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During the past few days, I鈥檝e been thinking a lot about a woman named Outi Hicks.

The 32-year old African-American woman had earned the right to stand among those being honored during National Women in Construction Week. Although she had been through some rough patches, including a stint in prison, she found her way last year into a position as a carpenter鈥檚 apprentice.

To her friends and family, it looked like Outi had found the path that would allow her to build a solid future for herself and her children. The feed of her Facebook account is filled with posts documenting her first welding class and her first payment of carpenters鈥� union dues. Another, from June, shows a smiling Outi wearing a fluorescent yellow vest, safety glasses perched atop her head. The message: 鈥淎t work! First job out here. Started from bottom, now I鈥檓 here!鈥�

But on Feb. 14, Outi鈥檚 journey 鈥� and her life 鈥� came to an end. While removing scaffolding on a project site, she and a co-worker reportedly became involved in a disagreement. Although details are still being investigated, preliminary reports indicate that other workers didn鈥檛 know there was anything wrong until they heard a commotion and rushed over to find 28-year-old Aaron Lopez hitting Outi with a still-unidentified object.

The violence that claimed Outi鈥檚 life occurred near Fresno, California. But the harsh, hard truth is that it could have happened on almost any construction site, in almost any city in the country 鈥� including Portland.

Ask construction companies鈥� officials to talk about safety, and they鈥檒l discuss their commitment to protecting workers from falls and hazardous materials. Very few will mention what steps, if any, they鈥檙e taking to ensure that workers 鈥� especially in the trades 鈥� are shielded from bullying, harassment and intimidation (including the sort with the potential to escalate to more extreme violence). If pressed on the topic, they鈥檒l likely acknowledge that those things may happen on project sites, but not on their project sites.

And yet I keep hearing stories from women 鈥� and increasingly from men 鈥� in the construction trades who have been exposed to situations on job sites that range from subtle (but ongoing) micro-aggressions to actions with the potential to cause serious injury 鈥� or even death 鈥� for those at the receiving end. Consider the experience of a female apprentice whose supervisor held the flame of a torch so close to her hand that it melted part of the glove she was wearing onto her skin. Or the minority apprentice whose co-workers were taunting him while swinging a piece of rebar at him until it connected with his head with such force that it cracked his hardhat.

Those incidents didn鈥檛 happen on construction sites near Fresno or on the other side of the country. They occurred on projects in Portland.

Trying to eliminate bullying and similar behaviors is tough, says Mary Ann Naylor, communications manager for Oregon Tradeswomen. Those who experience bullying, intimidation or even violence are often afraid to come forward for fear of retaliation. And really, expecting them to shoulder the responsibility of speaking up, and putting themselves at more risk, doesn鈥檛 sound like an acceptable or reasonable solution at all.

The truth is, I don鈥檛 have the first clue about how to solve or stop the problem. Most likely, there isn鈥檛 one big fix that will take care of the problem in one great swoop. Maybe, instead, it will require a series of small steps taken by each of us who work in or with the construction industry.

All I know is that when it comes to creating safe workplaces for men and women who build our buildings and bridges and roads, we can do a better job 鈥� we must do a better job 鈥� out of respect for the women and men who have believed the industry talk that construction is a great way to earn a living.

Out of respect for their families, who trust that they will return safely home at the end of the work day.

And, finally, out of respect for a woman named Outi Hicks.

Stephanie Basalyga is the editor of the Daily Journal of Commerce. Contact her at 503-802-7222 or [email protected].