Transformation of an industry’s culture is a herculean task.

But Andersen Construction CEO Joel Andersen believes the construction industry can become one that rejects racism and discrimination, even if it takes a generation to do so fully. In Portland, that laborious process began with the launch of “Safe from Hate” – a contractor-led initiative developed in response to an incident on an Andersen Construction jobsite in which a rope noose was found hanging conspicuously.

Almost three weeks passed before Andersen Construction executives even became aware of the incident after it was reported. But then Andersen and others were spurred to seriously tackle the racism on jobsites that has been all too prevalent for far too long.

“We realize we have to do something to help try and transform our industry,” Andersen said. “If we keep doing what we’re doing, not only is nothing going to change – there is a good chance it gets worse.”

After the Metropolitan Alliance for Workforce Equity (MAWE), Oregon Tradeswomen, the National Association of Minority Contractors’ Oregon chapter (NAMC), the Urban League of Portland and other groups called for the contractor to explain what happened, Andersen realized there was an opportunity to do more than that.

“Everyone was hurt and frustrated, and rightfully so,” Andersen said. “But they were like, ‘Yes, we are absolutely willing to do something to make it better.”

A rapid response

The Safe from Hate campaign quickly attracted a wide variety of groups, including those involved in advocacy, the public sector, trade unions, designers and of course contractors and subcontractors. These groups have continued to meet for several months and reached agreement on four central pillars: 1, zero tolerance for discrimination; 2, education; 3, recruitment; and 4, advancement.

“They documented their commitment as owners, and all of this has really built momentum,” said Kelly Haines, a senior project manager with Worksystems and a MAWE representative. “We met every few weeks from that incident and we coauthored the pledge. From there, we know that’s just words on paper. So, to hold people true to that commitment, that’s what the alliance is meant to be – the implementation and the accountability.”

Then participants realized that such a large group needed to become smaller ones in order to foster more efficient communication. A steering committee was formed to oversee subcommittees comprised of apprentices, public owners, a labor caucus, subcontractors, trade associations, contractors, pre-apprenticeship training programs, public agencies and community-based organizations. The steering committee held its first meeting Feb. 4 and will continue on a monthly basis.

In addition, an executive council comprised of labor representatives will oversee the steering committee. This will also help guide future training and anti-discrimination efforts on the labor side.

“Everyone felt that those most impacted by jobsite culture needed to be leaders in that work,” Haines said. “So, everyone is essentially reporting back to that council. That’s the goal – to be a friendly competition, where everyone comes together and shares what they’re doing and coordinating.”

The Associated General Contractors‘ Oregon-Columbia chapter is serving alongside NAMC Oregon as a shepherd of sorts, providing guidance to help advance the entire process.

“The generals (contractors) … want to do the work individually to their companies, but they are looking at how you pull together as a structure, and that’s why they’re looking to us,” AGC Executive Director Mike Salsgiver said.

But there are no illusions that the work will be easy.

“I think even when you start to really think about what got us here, it was the noose,” said Nate McCoy, executive director of NAMC Oregon. “But what’s a bigger issue is the bias on the jobsites and who should be here and who shouldn’t.”

Building momentum

Jobsite racism affects Latinos as much as any other minority group. Further, they now represent around 30 percent of the construction workforce – a proportion that is growing.

“It’s always there,” said Leanna Petrone, executive director of trade association LatinoBuilt. “Discrimination and hateful acts against our community have been a huge barrier for Latinos.”

Incidents such as the noose are just the tip of the iceberg, Petrone said.

“There’s been a lot through the years, and it’s been this way as long as I can remember,” she said. “My father worked in trades, and he worked in a field, and it’s always been a segregated work environment. The white males tend to stick with their own kind. The women tend to stick with their own. The Latinos, generally men, stick with their own kind. They’re not really included.”

Safe from Hate is by no means the first attempt to address racism in the industry, McCoy said. The difference now is that participation is widespread.

“There have been many decades of conversation around this subject,” he said. “It’s just now the larger GCs are diving into it, which is totally what we want; we want to operate together.”

Haines, Oregon Tradeswomen Executive Director Kelly Kupcak and other industry figures have been working for some time to also implement Rise Up, Green Dot and other programs that aim to eliminate harassment and discrimination on jobsites. Safe from Hate simply builds upon those efforts, said Afton Walsh, community outreach director for Walsh Construction.

“This was in the works even before Safe from Hate,” she said. “So, to say this all started in June is wrong. There has been a lot of groundwork and a lot of work that the community has been doing for a long time.”

This process informed how Safe from Hate took shape, Walsh added.

“We spent months working on the language to make sure it was broad,” she said. “Each company has ways to implement these broader principles. We wanted everyone to join in the journey wherever they are, so it works for nonunion, union, large or small contractors. Everyone can use these as guiding principles to find where they fit in.”

Essentially safety

Kupcak said she and others have been in communication with the Oregon Bureau of Labor & Industries about harassment on jobsites for some time. She hopes to eventually see enactment of regulations that treat discrimination as a formal health and safety issue enforceable by Oregon Occupational Safety and Health.

