For many Irish immigrants in the early-to-mid 1800's, according to Dennis Clark, author of "The Irish in Philadelphia," an appropriate route out of the unskilled labor pool was to become a small building contractor, and many of them did.
It's important to understand that those who found success as contractors worked very closely with their fellow immigrants to establish craft guilds, or labor unions, to provide and control the labor supply that would be needed on their own construction sites. Many of their earlier contracts grew out of the demand from their community for separate, Irish Catholic institutions-- especially churches and schools--but eventually those contracts began to expand across the entire spectrum of construction opportunities in the city.
There was James P. McNichol, whose firm completed the Broad Street Subway excavation from City Hall to South Philadelphia, the Market Street Subway tunnel, the Ben Franklin Parkway and the Roosevelt Boulevard.
There was Matthew McCloskey, who went on from Philadelphia to serve as national finance chairman for the Democratic Party, working closely with President John F. Kennedy; and John McShain, who built the Philadelphia Board of Education Building, and then went on to build the Jefferson Memorial and the Pentagon, in Washington DC.(In the interest of perfect disclosure, in a stranger-than-fiction coincidence and personal note, I discovered later in life that the Martin de Porres Scholarship, through which I had been able to attend the prestigious St. Joseph's Preparatory School, out of North Central Philadelphia, had been funded by none other than Matthew McCloskey, whom I had never met).
To enhance the prospect of gaining public sector construction projects, the Irish contractors focused, simultaneously, on gaining control of the major political parties in the City. In fact, Clark points out that "...for fifty years the Irish installed one of their own as chairman of the Philadelphia Democratic Party."
Consequently, powerful, politically connected Irish contractors emerged in Philadelphia, enhancing the political and economic power of the Irish community, all while remaining true to their history and emphatically excluding black participation in their industry.
Unfortunately, even after the McNichol's, McCloskey's and McShain's passed on, the current crop of major contractors, including the Keatings, Driscolls, Turners, et al., still play largely the same role, still control the political environment through substantial campaign contributions and still have the power to dictate the complexion of the people on their worksites.
Over the past five election cycle years, according to www.Followthemoney.com, the construction industry contributed an average of $70 million annually to state and federal elected officials. And, in just the years 2007 and 2008, six construction-related national labor unions (electricians, laborers, plumbers, carpenters, teamsters, and operating engineers) contributed an additional $68 million to elected officials. Interestingly, each of those unions contributed, individually, more, over that period, than Goldman Sachs, J. P. Morgan Chase, Citigroup or Bank of America. Not surprisingly, many elected officials are largely intimidated or compromised by this level of influence. At the same time, media seem to be largely uninformed about the issue, or disinterested in telling the story.
W.E.B. DuBois, the great African-American, Harvard-educated Ph.D., who published his landmark study of black Philadelphia for the University of Pennsylvania, in 1899, observed, 111 years ago: "Even in the world of skilled labor, the Negro is largely excluded. For years, the Negroes filled satisfactorily the trades of the city and today are still prominent in many parts of the South and, yet, in Philadelphia, a determined prejudice, aided by public opinion, has succeeded nearly in driving them from the field."
"All these (situations)" Dubois continued, "prove the rule, namely that without strong effort and special influences, it is next to impossible for a Negro in Philadelphia to get regular employment in most of the trades, except he work as an independent workman and take small transient jobs."
Regrettably, in the year 2010, not very much has changed.
There is light, however, at the end of what has been a very long tunnel.
It just so happens that, even in a distressed economy, construction industry inclusion is precisely what the City's economy needs. It's also what the industry, itself, requires for its own survival. Here's the issue: Increasingly, the sons and daughters of many of the long-time, white ethnic union members have gravitated to college campuses and to white-collar professions, and have shunned the job opportunities that were waiting for them on construction sites. Not entirely coincidentally, the national percentage of unionized construction workers stood at 14.2 percent in 2008, down from 50 percent in 1966. So, opening the industry to greater levels of African-American inclusion also can ensure the continued viability of the building trades, themselves. Despite the fundamental logic of all of that, to make it happen, we're still going to have to have "strong effort and special influences," as DuBois accurately described.
The key issue is whether the current crop of elected officials and business leaders have the "political will" to do what needs to be done to ensure that this can happen.
It is generally agreed that the fastest and most effective way to increase the number of black and minority workers on construction sites is to increase the number of black and minority contractors who win bids on those projects. In that regard, about seven years ago, I was a part of a small group that created the Technical Assistance Center for Emerging Contractors, or the TAC, whose offices are located in North Central Philadelphia. The organization trains, provides financing sources and contract bidding assistance to black and minority contractors. The TAC recently supplied a list of 35 top-level, black and Hispanic contractors to the facilities manager at St. Joseph's University, as an example. We know there is the capability, by black and minority contractors, to bid successfully and to perform on local projects.
In March of last year, I was a member of a group called The Mayor's Advisory Commission on Construction Industry Diversity, which presented Mayor Nutter with the results of an 11-month-long review of what needs to be done to correct the problems of racial and gender disparity on the City's construction sites. The report included a review of the disparities, together with scores of recommendations for achieving workforce and contract inclusion goals.
The Mayor mentioned the report recently during a "minority business" press conference but, so far, quite frankly, we’re still waiting to see the specific construction-related recommendations implemented. But, we're optimistic that between and among the Mayor's Office, the members of City Council, and the leaders of the construction industry, itself, we'll start to see some significant improvement in the City's construction industry diversity.
But the goals for inclusion have to be meaningful, the timeline for achieving them have to be appropriately urgent, and there have to be real and tangible consequences for project owners, construction management firms and labor unions who don't participate. Fines should be levied, contracts should be terminated, firms should be debarred, from doing further business and project labor agreements should be curtailed, as necessary. If we’re serious, that's what we'll finally do.
