. The developing relationship is the result of coordination between the New England Regional Council of Carpenters and the New Jersey State Council of Carpenters, which has had significant success having Walmart stores build union there.

"Walmart is a huge company that has taken some hits about how they do business," said Mark Erlich, Executive Secretary-Treasurer of NERCC. "As a result, they appear to be focused on eliminating future problems including those that might occur during construction. They have a comprehensive prequalification process for general contractors and they've brought in serious people from the industry and regulatory agencies to help them become compliant with the law."

The company plans to build more than 150 new stores in the next year and doesn't want any store to go more than 5-7 years without being renovated.

For NERCC, the meeting highlighted the business development role the union plays for contractors: "Some union contractors only see us as a supplier of labor, affordable benefits and craft training," Erlich said. "We also view the relationship as a partnership in which we can help them generate business and, therefore, jobs for our members."

J& J Contractors was the winning bidder today for the $61 million Plymouth (MA) North High School project.

Good news for Local 624 members.

Congratulations to Component Assembly Systems, a union drywall contractor with offices in Medford, Massachusetts and five other states, which was recently written up for ENRs website by blogger Tricia Attalah. ENR is one of the leading national print and online news sources for the construction industry.

The article, "How a Drywall Contractor Became a Powerhouse via Smart Information Management " highlights Component's incredible growth as a result of its use of specialized computer software and a culture where input and participation is sought from all employees.

According to her ENR blog, Transitions, "Tricia Atallah is Principal of VantagePoint Strategy Group, a management advisory firm, and author of Building a Successful Construction Company. [Her] blog is dedicated to decision-makers who have a stake in the business and/or process of construction."