Welcome to the NASHTU Website
The National Association of State Highway and Transportation Unions (NASHTU) is dedicated to ensuring that federal transportation dollars are spent on cost-effective, safe projects that serve the public interest. NASHTU is comprised of 38 unions and associations representing hundreds of thousands of state and locally employed transportation engineers, construction managers and inspectors, technical workers and related public servants from throughout the United States.
Mark Your Calendars! 3rd Annual Virtual NASHTU Fall Conference Set for December 11
The 3rd Annual Virtual Fall NASHTU Conference is scheduled to be held virtually via Zoom on December 11, from 10 a.m. to 12 p.m. PST / 1 to 3 p.m. EST. Register for the conference by clicking here.
The NASHTU Fall Conference is a great opportunity for NASHTU members and interested parties to get together to discuss important updates and state department developments that impact all public employees in the transportation sector. There is no cost to attend the virtual conference.
Please mark your calendars to join us as we discuss the impact of the 2024 November Election results, Congressional updates, federal legislative challenges, outsourcing public sector transportation work, and other pertinent transportation-related updates.
Again, to register for the free NASHTU Fall Conference, please click here.
Please spread the word with other transportation and union leaders – everyone is welcome.
We look forward to “seeing” everyone soon.
NASHTU Planning Subcommittee Members: Jon Haines (AFSCME), Jennifer Porcari (AFT), Travis Woodward (CSEA/SEIU 2001), Patrick Lyons (New York State Public Employees Federation), Michelle Wheat (Montana Public Employees Federation), Patrick Russell (Massachusetts Organization of State Engineers and Scientists – MOSES), Joe Dorant (MOSES), Tom Prendergast (MOSES), Nadine Westcott (Professional Engineers in California Government)
Save the Date – NASHTU Conference Set for 2025
The 2025 NASHTU Conference will be held June 23 through 25, 2025, at the Hilton Capitol Hill Hotel in Washington D.C. Please save the dates!
The NASHTU Conference is an excellent opportunity for transportation unions to come together and strategize about how to serve our members and deliver safe, cost-effective transportation projects for taxpayers. It also provides important access to transportation leaders and key Members of Congress. Past conferences included U.S. DOT leaders, congressional members of both Senate and House committees with jurisdiction over transportation and infrastructure, and key transportation and labor officials from AASHTO, Transportation Trades Department, AFL-CIO, FHWA, Center for American Progress, and many other transportation stakeholder organizations.
NASHTU has secured a special room rate at the Hilton Capitol Hill Hotel (525 New Jersey Avenue, NW) of $309 per night (single/double occupancy). The hotel will also honor the special room rate for up to two days prior to and after the conference, subject to hotel availability. Advance reservations can be made by calling the hotel at 202/628-2100. Please be sure to mention the NASHTU Conference when booking your accommodations.
As always, if you have suggestions for speakers, panels, or interesting subjects for the conference, please let us know. We look forward to seeing you next June at the 2025 NASHTU Conference!
NASHTU Notes
September 12, 2024
With Great Sadness, NASHTU Announces the Passing of Mary J. Richards
Mary J. Richards, one of the union leaders that was instrumental in the creation of NASHTU, passed away on September 2, 2024.
Known affectionately as “Mary, Mother of NASHTU,” Mary was there at the very beginning of NASHTU. In the summer of 1999, as president of the Massachusetts Organization of State Engineers and Scientists (MOSES), Mary came to Chicago to meet with representatives from other public sector transportation employee unions from every part of the country. By the time they left, they had created a coalition and committed to each other to fight wasteful outsourcing, protect workers on the job, and advocate for the safe and cost-effective delivery of projects for taxpayers.
Out of that first meeting, NASHTU has grown to represent 38 unions in 20 states and Washington, D.C., representing hundreds of thousands of department of transportation employees nationwide. Mary was a vocal and constant presence at the annual NASHTU conferences in Washington D.C., including the latest NASHTU conference in June 2024.
Mary had a 20-year career in public service, working for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection (MassDEP) in the Wetland & Waterways Section Chief, Right-to-Know Division. She served as an Environmental Analyst, Section Chief, and Project Manager for various MassDEP programs.
During her tenure at MassDEP, Mary became active in MOSES, first as a union member and eventually rising through the leadership ranks to become the first woman president of the organization. MOSES represents 4,000 professional and technical state employees working in public safety, transportation, environmental protection, public health, forensic science, occupational health and safety, and wage enforcement.
Mary was a trailblazer, a visionary, and a fighter for working families. She will be deeply missed.
To read Mary’s obituary – including the option of sending flowers in her memory – please click here.
September 9, 2024
Report: Understaffed DOTs Lead to Higher Construction Costs
A team of academic researchers found that the U.S. overspends for highway infrastructure and identified understaffed DOTs and an overreliance on consultants as the primary reasons for higher costs. Their report was summarized in a recent article in Construction Dive, an industry publication.
According to the report, Procurement and Infrastructure Costs, state and local governments expended $266 billion on highways alone in 2022, and on a per-project basis, that spending is over three times as high as other upper- and middle-income countries. In exploring why the costs are higher, three researchers – Zachary Liscow of Yale University, Will Nober of Columbia University, and Cailin Slattery of the University of California, Berkeley – surveyed infrastructure procurement practices, talked to state DOT employees and construction companies, and analyzed project-level data across the country.
The report concludes that better staffed DOTs lead to lower overall costs for transportation infrastructure. Unfortunately, the “striking decrease in state DOT employment over the last 20 years, especially in the wake of the Great Recession,” has caused DOTs to have to do more with less and rely on overpriced consultants, which has led to higher costs to build highway infrastructure.
Specifically, the researchers found a one standard deviation increase in consultant costs is associated with an almost 20%, or $70,000, increase in cost per lane-mile. States with higher DOT employment per capita have lower infrastructure costs. For example, a one standard deviation increase in DOT employment per capita is correlated with 16% lower costs.
To read the article in Construction Dive, click here.
To download and read the full report, Procurement and Infrastructure Costs, click here.