But this should not be seen as punitive, negative, anti-business, or anti-union--- just anti-discrimination. Such improvement and an appropriate utilization of the vital, construction-related resources that reside in the local black community are well within the enlightened self-interest of those who are responsible for expanding the City's economy.
In Philadelphia, where it’s been reported that 50 percent of black males don't have jobs, a continuation of the status quo should be simply unacceptable, for all of us.
Even 111 years ago, W.E. B. DuBios said it best: "How long can a city say to a part of its citizens, it's useless to work; it is fruitless to deserve well of men; education will gain you nothing but disappointment and humiliation? How long can a city teach its black children that the road to success is to have a white face? How long can a city do this and escape the inevitable penalty?
############
Showing posts with label Construction Industry. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Construction Industry. Show all posts
Tuesday, March 9, 2010
Monday, March 8, 2010
Blacks Were Among the Country’s First Construction Workers. What Happened? (Part I)
There’s been a long history of racial exclusion and discrimination on construction sites, which has contributed to economic and political powerlessness in black neighborhoods and has negatively impacted men and women who simply wanted to work and to provide for their families, but who have not been permitted to do so.
History also tells us that there has been a substantial degree of antagonism between blacks and the Irish in the Philadelphia construction industry. While the Irish have not single-handedly constituted an impediment to black inclusion in the industry, they have clearly played a critical role in minimizing black advancement on work sites.
Aside from their discriminatory treatment of blacks in the construction business, however, I must confess that I have a great deal of respect for the way in which the Irish, as a people, organized themselves, in the mid-to-late 1800's, to take significant control of the industry. They utilized construction, and the political process, to pull themselves up from the margins of Philadelphia society to become some the city's most important and respected leaders. There’s a lesson in there for Philadelphia’s black community, especially today. Why can’t we do the same?
According to one source, during the early 1800's, the Irish and Germans were commonly viewed as racially inferior to and/or religiously and linguistically incompatible with the native-born, predominantly British population in the U.S. Dennis Clark, author of “The Irish in Philadelphia,” further described the Irish condition in the City when he wrote: "In 1885, the foreign-born Irish alone accounted for 35 percent of the arrests in the city, while representing only a tenth of the population."
I’m not sure if the Irish, who still control much of the construction industry, or the blacks, who are still excluded from much of it, are fully aware of how we arrived at this place, but both groups continue to play roles that were scripted about 160 years ago, in this city. The fact is, however, that the economic exclusion of a group that constitutes 45 percent of the City’s population is not a very smart thing for an industry to do ─ or for a city to condone.
The 2002 Census informed us that black construction firms participated in just $140.9 million (0.5%) of the $25.6 billion in greater Philadelphia’s construction industry revenues.
It’s also important to note that construction work, especially union construction work, is one of the few remaining sources of good wages and benefits available to workers who don’t have college educations. That's especially important because more than 80 percent of Philadelphians are not college graduates.
In Philadelphia, construction jobs are only 11 percent of all blue-collar jobs, but they do represent 38.5 percent of blue-collar jobs that pay wages above $20.00 per hour.
In addition, in a city wherein we have a significant number of ex-offenders, we can't overlook the fact that the construction industry, historically, has served as a vital, informal "re-entry" program. It has routinely provided the opportunity to previously incarcerated people to move solidly into the middle class--people who had been restricted from employment in banks, insurance companies and, even, in most government jobs.
To emphasize this point, a report by the University of Missouri, in September 2008, called "The Road to Good Jobs," described minority construction industry participation in 25 metro areas, including Philadelphia. The researchers found that blacks are employed in construction at well below their level of participation in the overall workforce, nationwide. They estimated that if blacks had commensurate access to such jobs, more than 137,000 additional black workers would be employed in the construction industry, in just those 25 locations.
Think back to every major, publicly funded construction project in the City’s recent history: The Eagles stadium, the Phillies ball park, the original Convention Center construction, the Convention Center expansion, etc., etc. In each case, there was resistance to black and minority inclusion, as businesses or workers, on those sites. And this, remarkably, was on projects funded with public dollars.
Usually, the employment opportunities on these very-Philadelphia projects are kept from Philadelphia residents and reserved, in the overwhelming majority, for people who live in the surrounding suburbs, or, even, in other states. That's not much help, at all, to a city whose population is comprised 61 percent by African Americans, Hispanics and Asians, and which, according to the Census Bureau, currently enjoys a 25 percent poverty rate, the highest among America's 10 largest cities.
So how did all of this begin?
Most of you are aware that the first African slaves in British North America arrived in Jamestown, Virginia, in 1619. You might not be aware, however, that, closer to home, Philadelphia’s Quakers were also slave owners. They purchased their first slaves, the entire cargo of 150 Africans, from the merchant ship Isabella, in 1684.
While most Americans are familiar with the stereotype of the African slave as an agricultural field hand or as a domestic servant, there was also significant utilization of slaves as mechanics, builders and craftsmen.
African craftsmen, some of whom brought their craft with them from Africa, and others, who learned under an apprenticeship to a white craftsman, were considered more valuable than field slaves because of their training and ability. They made repairs to buildings and tools and worked as mechanics, blacksmiths and carpenters.
Accordingly, when the U.S. government decided to construct its Capitol Building in 1793, slaves in the Washington, D.C.-area made up a substantial portion of the labor pool. In fact, the 400 slaves who worked on the project represented half of the entire documented workforce.
"The History of Slave Laborers in the Construction of the Nation's Capitol," was a report written in 2005 for the members of the U.S. Congress, by William C. Allen, architectural historian of the Office of the Architect of the U.S. Capitol. Allen's report confirmed that, for one of the country’s most important, most recognizable and longstanding structures ─ the U.S. Capitol Building ─ African slaves actually cleared the trees on the site, dug up stumps, baked the bricks and dug the trenches for the foundation and walls. Black men sawed lumber for the interior walls and floors, cut sandstone from the Virginia quarries, and laid the stone that still holds up the Capitol, to this day. In addition, Allen pointed out that slaves were also responsible for some of the most impressive architectural features inside the Capitol building.