“We have shifted the way we approach it as an intervention,” she said. “OSHA convened a task force a couple of years ago about harassment, and we are part of that conversation. Not only do we lose really good people – they love their jobs; they just don’t want to deal with it day after day – but people have died.”

A quarter of a century ago, safety began to become an everyday focus for contractors and clients, Andersen said. It was a slow process, but one aided by acknowledgment that it benefited the entire industry. The effort to eradicate racism and discrimination is no different, he said.

“That was a vernacular that was easily understood; it’s part of the everyday DNA of every jobsite,” he said. “The idea to build upon that with the campaign of Safe from Hate was to say let’s just include that in the definition of safety.”

There is no question that discrimination in construction is fundamentally a matter of health and safety, according to parties involved in the Safe from Hate effort.

“It is absolutely a safety issue,” said Michael Burch, the community relations and outreach representative for the Pacific Northwest Regional Council of Carpenters, which represents over 28,000 union carpenters in Oregon, Washington and four other states. “But it goes deeper than that.”

Beneath the surface

A crackdown on graffiti and casual use of racist language is just a start, Burch said. A broader effort must be made to recruit and retain people of color and women in the trades, he added.

“Instead of hiring folks and letting them languish out there, (firms’ leaders) need to be intentional about the leadership paths they put them on,” he said. “There’s a problem with porta potties and lunchrooms, but that’s low-hanging fruit, and we can do that. It’s a problem when you walk onto a construction site and there are 100 workers and they are all white males.”

Changing that is not only the right thing to do, Burch added, but also good for business. The Pacific Northwest Regional Council of Carpenters implemented positive jobsite culture training some time ago, and Safe from Hate fits neatly within those parameters. The goal is to strengthen the workforce and increase the flow of skilled labor to contractors and jobsites.

“We talked to the apprentices about whether or not they would go back to work tomorrow and asked if they would enjoy it, and most said no, they go for the paycheck,” Burch said. “We spent 18 months developing this curriculum. It’s in the safety class, which all apprentices take, and it’s a training that goes to jobsites.”

The carpenters’ union has even made this training mandatory at its jobsites. Some members have participated multiple times.

“It works for a while, but it’s a marathon, because our work is transient,” Burch said. “They are on the site when the training happens; (then) their work ends and they are off to other areas, and it’s right back to business as usual. So, you have to continue to water those seeds that you planted.”

History shows organized labor is strongest, Burch added, when everyone – “Black, brown, BIPOC folks” – comes together.

“It keeps being pointed out that the industry is weaker because of the divisions, and we’ve done quite a bit of work in that area,” he said.

Optimism for change

In the end, this is only a start to what promises to be a long and potentially frustrating process. But in Portland, at least, a tipping point may have finally been reached.

“We are just beginning, but, man, does it feel exciting to be where we are,” Andersen said. “I say that with this mixture of ‘Here I am, a white guy pumped about what we’re doing.’ But the part that sickens me is, for so many of our peers in the industry and those who have found themselves not welcome, this has been their life’s existence. And we haven’t done enough.”

Open acknowledgment of the problem is encouraging, McCoy said.

“It’s a marathon and not a sprint, and some may not be as equipped or have the systems in place to wrestle with this reality that there is racism and discrimination, big time,” he said. “This is not the first attempt at this, but typically we don’t have the top dogs using their time in the room and saying, ‘It starts with us.’ Now we’ve got that commitment, and it’s a beautiful thing.”

Already, there are signs of progress. Haines noted that several months after the noose was discovered at the Andersen Construction jobsite, a similar incident occurred at a Hoffman Construction jobsite. This time, there was a much more serious response. It was treated like a crime scene, she said, and the person found responsible was removed from the project immediately and disciplined.

“Part of the work is we don’t want to sweep it under the rug, and we found that Hoffman reacted night and day differently than Andersen,” she said. “They shut the site down, called the police, and we have tried to share that example. It was a painter, and the union wrote a letter right away and said they won’t defend members who engaged in this behavior. It was a coordinated effort and transparent.”

That’s why Petrone and others are optimistic.

“I’m not sure it will take 30 years to really shift the way we think of our current jobsite culture here,” she said. “I think it can be done. It might take a Coca-Cola ad, but we’ve already seen awareness and change come in this short period of time.”

After all, it’s about working for a better industry.

“It can’t just take people that look like us,” said Twauna Hennessee, who will soon take over Burch’s position at the Pacific Northwest Regional Council of Carpenters. “We need everyone not being afraid to speak truth and putting action behind what we hear.”

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While construction activities have not stopped in Oregon as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, apprenticeship and pre-apprenticeship training programs have.

Union and nonunion training centers alike have shuttered their operations in the past two weeks to avoid unnecessary face-to-face interactions. One is Oregon Tradeswomen Inc., which last month celebrated the opening of its new 8,000-square-foot shop and headquarters in Southeast Portland. Now its office is closed through March 31.

“I can tell you that all staff are currently working remotely,” OTI communications director Mary Ann Naylor said. “We were able to complete training in the new space, but we did cancel the graduation ceremony on March 12.”

