Repost: Coalition calls for wage guarantees for construction on Roxbury projects

At a recent meeting of the Roxbury Strategic Master Plan Oversight Committee, which monitors construction projects that are part of the Roxbury Strategic Master Plan, the Boston Jobs Coalition and other community activists called for developers to adopt prevailing wages for both union and non-union workers as well as higher goals for contractors to hire residents, women, and people of color. This recommendation comes not long after community members picketed the Tropical Foods store site, where "some workers...were being paid only $11 per hour" (Larson, 22 Oct. 2014). The coalition's efforts have received support from City Councilor Tito Jackson and State Senator Sonia Chang-Diaz, among others.

Visit http://baystatebanner.com/ to read the full article.

Repost: Massachusetts Building Trades face long diversity odds

(Photo Courtesy of Building Pathways)

by Martin Desmarais | 12/4/2013, 11:34am

Increasing the numbers of blacks, Latinos Asians and women in the construction industry and the building trades is an uphill battle, with thousands of workers entering each year and the established diversity programs helping a small number so far, but Massachusetts trades organizations say they are committed to the fight.

Mayor-elect Marty Walsh touted his own effort — Building Pathways, a building trades pre-apprenticeship program serving low-income residents of the Greater Boston area.

The program, which he launched while he served as head of the Building and Construction Trades Council of the Metropolitan District, was designed to help Boston residents, with a focus on women and people of color, learn the skills and receive the credentials to enter building trades apprenticeship programs.

With over 20 different trades and several dozen apprenticeship programs throughout the state, Building Pathways aims to help its students find the right career direction.

Launched in 2011, the six-week skills training, assessment and placement program has had five training cycles with 70 graduates, 95 percent of whom are women and minorities. According to Building Pathways statistics, 85 percent of the graduates have been placed in apprenticeship programs. The last class of 16 participants graduated last month, all of whom were low-income minority Boston area residents, including 10 women.

While Walsh has received plaudits for his diversity efforts, the numbers are just a tiny fraction of the workers who enter the building trades on a yearly basis. According to the Massachusetts Building Trades Council, almost 6,500 workers were enrolled in both union and non-union apprenticeship programs last year — with unions spending close to $30 million to recruit and train new workers. Comparably, Building Pathways has graduated 70 over three years.

Walsh says he recognizes that the Building Pathways program is not going to single-handedly diversify the building trades industry overnight, but he says it is an extremely important program for what it is attempting to do and that it can serve as a model for a way to increase diversity.

He also points out that the only reason the program has had any success at all is because the different building trades are behind the efforts and have guaranteed placement of its graduates — they want to increase diversity.

“All of them are very much into it,” Walsh said. “That was the key to this program.

“It is the only program of its kind that is successful,” he added. “It has been very, very effective.”

Despite their professed commitment to diversifying their ranks, none of the union or non-union building trades organizations would disclose the demographics of their workers.

Frank Callahan, president of the Massachusetts Building Trades Council, says the problem is not about a requirement to track diversity, the challenge is so many different unions and organizations that are run separately and have their own bylaws and charters.

“It is difficult on a whole number of fronts,” Callahan said. “I get frustrated about it myself.”

Callahan says he believes the building trades are sincere in their diversity efforts.

“I go out to the union halls, I see the diversity in members,” he said. “It is something that the building trades have been committed to for quite some time.”

District 7 City Councilor Tito Jackson says the unions will have to disclose numbers if they want to make progress on diversifying.

“We know the building trades don’t reflect the population of the city of Boston,” he said. “We need to make sure we’re being thoughtful and deliberate about how we diversify the building trades. We have to be able to measure our gains against a baseline.”

While the Massachusetts building trades continue their efforts without numbers to illustrate the cause, other states that have made pushes for diversity in the trades have estimated numbers — and the results do not reflect much improvement.

A report out of Philadelphia, which cites numbers from the Office of Housing and Community Development collected from 2008 to 2012, found that the makeup of the union members in the building trades by the end of this period were 99 percent male, 76 percent white and 67 percent suburban residents. This number is only union members — non-union numbers have not been recorded — so it may not reflect the true diversity of the building trades workforce.

But the report findings demonstrated that even after Philadelphia officials pushed for diversity there was little impact on the unions that lead the way in the industry.

The National Black Chamber of Commerce was quick to jump on the implications of the report, releasing to the media an open letter in July to U.S. Representative Marcia Fudge, chair of the Congressional Black Caucus.

“We are very disturbed that elected officials as well as civil rights organizations have this cordial relationship with construction unions. Construction unions have consistently discriminated against black workers and contractors,” the letter stated. “Ninety-eight percent of all black construction firms are nonunion. There is a reason — if they join a union the union will manage their employees and thus never hire them for work. The end result is the business being void of any black workers and the former black employees will soon be unemployed.”

The letter also concluded: “These construction unions are a prime contributor to black unemployment.”