Ironically, when it was finished, the Capitol Building began to be commonly called “The Temple of Liberty."
In addition, the White House, itself, was built substantially with African slave labor. Pierre L’Enfant, who was appointed by President George Washington to design the new Capital City in 1791, hired slaves, from their masters, to help dig the foundation for the building. While the foundation was being dug, “25 able-bodied Negroes” were also brought on to quarry the stone for use in the walls of the White House. In fact, Allen went on to disclose that “The homes of George Washington, Thomas Jefferson and James Madison were all constructed with the help of slaves.”
Unaware, or in denial, about that history, many Philadelphians still doubt African-American aptitude to build even the smallest construction project.
Meanwhile, back in Philadelphia, in the 1800’s, according to Dennis Clark, there was a tremendous influx of largely unskilled Irish laborers into Philadelphia. “To obtain jobs, the immigrants had to compete, and some of the competition, as in the building trades, was racial, with the Irish displacing Negro mechanics (and craftsmen).” "Race riots between blacks and Irishmen occurred between 1832 and 1842 in Southwark and Schuylkill, for blacks were competitive with the Irish for menial jobs.”
In next week’s column, we’ll examine the dynamics of that relationship and how it still impacts black exclusion from the construction industry, even today.
####
History also tells us that there has been a substantial degree of antagonism between blacks and the Irish in the Philadelphia construction industry. While the Irish have not single-handedly constituted an impediment to black inclusion in the industry, they have clearly played a critical role in minimizing black advancement on work sites.
Aside from their discriminatory treatment of blacks in the construction business, however, I must confess that I have a great deal of respect for the way in which the Irish, as a people, organized themselves, in the mid-to-late 1800's, to take significant control of the industry. They utilized construction, and the political process, to pull themselves up from the margins of Philadelphia society to become some the city's most important and respected leaders. There’s a lesson in there for Philadelphia’s black community, especially today. Why can’t we do the same?
According to one source, during the early 1800's, the Irish and Germans were commonly viewed as racially inferior to and/or religiously and linguistically incompatible with the native-born, predominantly British population in the U.S. Dennis Clark, author of “The Irish in Philadelphia,” further described the Irish condition in the City when he wrote: "In 1885, the foreign-born Irish alone accounted for 35 percent of the arrests in the city, while representing only a tenth of the population."
I’m not sure if the Irish, who still control much of the construction industry, or the blacks, who are still excluded from much of it, are fully aware of how we arrived at this place, but both groups continue to play roles that were scripted about 160 years ago, in this city. The fact is, however, that the economic exclusion of a group that constitutes 45 percent of the City’s population is not a very smart thing for an industry to do ─ or for a city to condone.
The 2002 Census informed us that black construction firms participated in just $140.9 million (0.5%) of the $25.6 billion in greater Philadelphia’s construction industry revenues.
It’s also important to note that construction work, especially union construction work, is one of the few remaining sources of good wages and benefits available to workers who don’t have college educations. That's especially important because more than 80 percent of Philadelphians are not college graduates.
In Philadelphia, construction jobs are only 11 percent of all blue-collar jobs, but they do represent 38.5 percent of blue-collar jobs that pay wages above $20.00 per hour.
In addition, in a city wherein we have a significant number of ex-offenders, we can't overlook the fact that the construction industry, historically, has served as a vital, informal "re-entry" program. It has routinely provided the opportunity to previously incarcerated people to move solidly into the middle class--people who had been restricted from employment in banks, insurance companies and, even, in most government jobs.
To emphasize this point, a report by the University of Missouri, in September 2008, called "The Road to Good Jobs," described minority construction industry participation in 25 metro areas, including Philadelphia. The researchers found that blacks are employed in construction at well below their level of participation in the overall workforce, nationwide. They estimated that if blacks had commensurate access to such jobs, more than 137,000 additional black workers would be employed in the construction industry, in just those 25 locations.
Think back to every major, publicly funded construction project in the City’s recent history: The Eagles stadium, the Phillies ball park, the original Convention Center construction, the Convention Center expansion, etc., etc. In each case, there was resistance to black and minority inclusion, as businesses or workers, on those sites. And this, remarkably, was on projects funded with public dollars.
Usually, the employment opportunities on these very-Philadelphia projects are kept from Philadelphia residents and reserved, in the overwhelming majority, for people who live in the surrounding suburbs, or, even, in other states. That's not much help, at all, to a city whose population is comprised 61 percent by African Americans, Hispanics and Asians, and which, according to the Census Bureau, currently enjoys a 25 percent poverty rate, the highest among America's 10 largest cities.
So how did all of this begin?
Most of you are aware that the first African slaves in British North America arrived in Jamestown, Virginia, in 1619. You might not be aware, however, that, closer to home, Philadelphia’s Quakers were also slave owners. They purchased their first slaves, the entire cargo of 150 Africans, from the merchant ship Isabella, in 1684.
While most Americans are familiar with the stereotype of the African slave as an agricultural field hand or as a domestic servant, there was also significant utilization of slaves as mechanics, builders and craftsmen.
African craftsmen, some of whom brought their craft with them from Africa, and others, who learned under an apprenticeship to a white craftsman, were considered more valuable than field slaves because of their training and ability. They made repairs to buildings and tools and worked as mechanics, blacksmiths and carpenters.
Accordingly, when the U.S. government decided to construct its Capitol Building in 1793, slaves in the Washington, D.C.-area made up a substantial portion of the labor pool. In fact, the 400 slaves who worked on the project represented half of the entire documented workforce.
