Pit & Quarry, January 2014
INDUSTRY SNAPSHOT Former employee wins retaliation case against Maine producer Portable Pioneer Plant a stone crushing operation in Thomaston Maine will provide compensation to a former employee and take other corrective action to resolve a lawsuit filed by the U S Department of Labor before the Federal Mine Safety and Health Review Commission According to an MSHA press release the former employee a general laborer at the stone crushing plant filed a complaint with MSHA in November 2011 alleging that the company had terminated his employment on Sept 30 2011 in retaliation for him having made recurring safety complaints MSHAs investigation found that the complainant engaged in protected activity when he alerted the company about unresolved safety problems Examples of this protected activity are the complainants refusal to turn on the plants generator until required safety guards had been installed and calling MSHA to report the companys failure to install those safety guards As part of the settlement reached in the case the former employee will receive 6000 in back wages AGGREGATES FORECAST DCG Aggregates Consumption Forecast billion metric tons A shift in demand BY DAVID CHEREB Most of the states are growing due to a combination of gains in residential nonresidential and nonbuilding The gains are now more varied than a few years ago when only the energy states were experiencing large increases Materials demand increases will not be concentrated in the energy states over the next couple of years Theyve already had their boom and theyll now grow at a more modest Billions of metric tons 2010 2011 2012 2013est 2014est 2015est Residential 31 34 38 47 40 44 Nonresidential 48 54 57 55 62 57 Nonbuilding 120 110 106 108 111 115 Total 199 198 201 210 213 216 Yr Yr Ch 25 5 15 45 14 14 pace The outlook for nonbuilding is improving due to local changes not federal support Most state budgets are in much better shape with revenues growing rapidly 10 PIT QUARRY January 2014 www pitandquarry com
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