Municipal officials in the Maryland, Virginia and the Washington D.C. metro area have also made a push for diversity in the building trades, but like in Massachusetts, there is little data to back up what is actually happening.

While the numbers of minorities in the Massachusetts building trades workforce is small, the increased number of construction projects in Boston has created an opportune time for all parties involved to really target the diversity issue in the Massachusetts building trades.

“Boston is No. 2 in the nation for construction right now, so we are really booming,” said Mary Vogel, executive director of the Construction Institute and program manager for Building Pathways. “This is the opportunity to make sure all of our construction workforce reflects our neighborhoods. Women, in particular, are underrepresented in our industry and we want to make sure they have an opportunity to get these kind of careers.”

View the original article at http://baystatebanner.com.

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.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------

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/.

Yesterday Cleveland Signed Community Benefits Agreement

Community benefits agreement aims to keep construction work local

By JAY MILLER
1:46 pm, September 16, 2013

A group of Cleveland’s leading institutions, some of the city’s largest contractors and the building trades unions today formally endorsed an agreement designed to provide what Cleveland Mayor Frank Jackson described as “a self-help approach to economic development.”

Called a community benefits agreement, or CBA, the memorandum — signed by 10 organizations that expect to spend billions of dollars on construction projects in the next several years — sets standards designed to encourage the use of local labor and local contracting firms, in particular minority and female workers and firms.

It also would expand apprenticeship and pre-apprenticeship programs and study best practices for improving diversity and inclusion in the construction industry, which Mayor Jackson said is critical for training Cleveland residents for jobs in the building trades.

“Never before have you seen the private sector step forward and voluntarily say they would participate in a program that would result in community benefits,” Mayor Jackson told Crain’s Cleveland Business. “We need to keep those dollars local and spend them in a way that creates jobs and support businesses. Not only will this construction activity support local construction firms, but they have to buy their goods and materials” locally as well.

University Hospitals Health System, in its Vision 2010 construction program, laid the foundation for this community benefits agreement when it made a concerted effort to ensure that as much as possible of the $1.2 billion it spent on construction between 2005 and 2010 benefited local businesses and workers.

“This is really about culture change,” said Steven Standley, chief administrative officer of UH, who was among the signers of the CBA this morning in the Red Room at Cleveland City Hall. Mr. Standley said the hospital system believes it needs to play a role in developing the next generation of local construction workers, construction firms and even health care workers.

“It’s really about pipeline,” he said. “Everybody is starting to figure out that we don’t have the next generation of people ready to take over and everyone is starting to realize” they must help support that next generation locally.

In addition to UH, endorsers of the seven-page CBA memorandum of understanding were William Peacock, chief of operations for The Cleveland Clinic Foundation; Scott Miller, vice president of Dominion East Ohio; Fred Geis, president of Geis Cos.; Michael Heise, president of The Medical Center Co.; Julius Ciaccia Jr., executive director of the Northeast Ohio Regional Sewer District; Stephen Campbell, vice president of campus planning and facilities management at Case Western Reserve University; and Eric Gordon, CEO of the Cleveland Municipal School District.

The CBA has been in the works for several years and the memorandum of understanding that was endorsed last February by the city of Cleveland, the Greater Cleveland Partnership, the Construction Employers Association, the Hispanic Roundtable, Hard Hatted Women, the Urban League of Greater Cleveland, Cuyahoga Community College, and the Cleveland Building and Construction Trades Council.

To view the original article, visit http://www.crainscleveland.com/.

Repost: Local hiring success continues under landmark SF jobs ordinance

Great article on the success of San Francisco's local hire ordinance!

-------------------------------------------------------

With nearly 1 million hours under its belt, city’s local hiring law continues to promote powerful community-labor partnership

Under a failed “good faith efforts” approach to connecting San Francisco residents with good-paying construction jobs, local workers made up an average of only 20 percent of hours on city-funded public works projects.

In the two years since the landmark mandatory local hiring law adopted by policy makers in December 2010 has been in effect, however, participation by San Francisco’s community workforce has jumped to just over 33 percent of job hours on covered projects, providing a much-needed boost for local workers as construction employment continues to recover from a record low. Increased local hiring meant an additional $5-$10 million in the hands of San Francisco’s working families that in turn support local businesses and strengthen the local economy.

According to a report issued by the City’s Office of Economic and Workforce Development, the San Francisco Local Hiring Policy for Construction covered 945,668 hours of public works construction, with 316,628 hours performed by San Francisco residents, for an average of 33.4 percent local hiring. Community apprentices performed 60 percent of total apprentice hours, signifying joint efforts between union apprenticeship programs, San Francisco’s CityBuild Academy, community-based organizations and contractors to build a strong local pipeline of skilled workers ready to embark on a career in construction.

These numbers far exceed the policy’s requirement that at least 20 percent of job hours within each trade on projects awarded in 2011, and 25 percent of job hours on projects awarded in 2012, must be performed by San Francisco residents, particularly workers in economically disadvantaged communities. At least 50 percent of apprentice hours within each craft must be local.

