Delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton, D-D.C., introduced a bill in the House of Representatives on Thursday to address the underrepresentation of minorities in the construction trades.

The Highway Reauthorization Pre-Apprenticeship and Apprenticeship Training Act of 2009 would require one half of one percent of the funds made available in the federal Surface Transportation Reauthorization Act for on-the-job-training go to minorities, women, and others previously locked out of the lucrative industry because of a scarcity of training.

Training has been a barrier because a number of states infrequently used money that the government didn’t require but “encouraged” be used for training women and people of color. Norton’s bill would require that at least a portion of the money be used for such training.

According to the Department of Labor, 2008 figures showed only about 11 percent of the nation's working construction laborers and sheet-metal workers were black or female, and they made up about 8 percent of pipelayers, brickmasons and carpenters.  Only 3 percent of structural iron and steel workers were black or female, according to department statistics.



McClatchy newspapers reported in March that non-union contractors and minority and female workers feared they would be left out of major construction projects funded by economic stimulus money because President Barack Obama issued a directive that “encourage(s) executive agencies to consider requiring the use of project labor agreements" on federal construction projects of $25 million or more, a move seen by many as favorable to organized labor.

Under most bargaining agreements on construction projects, the terms unions are the bargaining representatives for workers at sites, even though 85 percent of U.S. construction workers aren't union members. They also require nonunion workers to join unions and pay membership dues for the projects' duration, according to the McClatchy report.

Further, since white men tend to dominate the membership of the skilled trade unions, there are few jobs for women and minorities unless the labor agreements establish goals to include them.

In a statement released Wednesday, Norton noted that in the 1980s, the federal government ended a government-sponsored labor-management program designed to address training and exclusionary practices in the construction industry. Elimination of the program, she said, left a significant training deficit for workers in skilled construction trades.
 
“As a result, the federal government is deeply implicated in the profile of the construction industry today,” Norton said. 

"Project labor agreements are a tried and true way of making sure that taxpayers and local workers of all backgrounds and communities get the most for their money," Terry O'Sullivan, the general president of the Laborers' International Union of North America, told McClatchy.

While his organization is diverse, with about 30 percent of the membership Hispanic and 25 percent African-American, it also is one of the least skilled construction trade groups vying for jobs.

"If we sit back and don't get involved in this stimulus, we will definitely get the short end," Harry Alford, the president of the National Black Chamber of Commerce, told the news service.

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