Repost: Council addresses how to diversify workforce on city construction projects

An ordinance to increase diversity within the construction workforce is being considered by Seattle's City Council!
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by: Aaron Burkhalter, Staff Reporter

People of color and women make up a small portion of the workforce on city-funded construction projects. This year, people of color made up 25 percent and women represented 6 percent of the workforce on city-funded projects, said Nancy Locke, director of city purchasing and contracting services for the city of Seattle.

The Seattle City Council is exploring how to change that. The nine-member council will vote in September on a resolution directing city staff to research and propose a program that would hire more people from disadvantaged communities for construction work.

The city council’s Economic Resiliency Committee discussed the resolution Aug. 7.

The resolution stems from a request by Got Green, a South Seattle environmental and social justice nonprofit, and the Targeted Local Hire Coalition. The groups want the city’s construction contractors to hire a percentage of the workforce from poor communities, perhaps using the median income of a ZIP code or census tract as a guide.

Other cities require that up to 50 percent of the jobs on city construction projects go to people from those disadvantaged communities.

In Seattle, the Women and Minority-owned Business Enterprise program requires the city to contract out a percentage of work to businesses owned by women and people of color. It encourages the city to hire on-the-ground workers from disadvantaged communities, but does not require it.

It hasn’t helped, Locke told the Economic Resiliency Committee Aug. 7.

It’s difficult to legislate diversity in Washington state because voters passed an anti-affirmative action initiative in 1998 that prohibits state and local governments from hiring based on race or gender. Seattle is required to accept the lowest bid on a project and cannot select the contractor with the most diverse workforce.

Labor unions would support a targeted local hire program, said Jermaine Smiley of Laborers Local 242. Construction workers have a history, he said, of hiring from disadvantaged communities.

“Our union 100 years ago was started on the workers nobody wanted: African Americans, Irish workers,” Smiley said.

View the original article at http://realchangenews.org.

Repost: Building Connections Newsletter

UMass Boston recently released a Summer 2013 issue of their Building Connections newsletter, which describes progress on the campus' current construction initiatives. Page 3 has two great articles titled "Building Projects Promote Diverse Workforce" and "Diversity Manual Cites Integrated Sciences Complex," the second of which mentions PGTI's Finishing the Job: Best Practices for a Diverse Workforce in the Construction Industry. Read or download the newsletter at http://cdn.umb.edu/images/news/BuildingConnectionsConstructionNewsletterSummer2013.pdf.

Repost: Bill helps women, minorities get into construction trades

Oregon just passed legislation to use federal highway funds for pre-apprenticeship programs! This is just one option that states have to promote workforce diversity in the construction field.

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Jul 3, 2013, 10:39am PDT
By Wendy Culverwell, Real Estate Daily editor

Portland Business Journal

The Oregon Department of Transportation will spend up to $2.1 million in federal funds on programs that help women and minorities prepare for the construction trades under a bill headed to Gov. John Kitzhaber.

Senate Bill 831A, which passed in the Senate on June 29 and the House on July 2, directs the state transportation agency to spend federal funds on pre-apprenticeship training programs to increase diversity in the state’s construction workforce.

Under the current law, ODOT is authorized to use federal highway funds to involve more women and minorities in workforce training programs.

The bill provides a 40 percent increase in funding for programs that serve women and minority groups.

“These additional funds will allow us to expand our programs to women in under-served parts of the state,” said Connie Ashbrook, executive director of Oregon Tradeswomen Inc.

The bill passed in the Senate with a 28-1 vote and in the House with a 54-1 vote.

View the original article at http://www.bizjournals.com/portland.

Repost: Women are breaking through the 'concrete ceiling'

Great article by CNN Money about the increase in WBEs and tradeswomen, and how there's still much more room to grow female participation in the construction industry. Thank you to Mary Vogel of The Construction Institute for sharing!

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By Deena Shanker @FortuneMagazine May 22, 2013: 8:57 AM ET

NEW YORK (Fortune)

We've all heard about the glass ceiling, but it looks the concrete one might be harder to crack.

According to the National Women's Law Center, in 2010 women held a tiny percentage -- 2.6 -- of the U.S.'s 8.4 million construction jobs, the same percentage they held in 1983. The NWLC faults "barriers such as gender stereotypes, sexual harassment, a lack of awareness about opportunities in construction, and insufficient instruction."