"The History of Slave Laborers in the Construction of the Nation's Capitol," was a report written in 2005 for the members of the U.S. Congress, by William C. Allen, architectural historian of the Office of the Architect of the U.S. Capitol. Allen's report confirmed that, for one of the country’s most important, most recognizable and longstanding structures ─ the U.S. Capitol Building ─ African slaves actually cleared the trees on the site, dug up stumps, baked the bricks and dug the trenches for the foundation and walls. Black men sawed lumber for the interior walls and floors, cut sandstone from the Virginia quarries, and laid the stone that still holds up the Capitol, to this day. In addition, Allen pointed out that slaves were also responsible for some of the most impressive architectural features inside the Capitol building.
Ironically, when it was finished, the Capitol Building began to be commonly called “The Temple of Liberty."
In addition, the White House, itself, was built substantially with African slave labor. Pierre L’Enfant, who was appointed by President George Washington to design the new Capital City in 1791, hired slaves, from their masters, to help dig the foundation for the building. While the foundation was being dug, “25 able-bodied Negroes” were also brought on to quarry the stone for use in the walls of the White House. In fact, Allen went on to disclose that “The homes of George Washington, Thomas Jefferson and James Madison were all constructed with the help of slaves.”
Unaware, or in denial, about that history, many Philadelphians still doubt African-American aptitude to build even the smallest construction project.
Meanwhile, back in Philadelphia, in the 1800’s, according to Dennis Clark, there was a tremendous influx of largely unskilled Irish laborers into Philadelphia. “To obtain jobs, the immigrants had to compete, and some of the competition, as in the building trades, was racial, with the Irish displacing Negro mechanics (and craftsmen).” "Race riots between blacks and Irishmen occurred between 1832 and 1842 in Southwark and Schuylkill, for blacks were competitive with the Irish for menial jobs.”
In next week’s column, we’ll examine the dynamics of that relationship and how it still impacts black exclusion from the construction industry, even today.
####
Wednesday, September 3, 2008
In Philly, There Are Things Worse Than C.P. Time
Mark my words, before the City and State sign off on the final construction and siting agreements for the Convention Center expansion, and for Philadelphia's two, proposed casinos, some very important people in high political office, or on the development/construction side of those projects, will say something like this: "We just can't afford to slow these projects down to spend time talking about black and minority inclusion. There's just too many State funds and too much economic impact at risk."
It's very predictable. Someone says the same thing, every time.
That always strikes me as curious, when people who have been "dragging their feet" for years on a project suddenly get "super time- and schedule-conscious," just because it's time, finally, to bring black folks to the economic table. If it weren't so tragic, it would almost be funny.
I imagine that some of you may very well be familiar with the concept of "C.P. Time." That's the term used to imply that black people, especially, and other "People of Color," generally, just can't manage to arrive promptly for scheduled meetings.
Hey, it's no secret. In today's digital age, there's even a reference to "C.P. Time” on Wikipedia. If you don't believe me, "look it up."
But there is also a whole, other way of measuring timeliness, something I want to call "B.B. and P. Time." For those of you who may not be as familiar with that term, let me "school you." It refers to "Big Business and Political Time." It, too, relates to a habit of being late and not getting things done on a timely basis. But unlike "C.P. Time," "B.B. and P. Time" is measured in weeks, months and, regrettably, even years. In fact, it is often used interchangeably with another time reference we like to use "in the community," i.e., "late and wrong."
In the case of "C.P. Time," the practitioner may arrive at a destination too late to hear the first, few pre-meeting jokes, weather observations or football scores, or they might miss, entirely, the opportunity to have first choice of the best breakfast muffins. With "B.B. and P. Time," on the other hand, the offenders frequently run the risk of losing entire multi-million dollar development projects or forfeiting several years' worth of previously anticipated revenues, through the lack of a commitment to move a project along, on a timely basis.
Strangely, no one seems to be outraged when this phenomenon occurs, again and again, in Philadelphia.
For example, according to media reports, Bob Butera, who was, then, president of the Convention Center, in May 2000, "put a $464.4 million price tag on the Center's proposed expansion" and presented architectural designs to assembled reporters who had come to a press briefing to hear about the project. Then, “B.B. and P. Time” went into effect.
It took until July 2006, more than six years later, to have the first $50 million of State funds for the project forwarded to the Center's board. It took until just this past week to get to the point where bids were finally opened as part of the process to decide which construction firm would actually start building the project. That's been more than eight years since Butera's press announcement, and now the project cost estimate has grown to $790 million.
In another egregious application of "B.B. and P. Time," in December 2006, licenses were granted to developers of two, proposed Philadelphia riverfront casinos - Foxwoods and SugarHouse. That was twenty months ago, and, so far, neither casino has been constructed.
To the casual observer, both City and State decision-makers have "taken their own sweet time" about embracing the potential economic benefits of these three, major development projects-- the Convention Center, a proposed $670 million Foxwoods project and a $550 million SugarHouse project. For those of you who are still counting, that's $2.01 billion in public and private investment that the City's "movers and shakers" can't seem to make happen, at least not on a timely basis.
Let me go a step further.
If we are to believe the economic impact projections from each of the projects, the combined construction phases, alone, will produce somewhere in the area of 4,900 new jobs. In addition, the permanent, new jobs to be created at the completed facilities have been projected at 950 at Foxwoods, 1,100 at SugarHouse and 2,000 new hospitality jobs at the Convention Center expansion. That's a permanent job total of 4050, bringing the total employment impact to 8950 permanent and construction-phase jobs.
None of these figures, of course, includes the millions of dollars in annual purchasing budgets that will exist at these three facilities, the additional economic benefits from the development of new hotels and related businesses that will undoubtedly come on stream to take advantage of their customer traffic.
