Industry Beat
Industry Beat November 2009 Construction Equipment Distribution www.cedmag.com 15 Start Us Up Becomes Rallying Cry for Industry AED and AEM launch a grassroots effort to get the construction equipment industry back to work. As the deadline for a new federal transportation bill passed unfulfilled on Sept. 30, the equipment dealers and manufacturers have joined forces to send a loud message calling on President Obama and Congress to act swiftly in reauthorizing a transportation bill. Spearheaded by Associated Equip-ment Distributors (AED) and the Asso-ciation of Equipment Manufacturers (AEM), the grassroots Start Us Up USA! campaign launched two high-profile press events aimed at directing the nation's attention on the construc-tion equipment industry depression. On Sept. 29 construction machines paraded down the Las Vegas strip as part of the first rally. MaryKaye Cashman, CEO, Cashman Equip-ment told reporters about the devastating effect the economy has had on her own company. Other spokesmen painted the grizzly jobs picture on national scale. The construction equipment industry is in a deep depression and we have lost 37 percent of our work-force nationwide the past few years, said Toby Mack, President and CEO of AED. Overall [the] economy cannot recover until our industry recovers. Unnecessary delay in passing a trans-portation bill will prolong this depres-sion for the men and women working in our industry not to mention force Americans to wait for safer roads and increased transit options. Oct. 20 in downtown Chicago, dealers, contractors, and representa-tives from labor and manufacturers and a dozen lowboys loaded full of heavy equipment rallied powerfully outside Soldier Field. Diane Benck, Vice President of General Operations for West Side Tractor Sales Co. in Naperville, Ill., told reporters and a crowd of onlookers that her company has been forced to lay off more personnel in the last 12 months than over the last 30-plus years combined, since the company's inception. From left: Randy Highland, president, AGC, Las Vegas chapter; Toby Mack, president and CEO of AED; MaryKaye Cashman, CEO, Cashman Equipment; Dennis Slater, president, AEM; and Terry Jicinski, senior vice president, Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority. Left to right: Toby Mack, Dennis Gannon, President of the Chicago Federation of Labor, Jerry Roper, President and CEO of the Chicagoland Chamber of Commerce, and Diane Benck, West Side Tractor Sales Co.