ACCA Welcomes New Secretary of Labor Alexander Acosta

April 28, 2017

ACCA, the Indoor Environment and Energy Efficiency Association, welcomes Alexander Acosta as the new U.S. Secretary of Labor. The Senate confirmed Acosta in a 60-38 vote yesterday. He was sworn in today. Secretary Acosta, a former federal prosecutor, civil rights chief at the Department of Justice, and a member of the National Labor Relations Board, serves as the 27th Secretary of Labor.
 
The Department of Labor (DOL) is very important to America’s heating, ventilation, air conditioning, and refrigeration (HVACR) contractors. As the agency responsible for enforcing our nation’s federal labor laws covering 10 million employers and 125 million workers, DOL’s actions have a significant impact on ACCA’s members. DOL can also play a critical role in helping the HVACR industry address the skilled labor shortage that is needed to ensure heating and cooling systems are properly installed. 
 
 "ACCA looks forward to working with Secretary Acosta on a number of issues that are important to America's HVACR Industry, especially addressing the considerable shortage of skilled workers. The skilled labor shortage is accelerating due to constraints within the training pipeline and overemphasizing 4-year college degrees”, said Paul Stalknecht, ACCA President and CEO.  “ACCA supports re-authorizing Perkins Career and Technical Education funding that helps provide a pipeline of qualified HVACR professionals who can properly install indoor comfort systems.”
 
“In addition to the skilled labor shortage, ACCA supports efforts by Secretary Acosta to address the Obama Administration’s career-killing overtime rule.  The overtime rule doubled the overtime threshold, so that workers making up to $47,476 per year qualify to be paid time-and-a-half when they work more than 40 hours in a week,” said Bart James, ACCA’s Senior Vice President of Government Relations.  “This rule is just another tax on small businesses that will impact our members’ customers, because at the end of the day the cost of doing business is passed on to the consumer.”
 
ACCA has supported several of President Trump’s cabinet nominations including Secretary of Energy Rick Perry, and looks forward to a productive relationship with the administration.  

If you have questions about ACCA's government relations activity, contact Barton James, ACCA's  senior vice president for government relations at barton.james@acca.org.

 

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ACCA is a non-profit association serving more than 60,000 professionals and 4,000 businesses in the indoor environment and energy services community. Our member firms are the nation's most professional contracting businesses, serving residential and commercial customers in every state. With roots stretching back a century, ACCA was incorporated in its present form nearly 50 years ago. Today, ACCA sets the standards for quality comfort systems, provides leading-edge education for contractors and their employees, and fights for the interests of professional contractors throughout the nation. Learn more about ACCA here.