Repost: Ferdinand Building project falls short on hiring Boston residents, women

Boston.com recently published an update on one of PGTI's target projects, the Ferdinand Building in Dudley Square. The project has made great improvements in its hiring goals during the past year, exceeding the BRJP minority requirement, but still has not met the requirements for women and resident workers.

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The front façade of the Ferdinand Building, which is currently being redeveloped.(Patrick D. Rosso/Boston.com/2013)

By Patrick D. Rosso, Town Correspondent

The number of minorities hired for the redevelopment of the Ferdinand Building in Dudley Square is exceeding city goals, but the project is still falling short on hiring Boston residents and women.

The project, dubbed the Dudley Municipal Center, is a $119 million city development being led by Shawmut Construction. Eventually the structure, slated to be completed by December 2014, will house the headquarters of Boston Public Schools and ground-floor retail.

Of the 149,630 hours of work completed on the project 44.3 percent was by Boston residents, 57.6 percent was by minorities, and 7.2 percent was by women, according to figures provided by the city of Boston.

Hiring goals established by the city call on contractors to employ 50 percent Boston residents, 25 percent minorities, and 10 percent women.

Those numbers have stayed consistent over the past year, although the project did get off to a rocky start and was picketed in October 2012.

“We strive to exceed the goals with every contractor and sub-contractor we can,” said Patrick Brophy, assistant director of the city’s Capital Construction Division. “We’re happy with where the numbers are, but we’d still like to see improvements on the number of women and Boston residents.”

At the moment there are an estimated 162 workers on site, and city planners said they don’t expect the numbers to fluctuate much in the near future.

“We are on schedule and on budget and we expect to maintain that; we’re exactly where we want to be,” Brophy said.

For those that frequent the area they will begin to notice some changes at the job site. Crews will soon start removing the staging surrounding the building as they prepare to begin exterior work. The massive tower crane that has loomed over the neighborhood for the past year is also expected to come down by early-December.

To read more about the project and its “topping-off” ceremony held over the summer, click here.

Email Patrick D. Rosso, patrick.d.rosso@gmail.com. Follow him @PDRosso, or friend him on Facebook.

To read the original article, visit http://www.boston.com/.

Career Opportunity: Boston Resident Jobs Program (BRJP) Monitor position available

Job Title: Sr. Research Analyst (Boston Residents Jobs Program)

Job ID: 346702

Location: ASD-Boston Residents Jobs Policy



Full/Part Time: Full-Time
Regular/Temporary: Regular

BRIEF JOB DESCRIPTION (essential functions of the job):
Under the supervision of the Manager of Boston Residents Jobs Program (BRJP), monitors public and privately funded construction projects to ensure contractor compliance with relevant City of Boston policies and Federal and State regulations.

• Conducts kick-off meetings and pre-construction conferences with developers, general contractors and project managers. 
• Conducts on-site monitoring of the participation of minority, women and Boston residents. 
• Verifies reported employment data and wage data. 
• Conducts quarterly review meetings to review contractors' performance goals, and review cases of non-compliance, and statements of recommended corrective actions. 
• Prepares reports and make presentations before the Boston Employment Commission (BEC). 
• Performs related work as required. 

MINIMUM ENTRANCE REQUIREMENTS:
Must have four (4) years of fulltime, or equivalent part-time, experience in research work including project monitoring and statistics. A bachelor's degree may be substitute for two (2) years of the required experience. Must have computer knowledge of Microsoft software; knowledge of City utilized software and hardware preferred. Excellent written and oral communication skills and willingness to travel to sites throughout the City of Boston on public transportation; writing sample; knowledge of the construction trades and related legislation; ability to exercise good judgment and focus on detail as required by the job.

Boston Residency Required

Terms: Union/Salary Plan/Grade: SEIU/RL-18
Hours per week: 35

Please refer to the Salary Information section on the Boston Career Center site for more information on compensation. For each Salary Plan, salaries are listed by Grade and Step.

Visit the City Job Postings webpage for more information.

