On board: Performance Contractors Vice President Lee Jenkins has been named the Baton Rouge Area Chamber’s board chairman for 2017, BRAC announced this morning. BRAC President and CEO Adam Knapp says Jenkins an avid supporter of the chamber’s work and his passion for implementing positive change will be an asset as BRAC tackles transportation funding and the Capital Region’s other pressing issues. Jenkins succeeds Forte & Tablada CEO and President Ann Trappey as board chair. Ric Kearny, senior vice president of Capital One Bank, will serve as BRAC as first vice chair.
Top honors: Walk-On’s Bistreaux & Bar, Quality Engineering & Surveying and Elite Chiropractic are among the nine recipients of the Livingston Parish Chamber of Commerce’s 2016 Annual Business of the Year Awards. The award winners were recognized Wednesday at the Chamber’s annual meeting and awards luncheon. Walk-On’s won in the category of New Business of the Year. Quality Engineering & Surveying received the Business of the Year award for mid-sized companies, and Elite Chiropractic won the Business of the Year award in the small business category. Other award winners include Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices, Bobby Tallo Realty, Congressman Garret Graves, Scott Innes’ Hug magazine, Chad Bacas, A Door of Hope Ministries and V. Watts Furniture. Get more information.
The bottom line: The share of American workers in unions fell to the lowest level on record in 2016, showing a return to the downward trend for organized labor after membership figures had stabilized in recent years, The Wall Street Journal reports. Recent figures from the U.S. Department of Labor show the total number of union members fell for both private- and public-sector workers last year, the first overall decline in four years. Only 10.7% of workers were union members last year, down from 11.1% in 2015, and from more than 20% in the early 1980s. The share of union members in the workforce stabilized between 2012 and 2015 after suffering losses during President Barack Obama’s first years in office. Read the full story.
