Push the industry forward by joining an association

RCS Influencer Will Lorenz says organizations like NRCA and Roofing Alliance are key to solving labor issues.

Editor's note: The following is a transcript of a conversation with Will Lorenz of General Coatings. You can listen to the interview or read the transcript below.

Jenny Yu: Hi everyone, my name is Jenny Yu. I'm here with RoofersCoffeeShop for an influencer response with Will Lorenz of General Coatings. How's it going today, Will?

Will Lorenz: Very good, Jenny. Thank you for the opportunity to be here. We're a big fan of RoofersCoffeeShop and glad we can help other roofers here.

Jenny Yu: Thank you and we're always grateful to have you. And this month we are talking about a pretty important topic, workforce disruption and labor uncertainty. And we were wondering if you could share your thoughts specifically on using associations and peer networks for guidance and language.

Will Lorenz: Absolutely. Thank you. You know, we are a part of National Roofing Contractors Association (NRCA) and the Roofing Alliance, and those are great organizations and NRCA does so much for the roofing industry. And first of all, I encourage everybody to become a member of it. They do things with regard to protecting everybody with regard to fair tax policies, proper regulations with regard to things like OSHA, as well as very active in the labor space.

You know, one of the things that they are, you know, have got out there that roofers need to support is called the Dignity Act. It's a bill in front of Congress today. It's a bipartisan bill and it supports basically giving a pathway for people to get permanent green card status if they qualify. And I think it's one of those things that can really help the roofing industry and can help people, you know, with providing stability in their family, workforce stabilization, and also it's just the right way to go about it.

People are wanting to come here to work and we've got to help await so that they can work and be a part of our economy, help it growing. And the Dignity Act is out there. NRCA, I believe, is actually sending out correspondence to people right now to send a letter to Congress to support this bipartisan act. I sent mine out actually this morning again to support it and I encourage everybody else too.

Jenny Yu: Excellent, thank you. It's so important and we need voices like yours to help push that forward. So thank you very much.