OTI canceled an environmental worker training and delayed the start of its spring pre-apprenticeship training until April 14. In addition, the group’s popular annual career fair, normally held in May, has been rescheduled this year for Sept. 25 and 26.

“We’re in process of sorting out the details, and making backup plans,” Naylor said. “We are also looking at ways to up our technology game to provide components of our training and education in a virtual manner, including information sessions about our class, career education, and portions of our curriculum that currently happen in the classroom.”

Virtually all union-affiliated training centers in the Portland-metro area shut down in-person operations before Friday, said Robert Camarillo, executive secretary of the Oregon State Building and Construction Trades Council. One of the only exceptions is Operating Engineers Local 701, which is continuing to offer limited training due to the nature of the trade, which places operators outside the normal risks inherent on a crowded jobsite.

“We had a conference call, and just about every one of (the training centers) have closed down the apprenticeships for the next several months at least,” Camarillo said. “Some are utilizing long-distance learning to continue to offer instruction as much as possible. Everybody is getting a little creative.”

Local 701 managed to wrap up a training round recently, said Jim Anderson, the union’s business manager. Recruitment and interviews of new apprentices will continue, he added, but full-scale training is on hold.

“We got the round of apprentices through last week,” he said. “There were 12 apprentices, and we had them set up two per instructor and we rotated them through. But for now we’re going to hold off on training classes until we get the OK from the governor.”

At the Northwest College of Construction in Northeast Portland, all apprenticeship classes are suspended until at least April 5 while administrators try to devise ways in which to offer instruction safely.

Instructional efforts at NWCOC are changing to remote and online forms for the time being, said Laurie Emery, the college’s interim executive director. Also, administrative staffers are being asked to work from home.

“We’ve never experienced anything like this before,” she said. “My team and I are developing an online training system that will go into effect April 6, but we’re still working out all of the kinks. As far as we’re concerned we will continue with classes, just with no hands-on instruction.”

The timeline is uncertain at present, but when circumstances allow, students will be able to receive required in-person instruction and take exams.

“It’s not a perfect system, but it keeps students in classes,” Emery said. “Our concern is not having students get too far behind, as well as those apprentices also who are ready to graduate. We want to help them meet that goal and as soon as possible.”

None of this will happen on regular schedule, Emery said, but it will allow the college to meet the hourly training requirements for the Oregon Bureau of Labor and Industries. The pandemic also is hastening plans by the college to move more instruction online, she added.

“We’ve been talking about online training for some time, but it’s never really fit into our model,” she said, mainly because National Center for Construction Education and Research accreditation requires in-person testing with a proctor.

“That makes it difficult to go to a fully online program,” she said. “But in a way it makes me glad that we have this option available to us now. Maybe it’s a future option for us; I don’t know. It will be based on what BOLI allows, but at least we have a framework.”

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More than 10,000 individuals are enrolled in state-registered apprenticeship programs in Oregon for the first time since officials began tracking such numbers, the Bureau of Labor and Industries announced on Tuesday.

Spurred mainly by a strong construction industry, participation in state-registered programs has more than doubled in the past six years from 4,618 in early 2013 to 10,002 in June 2019. Also, diversity is increasing, with the number of women apprentices growing over the same period from 293 to 705 and the number of minority apprentices rising from 683 to 1,979.

“It’s great to see Oregonians from diverse backgrounds choosing this path in record numbers,” Labor Commissioner Val Hoyle stated in a press release. “Registered apprenticeships lead to lots of different careers with family-supporting wages. In an apprenticeship, you’re getting paid to learn. And when you’re done, there’s no student debt.”

BOLI currently certifies and monitors 146 active apprenticeship programs across the state. The largest are programs for carpenters, electricians, plumbers and steamfitters. The two occupations with the greatest growth are carpenter and electrician. This is in line with figures showing roughly 85 percent of all new apprentices over the past three years are working in the construction industry, which this year reached a record number of 113,000 jobs in Oregon, according to BOLI.

The immediate future remains promising in this regard, with some $7.5 billion worth of public construction projects in the pipeline over the next several years.

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July has arrived, and for many of us that means summer barbecues, cold beverages and time spent with family and friends. For more than 150,000 employees, July 1 also means a boost in wages as the minimum wage increases around the state.

Here are the top five things Oregon employers should know about the coming increase:

1. Oregon’s minimum wage is increasing now, and not in January

Employers should be ready to have minimum wage workers see an increase to their paychecks starting July 1. Any work performed in July should reflect the new higher rate immediately. Don’t wait!

2. Not all wage increases will be the same

Oregon has three minimum wage zones. The highest zone, in the Portland-metro area, will see an increase to $12.50 an hour. (Employers can see whether they’re inside the metro zone by accessing Metro’s ). Employers in the standard zone (Columbia, Clatsop, Tillamook, Yamhill, Marion, Polk, Lincoln, Benton, Linn, Lane, Deschutes, Hood River, Wasco, Jackson and Josephine counties) will see an increase in the minimum wage to $11.25 an hour. For all other counties in the rural zone, minimum wage will increase to $11 an hour.