I don't know, it just seems to me that in a city with a 25.5 percent poverty rate (the highest among the country's 10 largest cities) and a disproportionately high unemployment and crime rate in its impoverished and minority communities, that folks would see that there is definitely a connection between moving these projects, and their related jobs and contract opportunities, along on a timely basis, and our ability to reduce the levels of economic desperation in our neighborhoods.
I don't mind admitting that I have always had a soft spot in my heart for community advocates and for those who stand up for the rights of neighborhood residents. Especially in the case of the proposed casinos, those people have done a great job in defending their communities from the threat of abusive treatment. At the same time, it is well past the time for those same activists, the licensees, State and City elected officials and representatives of the business community to get on the same page, finally, and to make these things happen.
We are losing out every day on opportunities to create meaningful employment for deserving Philadelphia workers and, at the same time, making ourselves look like economic development incompetents to members of the General Assembly and to those in other jurisdictions across the State who have figured out a way to get their own casino projects done on time, through the same State government, through virtually the same Casino Board, under virtually the same rules and regulations.
And remember, as we get closer to finalizing these projects after so many months and years of delay, there can be absolutely no consideration given to those who want to ignore the obvious need for black and minority inclusion at every level and every phase of these projects. All of that was supposed to be a part of the original gaming strategy and Convention Center expansion strategy for Pennsylvania. We, and our elected officials, should have absolutely no patience with those who, all of sudden, want us to believe that they are obligated to adhere strictly to new, inalterable project schedules and that we don't, now, have the luxury of time to appropriately include the critical issues of black and minority workforce and contract participation.
Here is something that Philadelphia needs to seriously consider: No matter how beautiful our newly constructed buildings will be, people are not going to be interested in traveling across the country or around the world to participate in a convention, or to play a “game of chance,” in a city with a growing reputation for crimes of violence and desperation. If we are not concerned about having an inclusive job creation strategy, in a city that is 61 percent comprised of Blacks, Hispanics and Asians, we run the risk of experiencing just that kind of self-defeating scenario.
It's clearly something that every one of us should want to avoid.
It's time to get our act together.
##############
It's very predictable. Someone says the same thing, every time.
That always strikes me as curious, when people who have been "dragging their feet" for years on a project suddenly get "super time- and schedule-conscious," just because it's time, finally, to bring black folks to the economic table. If it weren't so tragic, it would almost be funny.
I imagine that some of you may very well be familiar with the concept of "C.P. Time." That's the term used to imply that black people, especially, and other "People of Color," generally, just can't manage to arrive promptly for scheduled meetings.
Hey, it's no secret. In today's digital age, there's even a reference to "C.P. Time” on Wikipedia. If you don't believe me, "look it up."
But there is also a whole, other way of measuring timeliness, something I want to call "B.B. and P. Time." For those of you who may not be as familiar with that term, let me "school you." It refers to "Big Business and Political Time." It, too, relates to a habit of being late and not getting things done on a timely basis. But unlike "C.P. Time," "B.B. and P. Time" is measured in weeks, months and, regrettably, even years. In fact, it is often used interchangeably with another time reference we like to use "in the community," i.e., "late and wrong."
In the case of "C.P. Time," the practitioner may arrive at a destination too late to hear the first, few pre-meeting jokes, weather observations or football scores, or they might miss, entirely, the opportunity to have first choice of the best breakfast muffins. With "B.B. and P. Time," on the other hand, the offenders frequently run the risk of losing entire multi-million dollar development projects or forfeiting several years' worth of previously anticipated revenues, through the lack of a commitment to move a project along, on a timely basis.
Strangely, no one seems to be outraged when this phenomenon occurs, again and again, in Philadelphia.
For example, according to media reports, Bob Butera, who was, then, president of the Convention Center, in May 2000, "put a $464.4 million price tag on the Center's proposed expansion" and presented architectural designs to assembled reporters who had come to a press briefing to hear about the project. Then, “B.B. and P. Time” went into effect.
It took until July 2006, more than six years later, to have the first $50 million of State funds for the project forwarded to the Center's board. It took until just this past week to get to the point where bids were finally opened as part of the process to decide which construction firm would actually start building the project. That's been more than eight years since Butera's press announcement, and now the project cost estimate has grown to $790 million.
In another egregious application of "B.B. and P. Time," in December 2006, licenses were granted to developers of two, proposed Philadelphia riverfront casinos - Foxwoods and SugarHouse. That was twenty months ago, and, so far, neither casino has been constructed.
To the casual observer, both City and State decision-makers have "taken their own sweet time" about embracing the potential economic benefits of these three, major development projects-- the Convention Center, a proposed $670 million Foxwoods project and a $550 million SugarHouse project. For those of you who are still counting, that's $2.01 billion in public and private investment that the City's "movers and shakers" can't seem to make happen, at least not on a timely basis.
Let me go a step further.
If we are to believe the economic impact projections from each of the projects, the combined construction phases, alone, will produce somewhere in the area of 4,900 new jobs. In addition, the permanent, new jobs to be created at the completed facilities have been projected at 950 at Foxwoods, 1,100 at SugarHouse and 2,000 new hospitality jobs at the Convention Center expansion. That's a permanent job total of 4050, bringing the total employment impact to 8950 permanent and construction-phase jobs.
None of these figures, of course, includes the millions of dollars in annual purchasing budgets that will exist at these three facilities, the additional economic benefits from the development of new hotels and related businesses that will undoubtedly come on stream to take advantage of their customer traffic.
I don't know, it just seems to me that in a city with a 25.5 percent poverty rate (the highest among the country's 10 largest cities) and a disproportionately high unemployment and crime rate in its impoverished and minority communities, that folks would see that there is definitely a connection between moving these projects, and their related jobs and contract opportunities, along on a timely basis, and our ability to reduce the levels of economic desperation in our neighborhoods.