The local hiring ordinance also resulted in increased race and gender diversity on covered projects, as the report demonstrates that African American, Asian or Pacific Islander, and female workers are virtually absent among the non-local workforce on covered projects over the past two years.

Read the full article at http://sfbayview.com.

Read the jobs ordinance at http://blogs.law.stanford.edu.

Learn more about San Francisco's workforce development plan at http://www.workforcedevelopmentsf.org/.

Learn about CityBuild Academy, which runs to training programs to prepare San Francisco residents for career opportunities in the construction industry, at http://www.workforcedevelopmentsf.org/trainingprograms.

Finishing the Job: Best Practices for a Diverse Workforce in the Construction Industry

PGTI is pleased to release Finishing the Job: Best Practices for a Diverse Workforce in the Construction Industry. We look forward to improving this document through thoughtful discussion. You can leave your feedback in the comments section below. Select "Name/URL" in the drop-down menu to comment without creating a Google or Blogger account.

Download a PDF of this manual.
Download a Word document of this manual.

Repost: Order to give boost to minorities, women in construction

Mayor Francis Slay signs Executive Order #46
(Photo from the City of St. Louis)

10:04 AM, Dec 12, 2012

Written by Kristen Gosling

St. Louis (KSDK) -  St. Louis Mayor Francis Slay issued an executive order effective immediately to try and increase the number of women and minorities involved in construction jobs.

Executive Order #46 extends the existing workforce goals on city public works projects, commonly known as Board Bill 75, to all TIF projects that are $1-million or larger. The first such project will be the CORTEX project in the Central West End. CORTEX is embarking on a $186 million development that will bring 1,400 new jobs and 384,000 square feet of additional lab and office space to the district.

The workforce goals are as follows:

• Twenty five percent of labor hours are to be performed by minorities. 
• Five percent of labor hours are to be performed by women. 
• 20% of labor hours are to be performed by City residents, although those hours can also be counted towards the first two goals. 
• Fifteen percent of all hours are to be performed by apprentices enrolled in an approved training program, although those hours can be counted towards the first two goals.

The St. Louis Development Corporation and the St. Louis Area Agency on Training will implement the order.

The goals will be in effect until the city completes a disparity study next summer, whic would measure existing workforce capacity adn utilization. The disparity study will set new goals.

Read the original article at www.ksdk.com or watch video coverage of the story at www.fox2now.com.

Sources: KSDK and FOX2Now

Injunction means Quincy residents won’t be required on school job

Photos

File photo

An architect’s rendering shows what the new Central Middle School is to look like.

By Jack Encarnacao

The Patriot Ledger

Posted Apr 20, 2012 @ 03:20 AM

Last update Apr 20, 2012 @ 08:07 AM

QUINCY —

The city will not require that the company selected to build a new Central Middle School hire Quincy residents.

U.S. District Court Judge Rya Zobel issued an injunction against the city, ordering it not to enforce any provisions of its Responsible Employer Ordinance until a lawsuit filed by the Merit Construction Alliance challenging the ordinance is resolved.

Download injunction

Merit Construction Alliance, which has butted heads with Quincy in the past over a contract for the new high school, represents and advocates for non-union construction companies.

In her decision, Zobel indicated that Merit’s request to have Quincy’s ordinance thrown out is likely to succeed based on the criteria under which a similar ordinance in Fall River was struck down in October. Zobel was the judge in that case as well.

Quincy’s ordinance requires that companies that win contracts for city jobs hire 33 percent Quincy residents per trade. It also requires apprenticeship programs.

In an affidavit filed in the case, Quincy Mayor Thomas Koch argued that the city has a substantial reason to set aside jobs for residents because Quincy’s blue-collar sector needs work. Zobel questioned that argument.

“Quincy provides no evidence that the city engaged in an extensive fact finding, conducted or commissioned any studies, or made any determination based on evidence that non-residents were a particular source of the unemployment of Quincy’s blue-collar workers,” Zobel wrote. “Quincy does not provide a constitutionally adequate justification for treating residents and non-residents differently in connection with the construction of its public works projects.”

City Solicitor James Timmins said the injunction timeframe prevented the city from gathering all of the evidence it needs to make its case.

He said the city will present a more full-bodied argument to retain the residency and apprenticeship provisions of the ordinance.

“We’ll continue to litigate to see if we can preserve those two provisions in our ordinance going forward for other projects,” he said.

Merit Construction Alliance President Ronald Cogliano said Quincy’s defense of the ordinance is a waste of taxpayers’ money and is being pursued by Koch “in the name of helping his cronies in organized labor.’’

“There is nothing responsible about Quincy’s city ordinances when they violate the constitutional rights of working men and women and block them from working on construction projects they are paying for with their tax dollars,” Cogliano said.