3. Don’t fall for minimum wage poster scams

Employers can ignore third-party poster vendors attempting to scare them into buying posters at inflated prices. The required minimum wage poster is available in and for free on BOLI‘s . Also, low-cost composite posters are available.

4. There are options for employees working across multiple zones

When an employee works more than 50 percent of the time in a fixed location, the business should use the rate for that area during the pay period. But when an employee works across multiple minimum wage zones, the employer can either pay multiple rates based on where the employee performed the work or pay the highest rate across the board if the paperwork is cumbersome. Employers with questions can also call the employer hotline at 971-673-0824 to talk to a person (not a machine) and learn more.

5. The minimum wage increase does not affect other employees’ wages

An increase in the minimum wage does not create a requirement for businesses to give other workers a raise. For example, if an employee in the metro area is already making $12.50 an hour, the July minimum wage increase does not trigger another increase under law. The minimum wage directly impacts only Oregon’s lowest wage workers.

Oregon’s minimum wage law will affect thousands of employers and more than 150,000 low-wage earners around the state. For more information about BOLI’s efforts to help Oregon employers navigate the state’s minimum wage, please visit .

Charlie Burr is a training and development specialist for BOLI’s Technical Assistance for Employers program. He helps businesses navigate complex civil rights and wage and hour issues. Contact him at 971-673-0797 or charlie.burr@state.or.us.

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Unpaid construction wages have caught the attention of Oregon lawmakers, who are taking action to ensure workers get paid even if a company goes out of business.

State Rep. Julie Fahey, D-Eugene, is the chief sponsor of a bill that improves reporting and coordination between two key state agencies, makes it easier for workers to recoup unpaid wages and aims to hold business owners responsible even if they shut it down.

The House and Senate have both passed versions of the bill, which is expected to go to Gov. Kate Brown’s desk soon.

The bill is backed by both industry and labor groups. Supporters include the Associated General Contractors, the Oregon State Building & Construction Trades Council and the Pacific Northwest Regional Council of Carpenters.

“It really was to address the issue of wage theft in the construction industry,” Fahey said.

The bill followed one Fahey sponsored last year that would have held general contractors liable for subcontractors who fail to pay a valid wage claim. The aim of that bill was to make general contractors “more thoughtful” regarding their choice of subcontractors, Fahey said. The bill passed the House but stalled in the Senate amid opposition from the building industry.

“General contractors were strongly opposed to the idea of imposing liability,” she said.

John Rakowitz, an AGC lobbyist, said the earlier proposal was flawed.

“Why should one company pay another company’s employees?” he said. “That makes no sense.”

This session, Fahey came back with H.B. 3193 after discussions that began last summer with interested parties, including AGC. The bill tightens and improves upon existing processes rather than imposing new requirements. Fahey got buy-in from both labor and industry.

“It is in the interest of the industry, of contractors, that everybody gets paid,” Rakowitz said.

Under-the-table worker payment is a perennial issue for Oregon’s trade unions, which argue wage theft and tax fraud undercut legitimate contractors and skilled tradespeople.

“Not only does it hurt the workers, but it’s really undercutting the entire industry and creating that whole race to the bottom,” said Ben Basom, spokesman for the Pacific Northwest Regional Council of Carpenters.

Wage theft is particularly prevalent in drywall and wood framing, Basom said. Typically, a labor broker will show up with a work crew. The contractor will pay the broker, who will pay workers in cash.

“We have a large population of Latino workers gravitate toward drywall, and wood framing too,” Basom said. “They seem to be the most vulnerable population.”

Wage theft most often occurs on small and medium-size projects, Basom said. High-rise projects typically use unionized workforces.

Rakowitz pushed back on the concept of wage theft, saying unpaid wage claims can occur for any number of reasons in an industry with a $5.6 billion annual payroll.

“You’re going to have mistakes; you’re going to have disputes,” he said. “You’re going to have all kinds of things happen in an industry of that size.”

The Oregon Bureau of Labor and Industries investigates unpaid wage claims. The agency received approximately 1,200 wage claims in 2017, and a large share involved the construction industry.

BOLI sustained 99 wage claims in the construction industry in 2018, the same as the year before, spokesman Saul Hubbard said.

Fahey’s bill makes it easier for the Construction Contractors Board to suspend the license of a contractor after 60 days of nonpayment of a wage claim. BOLI must notify a contractor of an upcoming license suspension.

H.B. 3193 also raises the cap for payments from the state wage accountability fund from $4,000 to $10,000. The fund was established in the 1980s to help timber mill workers, and the cap hadn’t been raised in more than a decade, Fahey said.

The bill also removes bureaucratic barriers to make it easier for workers to recover lost wages from a contractor’s CCB licensing bond.

Finally, H.B. 3193 gives BOLI new tools to pursue wage claims against contractors who close and then reopen under a new business name.

“It really is intended to address this issue of successor organizations,” Fahey said. “Even if they close up shop and open under a new name. … You still have to pay those wages.”

Separately, BOLI and the CCB have agreed to add verified wage claims to the CCB website.

“I think that’s a pretty cool change that will actually provide information to consumers and workers and general contractors,” Fahey said.