But while women may not be gaining ground in trades like carpentry and plumbing, they are increasingly getting involved on the entrepreneurial side of the industry. The U.S. Census Bureau counted 152,871 women-owned construction firms in 1997. Ten years later, that number had jumped by 76% to 268,809. Women are steadily chiseling away at that concrete ceiling. Or, as Lenore Janis, president of the National Association of Professional Women in Construction, put it, "Our fingernails are broken from scratching at it."

For the past 15 years, the Initiative for a Competitive Inner City (ICIC) has compiled its Inner City 100 list, highlighting the fastest-growing urban small businesses in America. This year's list includes 28 women-owned businesses, a double in percentage since 1999, the list's inaugural year. While many of these businesses are taking advantage of the burgeoning "mommy market," several are breaking into industries heavily dominated by men, including construction.

In addition to the efforts of the women themselves, Janis sees the growth as a direct result of a 35-year-old goal set by the Office for Federal Contract Compliance Programs. Since 1978, federal contractors are required to employ women for 6.9% of the total construction work hours on any federal project. (For it's part, the NWLC says that considering the much higher rates of female participation in other typically male dominated fields like policing, butchering, and machine operation, 6.9% is still "not enough.")

Read the remainder of this article at money.cnn.com.

Repost: Integrated Sciences Complex Project Commended for Workplace Diversity

Check out UMass Boston's article on PGTI's involvement in the workforce participation efforts at the ISC project.
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March 22, 2013

Office of Communications

Sheet metal worker and Building Pathways graduate Melissa Moran works on the Integrated Sciences Complex.

Labor Resource Director Co-Convener of Community Group Designed to Increase Diversity in Construction

The work underway on the University of Massachusetts Boston’s Integrated Sciences Complex has been cited in a new manual aimed at ensuring construction owners, managers, contractors, and building trade unions have a diverse workforce.

Read the full article at www.umb.edu.

© Copyright 2013 UMass Boston

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

Repost: The Mag Interview | Alise Martiny helps women build a future

THE MAG INTERVIEW

The Mag Interview | Alise Martiny helps women build a future

BY CINDY HOEDEL

The Kansas City Star

JILL TOYOSHIBA

Alise Martiny, who had been a concrete finisher for 32 years, is now the business manager at the Greater Kansas City Trades Council.

Alise Martiny of Merriam is business manager for the Greater Kansas City Building and Trades Council. This conversation took place at Crossroads Coffeehouse.

Q What is the Building and Trades Council?

AThe AFL-CIO is the umbrella organization over all of organized labor. Underneath that are different departments, and one is building trades. So I work with all the construction trades on a daily basis.

Q How did you end up with this big union job? It’s not the kind of post people expect a woman to fill.

A No, it’s not. I’m the first female to hold that job in Kansas City and in Missouri. I’ve been in construction a long time.

Q How did you get into it?

A I was going to KU and I got up there and decided it wasn’t for me. Came home and heard an ad on the radio trying to get more minorities and females into the construction industry. This was 1980, when President Carter was pushing for affirmative action.

Q How did you get trained?

A I did an apprenticeship program with the cement masons.

Q How much does it cost to get into an apprenticeship program like that?

A Nothing. It’s all paid for by private dollars from labor management. So it makes a lot more sense for some people than taking on huge debt for college — it’s become people’s highest debt after home mortgages.

The programs are three to five years and when you start out you start out on a 50 percent scale, which is about $14 to $20 bucks an hour.

And you start right out getting health insurance and a pension, which not a lot of people get anymore.

Q You spend a lot of time speaking to young women about construction jobs. What is your message to them?

A That there are great opportunities for women in construction. Our numbers for women are very low. Our goal for females in Kansas City, Missouri, is 2 percent, and we are meeting that, but just barely.

Q Wow. Two percent is the goal?

A Yes, it’s low. It’s so sad.

Q Why do you think it’s so low?

A If you look at what it is across the country, it’s 3 1/2 to 4 percent. That’s low, and we are still lagging.

I think we haven’t done a good job of letting women know that they can do this job. Construction is a great job for a woman, especially if she is trying to provide health insurance, a pension and a livable wage for her and her family.

Read the full interview at http://www.kansascity.com/.

Read more here: http://www.kansascity.com/2012/10/24/3879488/star-magazine-interview-alise.html#storylink=cpy