I don't mind admitting that I have always had a soft spot in my heart for community advocates and for those who stand up for the rights of neighborhood residents. Especially in the case of the proposed casinos, those people have done a great job in defending their communities from the threat of abusive treatment. At the same time, it is well past the time for those same activists, the licensees, State and City elected officials and representatives of the business community to get on the same page, finally, and to make these things happen.
We are losing out every day on opportunities to create meaningful employment for deserving Philadelphia workers and, at the same time, making ourselves look like economic development incompetents to members of the General Assembly and to those in other jurisdictions across the State who have figured out a way to get their own casino projects done on time, through the same State government, through virtually the same Casino Board, under virtually the same rules and regulations.
And remember, as we get closer to finalizing these projects after so many months and years of delay, there can be absolutely no consideration given to those who want to ignore the obvious need for black and minority inclusion at every level and every phase of these projects. All of that was supposed to be a part of the original gaming strategy and Convention Center expansion strategy for Pennsylvania. We, and our elected officials, should have absolutely no patience with those who, all of sudden, want us to believe that they are obligated to adhere strictly to new, inalterable project schedules and that we don't, now, have the luxury of time to appropriately include the critical issues of black and minority workforce and contract participation.
Here is something that Philadelphia needs to seriously consider: No matter how beautiful our newly constructed buildings will be, people are not going to be interested in traveling across the country or around the world to participate in a convention, or to play a “game of chance,” in a city with a growing reputation for crimes of violence and desperation. If we are not concerned about having an inclusive job creation strategy, in a city that is 61 percent comprised of Blacks, Hispanics and Asians, we run the risk of experiencing just that kind of self-defeating scenario.
It's clearly something that every one of us should want to avoid.
It's time to get our act together.
##############
Wednesday, February 6, 2008
With Jobs on Council’s Agenda, Why Didn’t the Building Trades Unions Feel the Need to Show Up?
Strangest thing I ever saw…
Somebody convened a City Council meeting to determine the Building Trades’ level of participation in a $700 million project, and the Building Trades didn’t even bother to show up. No members chanting, no signs, no threats, “no nothing.”
Even stranger, the session was necessitated by the fact that the member unions in the aforementioned Building Trades Council had simply refused to provide the Equal Opportunity Plans (EOP’s) that Council had requested in its mid-December ordinance.
Did the unions know something that we didn’t know about Monday’s agenda?
Can you say “The fix was in,” boys and girls?
I attended the session along with a group of about 35 African-American contractors, construction workers and community representatives. They were “in the house” that day because they recognized how important it was for Council to finally “send a message” that the City would no longer sit idly by and allow some of its most attractive blue-collar employment opportunities to go almost exclusively to white males who don’t even live in Philadelphia.
The community representatives clearly understand how this ongoing elimination of African Americans and minorities from the City’s construction work sites has contributed to economic marginalization, desperation and a propensity for some to delve into the “alternative economy” and crimes of violence, here in the City.
They also understand how ironic it is that the Commonwealth is about to build an extension to the Convention Center in the hope of attracting visitors to a City that already has the highest poverty rate among the country’s 10 largest municipalities. At the rate construction industry exclusion relegates City residents to unemployment and social dysfunction, this may not be a place that people will choose to visit─even with a spanking new wing on the Convention Center.
I must say that the black construction workers and community representatives were admirably well-mannered during the tortuous Council session, which was late-to-start (after 10:30 am), frequently recessed and didn’t offer a final decision until almost 5:30 pm.
Maybe they were too well-mannered as they fanned out to state their case to their Council representatives during the numerous “breaks” in the agenda. Perhaps they were lulled to sleep when they saw virtually no representation from the Building Trades in the chambers, over the entire seven-hour session.
Maybe they naively assumed, as voters too often do, that their elected officials actually do have the best interests of Philadelphia citizens at heart when they go to a negotiating session, whether it’s in the “front room” or the “back room?” I think they learned Monday that that’s not always the case.
Maybe the Building Trades already knew that the “fix” was in and that they didn’t even have to do their normal, boisterous “song and dance” to have the project “green-lighted” and the jobs made available. Maybe they realized that the closed meetings they had previously held with elected officials, with Greater Philadelphia Chamber of Commerce representatives, and with Convention Center Authority representatives guaranteed that there would be “business-as-usual” on this project, no matter what the City’s long-disenfranchised black and minority construction workers had to say about it.
Perhaps the unions knew that on the day of the session, the Governor would arrive in the same City Hall, purportedly to talk about police budgets, but, also to emphatically reinforce the idea that he and the members of the General Assembly were losing patience with these minority participation delays and that Council had better get its act together immediately or risk losing the funding for the project.
Maybe that’s why there was such an eerie lack of union presence in the room. Maybe that’s why certain Council people, when asked about the mostly incomplete and, in some cases, totally absent union EOP plans, said they were delighted that the unions had been nice enough to actually sit and talk with them about the topic of inclusion, at all. At least, that’s what several Councilmembers said.
Apparently, unbeknownst to the citizens of Philadelphia, Monday’s Council session wasn’t really about finally holding the construction industry’s “feet to the fire.” Rather, it seems to have been about celebrating the fact that the unions had been kind enough to talk to Council members about a touchy subject, and about giving the unions a pass on a piece of legislation that wasn’t even two months old.
Maybe that’s why Councilman Goode was the only dissenting vote in the otherwise unanimous approval of the incomplete EOP plans and the granting of the “notice to proceed” with Convention Center construction.
It looks as though City Council, with just one stalwart exception, decided not to confront the unions any further on this vital economic issue and to “punt” the responsibility to the Mayor’s new commission on construction inclusion.
If that new Commission’s agenda is also going to be driven by back-room deals and a lack of meaningful accountability, black construction workers and contractors, and perhaps the City’s overall local economy, are “dead in the water.”
