Anyone who was in high school before 1990 can recall a requirement to take at least one type of technical-education class, where you would learn some basic techniques about cooking, sewing, metals, woodworking, printing, architecture and the list goes on.

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Dewey Westra, a longtime construction executive and a founding member of the Associated Builders and Contractors of Wisconsin has died. He was 92.

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By now, almost everyone in construction has heard about the PRO Act, or Protecting the Right to Organize Act, that's being considered in Congress. But many people are unaware of its likely immense consequences. If the PRO Act becomes law, it will result in big changes to our labor laws.

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Ever since Wisconsin repealed its prevailing-wage laws, blue collar workers have steadily been making less, construction CEOs raking in much more and taxpayers saving next-to-nothing on public-construction work.

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As the head of the largest Associated Builders and Contractors chapter in the U.S., John Mielke had plenty to keep him busy before COVID-19 came to Wisconsin.

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As America continues to reel from the economic and very personal pain inflicted by the COVID-19 pandemic, we join our colleagues in the construction labor union sector (Dan Bukiewicz letter to the editor, May 29) calling for new investment in rebuilding the country’s infrastructure.

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Dan Zignego took his faith, his family and his work seriously. The longtime executive at the Waukesha roadbuilder Zignego Co. saw himself as a steward of the family business, acting as a mentor to others who would succeed him in running it. He was active in church, helping organize mission trips to Africa. And he was a die-hard deer hunter, making near-weekly trips to the family's hunting grounds in Bowler to prepare for the next deer season.

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It’s a common strategy these days for partisan activists to attempt to discredit supporters of policies they don’t like without actually addressing the merits of the policies in question.

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There’s an old quote that says, “The historian is a prophet looking backwards.”

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For recent high-school graduates, individuals interested in changing professions and those seeking a second chance at the American dream, there is no better time to join the construction industry.

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