Meanwhile, Washington this spring enacted a bill to increase fines for wage violations. The bill was signed by Gov. Jay Inslee on May 7 and takes effect on Jan. 1, 2020.

On April 15, trade unions hosted a protest at Director Park in downtown Portland to raise awareness about wage theft. Janet Bauer, a researcher at the Oregon Center for Public Policy, said the construction industry generates the highest number of wage claims by far. She decried cuts to BOLI’s staff that she said have reduced enforcement.

“Clearly we need better laws, but we need better enforcement,” she said.

Art Cortez, owner of Cortez Construction in North Plains, said contractors who follow the rules are undercut by cheaper bids from contractors paying workers under the table.

“While these people are winning, I’m losing,” he said.

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A recent workforce study focusing on the construction industry produced results that show women and minorities still have much room for improvement in terms of participation.

The Metro Portland Construction Career Pathways Project was commissioned by Metro and carried out by a team of industry professionals, academics, economists and many others over the past year. Results show that a concerted, collaborative, regionally organized effort is necessary to make substantial headway toward greater percentages of women and people of color participating in the trades.

There’s a lot of interest in increasing the number of women and people of color in construction, said report project manager Kelly Haines of Worksystems Inc.

“The chart at the very end of the report is illustrative that it really is going to take everybody,” she said. “Public agencies do play a role, and the culture needs to change among contractors and how people feel when they go to work every day. So it’s going to be a collective effort at the regional level to really move the needle. There’s not really a simple answer.”

Tiffany Thompson is the director of advocacy for Oregon Tradeswomen Inc., one of the report’s collaborating organizations. Companies, unions and contractors should not be left to their own devices in this regard, she said.

“We think that it’s better where there’s a collective fund and a regional effort toward recruitment – rather than leaving it to the individual,” she said.

Workforce retention is also highlighted in the report, which states that a concerted effort must be made before women and minority tradespeople are able to operate in a workplace culture in which they do not feel discriminated against.

The report, released earlier this month, shows that women account for just 4 percent of the roughly 23,000 workers in Oregon’s construction industry. Of that 23,000, 20 percent are minorities – mostly Hispanics; blacks and Asians remain underrepresented in the trades, according to findings.

The team examined 81 public-sector building projects scheduled for construction between 2017 and 2021 in order to determine the percentages of women and minorities working in the trades. Some of the projects have stated apprentice and workforce diversity goals – typically 20 percent apprentices, 25 percent minorities and 14 percent women. Those goals, if applied across all 81 projects, puts five-year workforce demand at 2,700 new apprentices, 3,400 minorities and 1,900 women.

Portland’s 2016 employment statistics, however, show that without improvement, the industry would fall short by 445 apprentices, 1,074 minorities and 1,416 women over the next five years.

When it comes to women in the industry nationally, U.S. Department of Labor figures show that the effects of the Great Recession continue to linger; the total number of women employed in all facets of construction in 2016 was 939,000. However, that is 140,000 fewer than in 2005. The number of women in “production occupations” is barely 200,000 nationally.

“I think one of the challenges,” Thompson said, “is figuring out in the longer term how to get a high enough percentage of women in the workforce to weather those things.”

When it comes to recruiting people of color and women into the trades, one of the biggest barriers identified by the report is the lack of information available to youth about the many and varied career prospects in construction. It recommends an effort, likely beginning at the state level by the Bureau of Labor and Industries (BOLI), to inform educators and students within the public school system of the industry opportunities available to young people.

Further, existing apprenticeship and pre-apprenticeship programs should be better funded, preferably at the state level, so they can continue to grow, the report states.

“To not know there’s this alternative means you get into school debt,” Haines said. “What we’re hearing from both contractors and apprenticeship programs is that they want better marketing. They want people to know about them.”

And when it comes to worker retention, the report notes that a history of overt racist and sexist policies in the trades has allowed persistence of jobsite cultures that adversely affect women and minorities. Further, women and minorities also tend to receive fewer training and mentorship opportunities, and the unsteady flow of work in construction often impacts them the hardest because they frequently lack of social support structures, according to the report.

Despite the challenges involved, Thompson and others who crafted the study are hopeful that efforts now under way will lead to meaningful changes.

“There are all kinds of things that give me hope,” she said. “We’re seeing a shift in the industry, and our partners in the construction industry are reaching out to us and saying, ‘We want more women.’ And I think there’s a lot more conversation in construction, not just because of the #MeToo movement, but in the industry in general about how do we retain women and how do we keep a respectful workplace.”

The post The challenge of building up diversity appeared first on Daily Journal of Commerce.

Workforce development has become more than a topic of discussion among contractors; it’s now a mantra.

“Everyone is looking for skilled labor and not finding it,” Northwest College of Construction President Bob Strader said.

But nonprofit and Rosemary Anderson High School have partnered to make a difference in the situation. They are offering a pre-apprenticeship course to young people ages 17-25, most of whom are minorities and come from disadvantaged backgrounds.

Work Opportunity Training classes kicked off at the Northwest College of Construction in Northeast Portland a month ago, and the 12-week program will conclude June 21. At that point, graduates will be able to start work or continue their training in a formal apprenticeship program.

