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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A coalition of local advocates and the development adviser for the massive Broadway Corridor redevelopment have reached an impasse on negotiations for a community benefits agreement, and the coalition has asked Mayor Ted Wheeler to step in.

Negotiations have stretched on for months with development adviser Continuum Partners of Denver. Several disagreements remain, including whether construction workers on the project should have health care benefits.

“We want to be able to define what a responsible contractor is,” said Vivian Satterfield, spokeswoman for the Healthy Communities Coalition, a group that has been designated to represent local interests for labor and social justice. “Part of that is offering health care, and Continuum disagrees.”

Wheeler took part in negotiations early on. Now he’s being asked to return to the table as the massive redevelopment project hangs in the balance.

“Ultimately, I believe the responsibility is in the mayor’s office for this,” Satterfield said. “We are signaling that we may be at an impasse in this process. We want City Council to take notice and hear us that we will not participate in this process unless it is racially just.”

The impasse was by the Northwest Labor Press. Prosper Portland has been working to facilitate the negotiations between the Healthy Communities Coalition and Continuum Partners.

The coalition’s membership is comprised of multiple community advocacy organizations and labor groups, including the Pacific Northwest Regional Council of Carpenters, IBEW Local 48, Operating Engineers Local 701 and SEIU locals 49 and 503.

In addition to the community benefits agreement, which would set targets for minority participation, wage standards and benefits, Prosper Portland and Continuum Partners are also negotiating a disposition and development agreement and a master plan for the 32-acre property.

“We’re committed to getting it all done, and for us that means what does a win look like for each of the parties and how can we negotiate an agreement that works,” said Prosper Portland Executive Director Kimberly Branam.

Wheeler has not indicated whether he would intervene in the negotiations, although those involved said they believe Wheeler will come to the table. Asked directly whether Wheeler would re-engage in the process, spokesman Tim Becker issued a statement saying that Wheeler “is committed to the Broadway Corridor Project, and is working to find ways to see it through to completion.”

Wheeler has weighed in on large development projects before, including Zidell Yards. The South Waterfront mixed-use plan fell apart in 2018 after the city and the Zidell family could not agree on how much each side would pay for public infrastructure.

The COVID-19 pandemic has slowed the Broadway Corridor negotiations. On March 3, shortly before public shutdowns began, the two parties held a marathon negotiation at Prosper Portland’s office in Old Town Chinatown.

“We literally had breakfast, lunch and dinner there,” Satterfield said. “We were able to reach tentative agreement on so many provisions on the (CBA) term sheet.”

The pandemic “really shifted a lot of things at every level,” Satterfield said. “As a result of that … we all extended each other a lot of understanding and little bit of empathy.”

For the Healthy Communities Coalition, the CBA is an opportunity to help right past wrongs. In past large-scale redevelopments, Prosper Portland (under its former moniker of Portland Development Commission) displaced historical neighborhoods of color.

“This project has to be racially just because of the history of this site,” Satterfield said.

Old Town Chinatown has historically had significant Chinese-American, Japanese-American and Black populations.

In negotiating the CBA, the coalition is looking toward precedents set by other large redevelopments that had CBAs, including the Oakland, California, Army Base redevelopment and the Staples Center in Los Angeles. The coalition and Prosper Portland are working with a number of consultants, including Cecliia Estolano of California-based Estolano Advisors.

“CBAs are a thing,” Satterfield said. “There are some sideboards to what defines what a CBA is and what it’s not.”

Satterfield acknowledged the coalition has a “contentious relationship” with Continuum. The development adviser was selected in April 2018, in large part due to its commitment to inclusion.

Satterfield participated on the community committee that led to Continuum’s selection. “I specifically remember (Continuum CEO) Mark Falcone saying, “We are comfortable executing a community benefits agreement, of course,’” Satterfield said. “We were confident we had a partner who was there.”

Continuum has balked at some provisions demanded by the coalition, including health care coverage for construction workers. In a written statement, Falcone stated that the developer has “struck an appropriate balance.”

“Our unwavering commitment to have all construction jobs on the project pay at prevailing wage and the additional agreements we have reached with the (Service Employees International Union) for wages on janitorial and security are a substantial shift in the private development market for Portland,” Falcone stated.

Continuum is receiving a monthly retainer from Prosper Portland as the negotiations drag on.  “They continue to be active in all of the negotiations,” Branam said.

Meanwhile, all sides acknowledge the economic downturn spurred by COVID-19 has changed the development calculus. Still, the opportunity to redevelop a large swath of close-in Portland is seen as an enticing job for any developer.

“The opportunity to build an entire new neighborhood on prime real estate in downtown Portland is still going to be attractive to the development industry,” Satterfield said. “It would be a shame if they walked away. But regardless of who the developer is, this is the way that massive development happens in the future. There will be a community benefits agreement. There will be community outreach. We’re not going back to where we were. “

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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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