City held town hall meetings to hear experiences of local residents working in construction

By Ken Epstein

The Oakland City Council is developing policies and practices to overcome barriers that prevent the hiring of African Americans and women on building projects that are funded by taxpayer dollars.

The Council is beginning implementation of a recent report from the city’s Department of Race and Equity. The report was produced in response to a request of building trade unions for a citywide Project Labor Agreement (PLA) that would guarantee most city construction jobs to members of their unions.

The Council voted in October to create a task force to gather community expertise to adopt new policies to promote equity in city-funded construction employment. The task force has not started yet, according to City Representative Karen Boyd.

So far, 10 of 28 building trades unions have submitted data on gender, race and ethnicity of their members. Of the unions that reported, 2% of current trade union members are female and 5% are Black.

To get to the present stage has already taken several years of intensive efforts by city staff, nonprofits and community groups who wrote the city report, “Improving the Effectiveness of Project Labor Agreements.”

Some of the work that led to the final report included holding town hall meetings to hear opinions and concerns of people involved in the building industry: construction workers, representatives of the building trades unions, small contractors, and community advocates.

The town hall meetings were held between June and September 2019, sponsored by the city’s Contract and Compliance Division and the Department of Race and Equity at five different locations throughout the city. A summary of these town halls was prepared by Junious Williams Consulting.

The town halls heard first-hand what participants see as “barriers to training, employment and contracting for Oakland residents in city-involved construction projects, especially for those who live in Oakland neighborhoods (and) experience negative disparate impacts in terms of access to training and employment,” according to the summary report.

One of the major themes were concerns about the “behavior and commitment of the building trades unions.” Community members said the unions, “(h)ave not been forthcoming with data on the racial composition of their membership” and proposed that “the city should not engage in negotiating a PLA/CWA (Project Labor Agreement/Community Workforce Agreement) unless the unions are willing to change their stance around data on membership and their practices, which participants saw as barriers to employment for Black workers and other Oakland residents,” according to the summary report.

‘I don’t see Black people working on projects in Oakland,’ was a common comment by participants “(And) we have to have more discussion and focus on the lack of Black presence in the development projects,” said another.

Several people mentioned that past job-producing efforts have too often stressed entry-level jobs and not top-paying, journeyman positions. “(There is) too much focus on pre-apprentice and apprentices. (There) needs to be more focus and discussion on how to increase work for journey people.” Journey people generally have additional skills and licensing and are better paid.

Some of those attending the meetings were concerned that the building trades unions function as a closed club. “The union behavior sounds like you are saying ‘I can set up a fraternity and only the people I say yes to can join.’ This should be enough to say no to a PLA,” said one speaker.

Past agreements have required certain percentages of Oakland residents to be hired on jobs, but contractors have often sidestepped the rule. “Some people complained that contractors have rented apartments near their project sites to bring in non-resident workers who are counted as Oakland residents for compliance purposes,” the summary report said.

Participants also discussed the barriers for small contractors, who are often non-union but employ the overwhelming majority of Black and women workers who obtain jobs in construction.

Barriers facing small contractors include obstacles to obtaining performance bonds, insurance and access to capital. The city needs to have “carve outs for small, non-union contracts,” which includes breaking up the scope of work to be manageable for smaller companies (and to) unbundle contracts to make them accessible to smaller companies,” the summary report said.

One of the most consistent comments was that strong policies would not be enough; the city must match the policies with strong monitoring and enforcement of any labor agreements.

“Whatever agreement (there is) must have strong teeth (sufficient staff) to deal with companies that do not follow the rules,” the summary report said.

This is the third of a series of articles on Project Labor Agreements and racial equity analysis.

Ken Epstein

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