And even though the program is just starting, contractors from throughout the Portland-metro area already are expressing interest in connecting with these first 10 students, according to Torre Sathrum, a POIC instructor.

“We’ve been flooded with inquiries,” he said. “We’ve been overwhelmed.”

For 26-year-old Benson Polytechnic High School graduate and program participant Trayvayae Cason, there is little time to waste.

“I’m the old one in here,” he said with a laugh. “I want to become an electrician. So, first, I’m going to start off here and work my way into a union and their apprenticeship program if I can. I could also do carpentry or HVAC; whatever I choose in the next eight weeks or so, I can definitely see myself doing it.”

Cason said many of the men in his extended family have taken jobs in skilled trades. And at Benson, known for its construction course and other vocational programs, he developed an interest in trades that survived having two children and a stint in California before a return to the Northwest.

“When you enjoy learning it’s the best thing to do,” he said. “You can learn how to build your own house or whatever structure you want. It’s always good to have something to pass on to your children.”

A training program evolves

The POIC is an affiliate of the national , which was founded in 1958 in Philadelphia to help young black men and women obtain employment training and work opportunities. The Portland affiliate was established for the same purpose a decade later, and currently serves more than 700 students and work trainees each year.

Three programs are offered to young adults (up to age 25) in Portland: Rosemary Anderson High School, for those in need of a diploma; POIC Work Opportunity Training, for those in need of career training; and Rosemary Anderson Transitions, for graduates in post-secondary education in need of mentorship and support.

“Our focus has shifted over the years toward youth,” said Lanya McClintock, director of employment and training for the POIC. “We work with students who have not had success in traditional high schools. And we’ve always had a focus on employment and training.”

In addition to the new pre-apprentice program, the POIC also offers family services, young parent education, street-level gang outreach and other initiatives geared to help people in poverty.

“For a while we have wanted to train youth for a specific career path,” McClintock said. “There’s such a need in Portland to fill these construction jobs, and especially with young people of color and women, that’s really where this came from. The wages and opportunities are so great in the trades and construction, it’s really a pathway out of poverty.”

Expectations and experience

On a recent Monday, the 10 students enrolled in the program filed back into their college classrooms after an early-morning visit to a new POIC space. Remodeling is under way in the former home of a Gresham Police gang outreach office at the corner of Southeast 187th Avenue and Stark Street. Located in the heart of Rockwood, in east Multnomah County, the new space will give the POIC a seat in the Rockwood Rising development poised to rise soon. It’s a central location that likely will attract additional job seekers.

But for now, it’s a first glimpse for the 10 students at what construction is like in the real world.

Sathrum said students, who must pass an application process, must be at work or in the classroom by 6:30 a.m. each morning. Attendance is compulsory, just like an employer would demand. And students are expected to adhere to industry safety standards and regulations while they work.

Each student gets a paycheck during the entirety of the 12-week course, along with the skills needed to step into an apprenticeship either via another training course or with a company looking to fill a labor gap.

“It’s like a real job for them,” Sathrum said.

Sathrum knows full well the value of pre-apprentice and apprentice programs like those offered at the Northwest College of Construction. He’s worked as a general contractor as well as an instructor. And in the latter role, he said, he has often seen students quickly succeed in the construction after completing their training.

“A lot of those guys come back here and the first year they’re driving new trucks,” Sathrum said. “And then the second year they’re looking to buy a house.”

Opportunities are out there

There is an increasing emphasis on getting minorities and women into apprenticeship programs and jobs in the field, in part because of increasingly rigorous public project workforce requirements.

For instance, subcontractors working on the ongoing Multnomah County Courthouse project are required to employ at least 20 percent minorities and 6 percent women on the job. And that’s among the journeymen working; for apprentices, the numbers are even more aggressive: at least 20 percent minorities and 25 percent women, said Justin Paterson, a project manager with Hoffman Construction.

“There’s this message out there and that is: ‘Get out there and get women and people of color into trades,’” he said. “It’s a big systemic issue we’re not going to solve completely on this project. But more and more, people recognize it. Public agencies like the county are pushing for it, and we’ll push the needle on projects like this.”

Strader agreed, saying construction in the public sector is what is driving students to the Northwest College of Construction.

“The demand generator is the U.S. government,” he said. “A third of everything that’s built is owned by the public, and the public agencies require prevailing wage; they require 20 or more percent of the hours on a job be dedicated to training. That’s what creates the demand, and that’s what has me in business.”

Some contractors working entirely in the private sector still send students to training schools like the PNCC. But that represents a “small minority” of the industry, Strader said.

“There are contractors that don’t perform public works that still send their students,” he said. “But it’s based on getting their people skilled up, not based on public works.”

Outreach to young adults

Money for POIC’s pre-apprentice program comes from Worksystems, a Portland nonprofit that focuses on workforce development. Worksystems receives money from local, state and federal governments and distributes it to workforce development programs around the region.

Further, Metro and Mortenson Construction have chipped in to help develop the program so that it would be able to complete the Bureau of Labor and Industries pre-apprenticeship program certification process.

