Content about Congress

ATLANTA — Registration is now open for Clean 2013, scheduled for June 20-22, 2013, in New Orleans. Attendees can easily register online at the show’s website for the discounted rate of $99 a person (on-site registration will be $149 per person). All registrations can be made with credit card or check.

The Clean Show—officially the World Educational Congress for Laundering and Drycleaning—is the world’s largest exhibition of commercial laundry, dry cleaning and textile services equipment and ancillary products. Attendees can see and compare working equipment through live demonstrations.

I am constantly asked why should I come to the Clean Show or why should I exhibit,” says John Riddle, president of longtime Clean Show management firm Riddle & Associates. “There are many reasons. You will see the newest equipment, learn about new services, see working demonstrations, and have access to outstanding industry education.

EVANSTON, Ill. — As we predicted here several months ago (Could The Unions Still Clean Up?), the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) is continuing its pro-union agenda with the same thunder as a battleship blasting a broadside.

On June 21, the NLRB published the proposed changes it wants in rules governing union representation elections. When adopted, these rules will make the jobs of union organizers easier by handcuffing management and fast-tracking representation elections in which a company’s employees vote whether or not they wish to unionize.

Following the defeat in Congress of the Employee Free Choice Act, which would have allowed “card check unionization” and eliminated nearly all representation elections, union leaders are trying a different way to reach their easy organizing goals. They know “if you can’t legislate, regulate.” And the NLRB regulates labor relations in America.

WASHINGTON — In the past, generous tax breaks for gas-consuming heavy SUVs often raised the ire of Congress. However, last December’s Tax Relief, Unemployment Insurance Reauthorization, and Job Creation Act of 2010 actually made tax breaks for these assets even more generous. Although probably unintended, the limited-time 100% “bonus” depreciation allowance includes a new, heavy SUV purchased and used for business.

That’s right, the entire purchase price can be written off in the placed-in-service year. A dry cleaning business that buys and places in service a new heavy SUV—those built on a truck chassis and rated at more than 6,000 pounds gross (loaded) vehicle weight—after Sept. 8, 2010, and before Jan. 1, 2012, and uses it 100% for business, may write off its entire cost in the placed-in-service year. There is no specific rule barring this result.

CHICAGO — Early September brought a new proposal—the Americans Jobs Act—from President Barack Obama, which includes incentives for small-business owners to aid in cutting taxes and adding employees.

The proposal cuts employer payroll taxes in half, offers a series of tax credits for companies that hire workers who have been unemployed for longer than six months, establishes an “infrastructure bank” to offer loans for private-sector projects, funds a variety of transportation projects, intends to modernize schools and vacant properties, extends unemployment benefits and subsidizes jobs training programs, pumps money into communities for teachers and first responders, and sets up a summer jobs program for teens.

The bipartisan super committee in Congress—tasked with finding ways to reduce the nation’s debt by December—was due to hear the president’s proposals on cutting debt later in the month.

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — Members of the Association of Wedding Gown Specialists (AWGS) met early last month to elect officers, participate in interactive seminars and award the first annual Jack Barth Memorial Award of Excellence.

Initiated by Linda Stokes-Barth in remembrance of her late husband and his achievements, the award recognizes an AWGS member for outstanding contributions to the organization and advancement of wedding-gown care.

CHICAGO — Executives of large drycleaning and laundry operations are awakening to an unfortunate fact: That although unions lost their battle in Congress for the Employee Free Choice Act—a.k.a. the “card-check” law—they may be winning the war to make organizing easier with Craig Becker’s recent appointment to the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB).

GOUDA, HOLLAND — Bill Fisher, CEO of the Drycleaning & Laundry Institute (DLI), and Chris Tebbs, DLI’s international director and executive director of the International Drycleaners Congress (IDC), recently spoke at the International Committee of Textile Care (CINET) conference. More than 40 industry professionals from around the world attended the workshop, held June 28-29 in the Netherlands.

CHICAGO — Drycleaners favor some major features of the landmark healthcare reform legislation passed last month by Congress, according to this month's Wire survey, but almost three-quarters (73.4%) say they oppose the overall package, or Patient Protection & Affordable Care Act.

The International Drycleaners Congress (IDC) has set a preliminary agenda for its 2010 convention, slated for Sept. 23-26 in Dublin, Ireland. The convention will offer drycleaners an opportunity to meet with industry colleagues, share information and strategies, and build relationships that transcend national boundaries, IDC says.

1990s

The hallmark of the ’90s is a barrage of increasingly stringent rules and regulations covering drycleaning operations and the use of perc, past and present. The industry must constantly protect its interests against the regulators, while simultaneously developing new processes and strategies to secure its viability into the future.

Talk about last-minute changes to the tax code! The primary purpose of the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008 (EESA) is to solve the credit crunch in the financial markets, but it’s also one of the biggest tax bills in recent years.

WASHINGTON — Small business gave its support to a $700 billion bailout plan in advance of the vote last week that pushed the bill through Congress. President Bush signed the bill into law on Friday to help relieve a growing credit crisis that threatens the nation’s banking system.