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Cities

Union Fears Could Curtail Construction Startup Prospects

By
Cory Weinberg

Here’s the next battleground over tech’s impact on jobs: building sites.

New startups aiming to automate home construction, such as SoftBank-backed Katerra, are setting off alarm bells among labor unions in the construction industry. Worried about the potential impact on jobs and wages, unions are jostling to try to block developments that use these factories. It promises to be another big hurdle for startups that are still trying to convince real estate developers that their approach is worth trying.

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Union Fears Could Curtail Construction Startup Prospects

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If the use of factory-made prefabricated construction “comes on in a big way, and it’s not being done locally, it undercuts the local workforce.”