This has allowed POIC students like 23-year-old Jennifer Geisler, who commutes daily from Kelso, Washington, a chance to achieve something meaningful.

“I enjoy it so far, it’s really interesting being the only girl here,” she said. “The first day it was (intimidating), but after I got to know everyone I was like, ‘This is fine.’”

Unlike her twin sister, Geisler added, she had to navigate through a number of life obstacles before finding herself responding earlier this year to an online ad for the POIC program.

“I’ve had a few bumps in the road,” she said, admitting to a yearlong stint in a juvenile facility as a teenager. “Now I’m just trying really hard to find somewhere that I’m comfortable. I’m trying to stick with something. I don’t even care what type of job it is, if it’s going to make me money and pay my bills I’m going to stick with it.”

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Legislation that would hold general contractors responsible for wage theft committed by subcontractors survived a narrow vote Monday in the Oregon House of Representatives.

House Bill 4154 was approved by a 31-26 margin, with three members excused. The bill would require general contractors to cover unpaid wages, benefits and other contributions due to the employees of subcontractors if the general contractor has not paid the subcontractor in full and there is a valid claim against the subcontractor pending before the Oregon Bureau of Labor and Industries. The bill would also allow BOLI to enforce wage claims against contractors as if they were the subcontractor at fault. At the same time, it would allow the contractor to pay BOLI the amount due and withhold subsequent payment to the subcontractor until certain requirements are met.

The measure has received nearly equal measures of support and opposition, with labor and industry groups taking predictable sides.

“This bill does nothing to get at the real problem of wage theft,” Rep. Greg Barreto, R-Cove, stated in testimony submitted Feb. 23 on the House floor. The construction industry, he explained, vigorously opposes wage theft. At the same time, he said, wage disputes are in need of arbitration rather than a one-size-fits-all prescription.

“The shift in liability,” Barreto said, “could substantially limit smaller or newer contractors’ ability to compete in the market. Because of the shift in liability, general contractors would likely be forced to require subcontractors to obtain bonds or other protections that can be difficult for newer or smaller contractors to afford and obtain.”

Labor groups, however, said that such bonding should already be done by subcontractors.

“A significant problem that we often see in the construction industry is use of multiple tiers of subcontractors,” D. Michael Dale of the Northwest Workers’ Justice Project testified Feb. 9. “Our clients are often formally employed by the subcontractor at the bottom of the tier, who is frequently undercapitalized and may fall behind on wage payments. This bill would help to assure that the ultimate beneficiary of a worker’s labor assures payment if the agents it chooses do not pay their workers.”

If contractors complain about their liability, Dale added, there already is legislation in place requiring licensing and bonding via BOLI for certain construction contractors.

“By simply using a licensed subcontractor,” he said, “a contractor can be assured that it is dealing with a responsible party, and that there would be a bond provided by the subcontractor in place to guarantee payment of wages.”

HB 4154 has moved to the Senate for further consideration.

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Madras builder WCI Construction and its owner, Eugene Graeme, are barred from performing public work in Oregon for 10 years for violating prevailing wage and recordkeeping laws.

The Bureau of Labor and Industries additionally assessed WCI Construction a fine of $20,000 for not paying prevailing wage to all employees, nor maintaining “timely, accurate and complete” payroll records. The violations occurred during the company’s work at Arlington High School in Gilliam County.

The company agreed to make payments to BOLI of $1,000 per month for 20 months, according to the .

The penalties are “a bunch of B.S.,” Graeme told the 91��Ƶ.

“It was a stupid error at a stupid time,” he said.

Graeme stressed his employees were quickly compensated for not receiving prevailing wage. He suspects his real crime is owning a non-union shop that won a large bid over union firms. Union agents then “sat on” his project in Gilliam County, he says, searching for even the smallest mistake to bring to light.

A different Graeme-owned company – though with similar initials – was on BOLI’s debarment list from 2012 to 2015. Wrangler Construction Inc. was also banned for wage and hour violations.

Currently, 52 businesses are on the BOLI list.

Graeme said the ban won’t affect the company much because it doesn’t perform many public projects.

“I don’t want to have any more grief with them,” he said of BOLI.

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Generations of rookie construction workers have been asked to fetch the “board stretcher” when they mistakenly cut one too short. This practical joke works best the more the rookie’s co-workers play along, passing off the younger worker many times around the site.

“Goose chase” pranks like this have long been considered rites of passage in construction – good-natured joshing that all newcomers must endure. But attitudes about harassment have been changing, and the shortage of skilled workers in construction has been deepening, and worksite bullying has been increasingly in the spotlight.

‘Something else’

David Oancea didn’t work for long at his first job out of high school. The journeyman general laborer says he got a lot of “guff” while working there, for, among other things, being young, religious and physically smaller than most everybody else. The other workers all seemed to go way back, and they partied together regularly.

“I felt like if you weren’t a part of them, they treated you pretty bad,” said Oancea, 21. “I mean, I was never seen as an equal with anybody, really. There was a couple people who took me in, showed me the ropes, made sure I was safe. That’s just how it was. I was always an outsider.”