Map of Boston Resident Jobs Policy Monitored Projects

Check out this map of current Boston Redevelopment Authority (BRA) jobs covered by the Boston Residents Jobs Policy (BRJP). Thank you to the Boston Workers Alliance for creating it!

http://boston.maps.arcgis.com/apps/HeaderFooter/main/index.html?appid=8b6cf7d594c641b9ac065c87e0bbccdc

City wrestles with policing its jobs policy

By 

Melissa Tabeek, Special to the Reporter
Mar. 1, 2012

Most companies that win contracts for publicly funded building projects in Boston continue to fall well short of city-mandated minimum-hiring thresholds, according to a Reporter analysis of city reports. The Boston Residents Job Policy (BRJP), a city ordinance, is aimed at ensuring diversity – of Boston residents, minority groups, and females – in work being done with public money.

The policy sets out specific targets: City-hired contractors are directed to make sure that, at minimum, 50 percent of all workers on a job site are Boston residents, 25 percent are minority citizens, and 10 percent are female.

The policy – in place since the 1980s— gives contractors a goal to meet when they are composing their workforce, but over the years, city officials have been careful to avoid using it as a cudgel to force companies to meet the exact minimums laid out in the policy.

But, there are repercussions for companies that do not make a make a “good-faith effort” to try,
In a story last week, the Reporter revealed that a New Hampshire-based contractor — Sunshine Paving— has been under more intense scrutiny from city officials for their dismal hiring record to date as they oversee the reconstruction of Cronin-Wainwright Park. (The park has recently been re-named in honor of Rev. Dr. William Loesch.)

Sunshine Paving first caught the attention of the Boston Resident Jobs Policy Office when the contractor Sunshine Paving didn’t submit their payroll as required under the policy, according to Brooke Woodson, who oversees enforcement of the policy for the Menino administration.

When it became clear to Woodson that Sunshine Paving was not making a “best faith effort” to meet target hiring numbers, he took action, withholding three lump payments totaling $355,000 for work done at the park over the last few months.

Work at the park— nestled between Codman Square and St. Mark’s Area— has come to a halt as the company and city officials work out a solution to the hiring problem.

Woodson said his office uses more than just numbers to determine if there has been a real effort made by the contractor to diversify their work force.

“Some of the questions we ask are: are they submitting their paperwork and payroll on time? What are the trades they’re utilizing? Is there outreach in the community? Is there outreach to the city’s job bank?” said Woodson.

Before construction begins on a project, there is a pre-construction meeting held with contractors and representatives from the Boston Redevelopment Authority or the BRJP Office, depending on the project. This is when contractors are informed of the Job Policy and asked to sign a contract agreeing to make a best faith effort to meet the numbers in the ordinance.

When contractors do not make a good faith effort, Woodson said, they will be called in for a “corrective action meeting” to discuss how the contractor can meet their goals. Woodson’s office has the authority to withhold payments, sanction suspension payments, terminate a contract, recover the contract award price as liquated damages and deny right to participate in future projects for up to three years.

“Actions like these [sanctions and withholding payments] usually gets their attention and they usually change their behavior,” said Woodson.

Payment suspensions —like the one now in place at Cronin-Wainwright Park— is relatively rare, but it has happened before. When Turner Construction and Gilbane —two construction firms— have not met their numbers in the past, Woodson said they worked out a settlement in which the companies made donations to two groups working to support job creation and training in Boston: Madison Park Vocational High School and Youth Building Boston, a non-profit organization.

The complexities of enforcing the Jobs Policy are more readily available now, in part, because the hiring statistics are posted online at the BRA website. The Boston City Council in 2010 passed an amendment to the original Jobs Policy ordinance requiring the Boston Employment Commission (BEC) — a liaison committee established to work with the BRJP Office to monitor compliance — and the BRA to make information available online.

According to statistics reviewed by the Reporter on the BRA’s website, from 2009 to 2011, the number of Boston residents hired for publicly-funded jobs decreased to 32.3 percent from 36.9 percent. Minority hiring dropped as well, decreasing to 29.9 percent from 41.4 percent. Female numbers made a small gain, increasing to 3.8 percent from 3.3 percent.

The BRA also tracks and posts statistics on hiring for private construction jobs in the city in a separate database. According to a Reporter analysis of these figures, there have been small gains in privately-funded projects happening from 2009 to 2011. Resident numbers increased to 31.5 percent from 29.8 percent in that time frame, while the number of minorities increased to 33.8 percent from 28.9 percent. Female hiring increased slightly also, to 4.7 percent from 4.2 percent.

Woodson says one has to take into effect the market when looking at these numbers.

