It’s an honor to serve as chairman of ABC Massachusetts for 2022. Amid a frustratingly stubborn pandemic and an ongoing labor shortage, these are stressful times, but I’m confident that together we can make progress.

Part of my optimism is due to all the progress that was made last year under Kyle Reagan’s leadership. We all owe him a debt of gratitude for his hard work during his second term as our chairman.

My firm has been involved with ABC for over 50 years. As ABC has grown and evolved, my business has as well. We were a framing contractor when we first joined, and now I am proud to say that ABC has been a part of Cruz Companies’ evolution to a successful general contractor and developer.

I can still remember going to ABC meetings in the early days and still having sawdust on my boots from the jobsite! Now, as I lead a third-generation family business, I am honored to serve as chair of ABC MA. Only in America…and we should never take that for granted!

I believe opportunity is core to ABC’s mission. We don’t want to see opportunities denied based on labor affiliation. I would like to see more opportunities for minority participation in our industry. In that regard, I’d like to bring you up to date on a construction diversity and apprenticeship expansion grant ABC was recently awarded late last year from the Executive Office of Labor and Workforce Development. The funding is aimed at attracting more diversity within our construction industry and part of this grant provides funding to conduct a diversity survey of ABC member companies and their employees.

The survey will go out in February via email and postal mail in multiple languages. Rest assured that all individual responses will remain completely anonymous and confidential. Please keep an eye out for it and return it promptly to ABC. We very much need your information, and it should only take 10-15 minutes to complete.

Survey results will help members to understand their organizations’ diversity dynamics and the steps they can take, such as how to accomplish and exceed workforce participation goals on public projects, how to attract and retain diverse talent, and methods to create a more inclusive workplace.

To provide direct communication with your organization throughout the survey process, we kindly request that you designate a Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Survey contact for your company and send that person’s name, email address, and phone number to [email protected].

Finally, I’d like to congratulate ABC MA’s director of workforce development Steve Sullivan for all his work to secure this grant! We’ll keep you updated on our progress as we implement it.

Thank you again for allowing me to serve as your chairman, and here’s to a healthy and prosperous year ahead!

John Cruz is the chairman of Associated Builders and Contractors Inc.-Mass. Chapter and president & CEO of The Cruz Companies.