Say it ain’t so, Mayor Mike. Say it ain’t so.
###
Somebody convened a City Council meeting to determine the Building Trades’ level of participation in a $700 million project, and the Building Trades didn’t even bother to show up. No members chanting, no signs, no threats, “no nothing.”
Even stranger, the session was necessitated by the fact that the member unions in the aforementioned Building Trades Council had simply refused to provide the Equal Opportunity Plans (EOP’s) that Council had requested in its mid-December ordinance.
Did the unions know something that we didn’t know about Monday’s agenda?
Can you say “The fix was in,” boys and girls?
I attended the session along with a group of about 35 African-American contractors, construction workers and community representatives. They were “in the house” that day because they recognized how important it was for Council to finally “send a message” that the City would no longer sit idly by and allow some of its most attractive blue-collar employment opportunities to go almost exclusively to white males who don’t even live in Philadelphia.
The community representatives clearly understand how this ongoing elimination of African Americans and minorities from the City’s construction work sites has contributed to economic marginalization, desperation and a propensity for some to delve into the “alternative economy” and crimes of violence, here in the City.
They also understand how ironic it is that the Commonwealth is about to build an extension to the Convention Center in the hope of attracting visitors to a City that already has the highest poverty rate among the country’s 10 largest municipalities. At the rate construction industry exclusion relegates City residents to unemployment and social dysfunction, this may not be a place that people will choose to visit─even with a spanking new wing on the Convention Center.
I must say that the black construction workers and community representatives were admirably well-mannered during the tortuous Council session, which was late-to-start (after 10:30 am), frequently recessed and didn’t offer a final decision until almost 5:30 pm.
Maybe they were too well-mannered as they fanned out to state their case to their Council representatives during the numerous “breaks” in the agenda. Perhaps they were lulled to sleep when they saw virtually no representation from the Building Trades in the chambers, over the entire seven-hour session.
Maybe they naively assumed, as voters too often do, that their elected officials actually do have the best interests of Philadelphia citizens at heart when they go to a negotiating session, whether it’s in the “front room” or the “back room?” I think they learned Monday that that’s not always the case.
Maybe the Building Trades already knew that the “fix” was in and that they didn’t even have to do their normal, boisterous “song and dance” to have the project “green-lighted” and the jobs made available. Maybe they realized that the closed meetings they had previously held with elected officials, with Greater Philadelphia Chamber of Commerce representatives, and with Convention Center Authority representatives guaranteed that there would be “business-as-usual” on this project, no matter what the City’s long-disenfranchised black and minority construction workers had to say about it.
Perhaps the unions knew that on the day of the session, the Governor would arrive in the same City Hall, purportedly to talk about police budgets, but, also to emphatically reinforce the idea that he and the members of the General Assembly were losing patience with these minority participation delays and that Council had better get its act together immediately or risk losing the funding for the project.
Maybe that’s why there was such an eerie lack of union presence in the room. Maybe that’s why certain Council people, when asked about the mostly incomplete and, in some cases, totally absent union EOP plans, said they were delighted that the unions had been nice enough to actually sit and talk with them about the topic of inclusion, at all. At least, that’s what several Councilmembers said.
Apparently, unbeknownst to the citizens of Philadelphia, Monday’s Council session wasn’t really about finally holding the construction industry’s “feet to the fire.” Rather, it seems to have been about celebrating the fact that the unions had been kind enough to talk to Council members about a touchy subject, and about giving the unions a pass on a piece of legislation that wasn’t even two months old.
Maybe that’s why Councilman Goode was the only dissenting vote in the otherwise unanimous approval of the incomplete EOP plans and the granting of the “notice to proceed” with Convention Center construction.
It looks as though City Council, with just one stalwart exception, decided not to confront the unions any further on this vital economic issue and to “punt” the responsibility to the Mayor’s new commission on construction inclusion.
If that new Commission’s agenda is also going to be driven by back-room deals and a lack of meaningful accountability, black construction workers and contractors, and perhaps the City’s overall local economy, are “dead in the water.”
Say it ain’t so, Mayor Mike. Say it ain’t so.
###
Wednesday, December 12, 2007
It's Time....(continued)
With all of that having been said, it's really unfortunate that City Council's Convention Center
transfer ordinance has gotten to be such a political mess. The ordinance had been drafted in a way that would ensure that the Center's expansion could, finally and officially, commence, and that it would reflect, in a municipality whose population is more than 60 percent comprised of minorities and 52 percent comprised of females, the most accountable minority inclusion language in the City's modern history. Regrettably, that piece of legislation, that already seemed to be more than suitable and ready for overwhelming support from the full Council, was further amended, at the last minute, to include an ad hoc referendum on the Building Trades.
It may be true that Building and Trades Council Business Manager Pat Gillespie didn't do very much to help his own cause in his long and uncomfortable Council testimony. His insistence, once again, that there was no way that he could possibly have determined the black and minority composition of his member-unions smacked of unnecessary defiance, disrespect and racial insensitivity--especially when the topic was his authority to determine the ethnic, racial and gender composition of the workforce on a $700 million, publicly funded project, in one of America's most diverse big cities.
Thank God, that act doesn't fly anymore in Philadelphia. It really is beginning to look like a "new day," here, and Pat should have known better.
At the same time, Councilman DiCicco's reaction to Gillespie's presentation, suggesting that the
Convention Center expansion be constructed on an "open shop" basis, immediately shifted the voting prospects for the Convention Center transfer ordinance from a virtual "slam dunk" to "nip and tuck."
Councilpeople who loved the idea of an expanded Convention Center and who overwhelmingly understood and accepted the need for inclusion, were now faced with deciding whether they wanted to vote against the regional, blue-collar workforce, perhaps against the interests of their own ethnic constituents and, in many cases, against the interests of their long-time political sponsors.