“The market fluctuates like anything else…A lot of the factors are outside of the city’s control, year to year and month to month,” said Woodson, who added that people moving out of the city for the suburbs may have something to do with the decrease in numbers.

State Rep. Martin Walsh, who also serves as secretary-treasurer of the Boston Building Trades Council, agrees with Woodson’s assessment. Walsh explained that the drop in compliance can be attributed to a rough economy.

“[2009 to 2011] was a very bad time for jobs…When there is more work around, the numbers are more accurate,” said Walsh.

He added that when there is a lack of work, companies are more likely to keep their core work force, rather than adding new employees.

“The city is doing a great job with enforcement,” Walsh said. “In the last year or so, they have really picked up on it. [The BRJP] is one of the prerequisites to work in the city. That’s not a lot to ask for of a company when they’re working here, making their money here. They should be held to a standard.”

Lewis Finfer, executive director of the Massachusetts Action League, said Boston Job Policy is widely viewed as one of the stronger ordinances nationally. Los Angeles, which just adopted a Construction Careers and Project Stabilization Policy in 2008, aims to have 30 percent of total work hours be local and community area workers, with 10 percent disadvantaged workers.

City Councillor Charles Yancey is not satisfied, however, and wants to see better compliance figures.
“I don’t think [the numbers] are reasonable. I think they should be higher, particularly for women and people of color,” he said.

Walsh believes that new and upcoming projects will not only create job opportunities for the people working in the city of Boston, but in six months, will provide a good benchmark for better evaluating compliance of contractors with the BRJP.

“There’s a lot of work in Boston that is coming down the road in 6 months. There are 10 to 12 jobs starting that will get those numbers up,” said Walsh. “We’ll be able to get people off the bench because companies will need to hire outside their workforce.”

Walsh points to pre-apprenticeship programs such as Building Pathways — a partnership between the Boston Housing Authority, The Construction Institute, and the building trades —that are a step in the right direction to get new people in the workforce.

 Last year Building Pathways had a class of 14, all of whom found jobs. Looking forward, Walsh hopes this year’s class of 16 will do the same, and the program will continue to grow.

 “We’ve had a 100 percent placement rating in the unions,” said Walsh.

Retrieved from: http://www.dotnews.com/2012/city-wrestles-policing-its-jobs-policy

UMass Boston broke ground in April for the first building in $700 million worth of work...a commitment to BJO hiring goals

Hi Tradeswomen and Allies,

UMass Boston broke ground in April for the first building in $700 million worth of work.  They are essentially tearing down the entire campus and rebuilding it over the next ten years.  The university and the state have made a commitment to meeting the hiring goals of the Boston Jobs Ordinance, which is 10% women, 25% people of color and 50% residents.

The entire project is under a Project Labor Agreement, and under that PLA, they have created an Access and Opportunity Committee to help the community get access to these jobs.  The committee is having a public meeting next Wednesday evening at UMass. 

This is an opportunity to show them that there are tradeswomen in Boston ready, able and willing to do this work, and to advocate for actually meeting (or even exceeding!) the goal of 10% women, which has almost never happened.  Below are the details.

We hope you can join us - spread the word!

Wednesday, May 18

6 - 8 pm

Meeting of the Access & Opportunity Committee

Ryan Lounge

McCormick Building

UMass Boston

Parking:  UMass will provide parking passes for those who attend this meeting.

A map of the campus can be found at http://uc.umb.edu/moreinfo/general/map/

If you have trouble reading the map, park in any parking lot, come up onto the campus, and ask around for the McCormick Building.  It is marked as the McCormick Building.

The Access and Opportunity Committee was created under the PLA for this $700 million project and includes members from the Division of Capitol Asset Management (the state agency who owns this job), the UMass Building Authority, UMass Administration & Finance, labor unions and Boston city government people.

The PLA covers replacing many of the structures on campus. The first building is the $155 million Integrated Science Center.  Walsh Brothers is the Construction Manager.

Some details about this, the first of many buildings, can be found at

http://www.mass.gov/?pageID=afterminal&L=5&L0=Home&L1=Property+Management+%26+Construction&L2=Design+%26+Construction+of+Public+Buildings&L3=Current+%26+Completed+Projects&L4=Higher+Education+Projects+-+University+of+Mass.&sid=Eoaf&b=terminalcontent&f=dcam_project_highlights_he_umb_sciencecomplex&csid=Eoaf