The days grew more stressful as be got used to the rhythms of the job. At lunch he’d retreat to his car, where he’d eat and read his Bible.

“I had to pray a lot, because it really was getting to me,” he said. “There was even a moment in time where a guy actually got me near my breaking point. I actually went back to my car and cried.”

That guy in particular was “something else,” Oancea said.

“He was always inappropriate – he was never not-inappropriate,” he said. “I’ll never forget him.”

Fearing retribution, Oancea never filed a complaint, though his employer had a harassment policy prohibiting the behavior he says he experienced. (The head of the company Oancea worked for declined to comment, saying absent a complaint, there was nothing to comment on.)

“Every company has a harassment policy, but what can they really do, honestly?” Oancea said. “They might slap a guy on the wrist or talk to him, or whatever, but then the rest of the crew will look at you like you’re a complete wuss. Like, ‘C’mon, what kind of man are you that you can’t take it?’ ”

A man who worked with Oancea and requested anonymity said he witnessed people stealing Oancea’s tools, and assigning him “crap jobs that didn’t teach him anything.”

“David was a smart kid,” the former co-worker said. “He actually worked pretty hard once he got the muscle built up. But that’s how it is. A lot of people were threatened by it because David’s boss material. That’s what it was.”

Green Dot climate

A study by two Portland State University sociology professors examining discrimination in the highway construction trades found that harassment against apprentices was “deeply embedded.”

The paper by Lindsey Wilkinson and Maura Kelly (commissioned by the Oregon Bureau of Labor and Industries) addressed the question of why women and minorities drop out of apprenticeship programs at rates far higher than white males. In short, the report found discrimination to be a major factor in pushing women and racial/ethnic minorities out.

Oregon Tradeswomen Inc. is helping lead the Respectful Workplaces Project, which will include an anti-bullying program for construction of a new Multnomah County Courthouse. That 17-story project began recently and is expected to last three years and cost at least $175 million.

Along with Hoffman and Multnomah County, the Oregon Department of Transportation will supply a grant to help pay for the pilot program. (ODOT is bound by statute to set aside money to help diversify the highway industry.)

The program will address policies and procedures, instituting support systems and a “bystander intervention program,” devised by the nonprofit Green Dot.

Seven jobsite “influencers” have already been trained through the program. The category of influencer includes Hoffman project leaders, and also workers deemed popular with their peers and experienced at their trade.

“You give bystanders who are witnessing problematic behavior the knowledge that there are a variety of ways they can intervene to shift culture,” OTI program manager Tiffany Thompson said. “It’s about how you create change on the ground, and how you influence a cultural shift that is sustainable.”

Labor pains

The Pacific Northwest Regional Council of Carpenters is developing training to tackle the issue of jobsite bullying. A subcommittee is examining generational and cultural differences as sources of tension, said Ben Basom, communication director for the union. The plan is to make it a part of the union’s apprenticeship program and possibly continued education for all members.

This year, the Pacific Northwest chapter has directed 900 workers through an anti-bullying training session.

“I’d like to think the carpenters have been proactive on this issue and trying to stamp out that old-school mentality,” Basom said. “We’re working to change the culture of our industry. We’re working on developing their soft skills to improve communication and their leadership styles.”

Each craft has a different way of addressing conflict resolution, said Willy Myers, head of the Columbia Pacific Building Trades Council. Some have mentoring or stewardship programs. Some address the matter in their language of project labor agreements. But each trade also has its own unique constitution and bylaws, its own rituals, and its own procedures for handling disputes.

“Knowing which pathway to take is crucial,” Myers said. “Unfortunately we don’t always educate our membership as to what those pathways are.”

View from the boardroom

Though construction leaders are reluctant to call hazing and harassment a “problem” in the Portland market, they acknowledge nobody wants it in their workplace.

“There’s a couple reasons why we’re looking at this,” Hoffman Construction superintendent Gerry Hein said. “We want to make sure the workforce is welcoming to minorities and women, and we also want to develop apprentices, because the construction trades right now are challenged to recruit people.”

It’s no secret that the construction workforce is aging and more kids are choosing the four-year college career path over the trades. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics Occupational Outlook for the construction industry, about a quarter of skilled craft workers are expected to be age 55 or older by 2020 – a 6 percent jump in a decade.

Hein and others are worried that their efforts attracting skilled craft workers are wasted when those workers are shaken by bad initial experiences. Many workers now entering the field are older than previous generations – men and women with children to support who are transitioning from other careers – and they’re even less willing to tolerate abuse.

Building a workplace culture that’s inclusive and equitable is even more of a challenge for an industry that operates in many disparate, temporary locations, according to Bart Eberwein, vice president of Hoffman Construction, a massive firm with projects across Oregon and the U.S. Hoffman’s projects involve many subcontractors and unions that come together for just a few years for a project, before going their separate ways. Eberwein said the approach should be, “first you build relationships, then you build the building.”

“It can sometimes be a strange brew on a jobsite, with all these people you’ve never met before,” he said, “but you have to establish and nurture your own culture. It’s something you don’t have to worry about at a factory. Is bullying a problem? Well, no. Is it something you take for granted? Absolutely not. You work at it.”

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