In a city with so many entrenched, naturally occurring crises, this was a crisis that was self-made, and clearly avoidable.
I have no idea what's going to happen or whether there is a genuine possibility that Council can find the nine votes it'll need to pass the now bloated and complex ordinance, but it it's clear, with
so much at stake for the City's economy, that it would have been much, much better to have the referendum on the Building Trades, if they really wanted to have it, as a separate piece of legislation.
We really do need the Convention Center expanded and, in a city with a 60 percent "minority" population, we really can no longer afford not to have a credible, economic inclusion strategy, at the Center, and in other local projects.
What we really didn't need, at this critical juncture, was the confusion.
I trust that there's a group of really smart Councilpeople, somewhere in City Hall, that has figured out how to separate these issues, and that they also figure out how to get that done tomorrow, or at some point prior to their yearend recess.
######
transfer ordinance has gotten to be such a political mess. The ordinance had been drafted in a way that would ensure that the Center's expansion could, finally and officially, commence, and that it would reflect, in a municipality whose population is more than 60 percent comprised of minorities and 52 percent comprised of females, the most accountable minority inclusion language in the City's modern history. Regrettably, that piece of legislation, that already seemed to be more than suitable and ready for overwhelming support from the full Council, was further amended, at the last minute, to include an ad hoc referendum on the Building Trades.
It may be true that Building and Trades Council Business Manager Pat Gillespie didn't do very much to help his own cause in his long and uncomfortable Council testimony. His insistence, once again, that there was no way that he could possibly have determined the black and minority composition of his member-unions smacked of unnecessary defiance, disrespect and racial insensitivity--especially when the topic was his authority to determine the ethnic, racial and gender composition of the workforce on a $700 million, publicly funded project, in one of America's most diverse big cities.
Thank God, that act doesn't fly anymore in Philadelphia. It really is beginning to look like a "new day," here, and Pat should have known better.
At the same time, Councilman DiCicco's reaction to Gillespie's presentation, suggesting that the
Convention Center expansion be constructed on an "open shop" basis, immediately shifted the voting prospects for the Convention Center transfer ordinance from a virtual "slam dunk" to "nip and tuck."
Councilpeople who loved the idea of an expanded Convention Center and who overwhelmingly understood and accepted the need for inclusion, were now faced with deciding whether they wanted to vote against the regional, blue-collar workforce, perhaps against the interests of their own ethnic constituents and, in many cases, against the interests of their long-time political sponsors.
In a city with so many entrenched, naturally occurring crises, this was a crisis that was self-made, and clearly avoidable.
I have no idea what's going to happen or whether there is a genuine possibility that Council can find the nine votes it'll need to pass the now bloated and complex ordinance, but it it's clear, with
so much at stake for the City's economy, that it would have been much, much better to have the referendum on the Building Trades, if they really wanted to have it, as a separate piece of legislation.
We really do need the Convention Center expanded and, in a city with a 60 percent "minority" population, we really can no longer afford not to have a credible, economic inclusion strategy, at the Center, and in other local projects.
What we really didn't need, at this critical juncture, was the confusion.
I trust that there's a group of really smart Councilpeople, somewhere in City Hall, that has figured out how to separate these issues, and that they also figure out how to get that done tomorrow, or at some point prior to their yearend recess.
######
It’s Time for Philadelphia’s Construction Industry to Include Black Workers, Contractors
The “infamous” noose incident two months ago at the Comcast Construction site has sharpened the focus on an issue that has long been a glaring embarrassment to the city of Philadelphia and an impediment to the City’s economic growth. According to the most recent census data, black construction firms in the Philadelphia metro area participate in just .8 percent of construction industry revenues.
This pattern of ongoing black exclusion from contracts and workforce opportunities in the Philadelphia construction trade has also been evident in other major cities across the country.
In fact, a recent study by St. Louis University, called “The Road to Jobs: Patterns of Employment in the Construction Industry” points out that:
· African-Americans have been systematically excluded from better-paying, skilled trades, including those in the construction industry, since slavery was abolished.
· That in 18 metro areas where the University’s study was conducted, blacks were substantially underrepresented in construction and that, where they are employed, they have been concentrated in the unskilled and most poorly paid parts of the industry.
· The report also points out that if blacks were employed in construction at the same rate they are employed in the overall workforce, 42,700 more blacks would have jobs in just those 18 metro areas. In a metro area as large as Philadelphia’s, that level of participation could translate into 6960 new African-American construction jobs. By comparison, today, in the Philadelphia metro area, the 174 black construction companies ‘with employees’ employ 1138 persons, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.
That represents a tremendous opportunity to have a positive economic impact on our community. When was the last time that 7000 new high-paying jobs were made available to African Americans in Philadelphia?
· The report goes on to say that the shortage of decent-paying jobs for workers without a college education has reached crisis proportions. There are approximately 8.5 million people in this country employed in construction, but the report also indicates that only 10 percent of them have college degrees. This is an industry that is especially important to a city with the lowest percentage of college graduates among the country’s 10 largest municipalities.
In addition to the positive benefits that will accrue to the African-American community, and to the City as a whole, we believe the inclusion of black and minority workers and firms will provide economic benefits to the construction industry, itself.
An increased workforce capacity and a greater number of qualified, competitive construction firms will help the industry meet its timelines more effectively and assist the industry in keeping their projects within budget. It should also help the City attract interest from national developers who would bring even more jobs to the city.
In that regard, we have also been engaged in a series of very encouraging conversations with Walter Palmer, president of the General Building Contractors Association (GBCA), here in the city, on that very subject. What is on the table in those discussions and in Philadelphia City Council, we believe, will be beneficial for the black community, for the City as a whole, and for the construction companies.
That is why we have referred to this entire effort as the “Build Smarter” campaign.
On October 15, we released a 13-point plan for increasing black and minority participation and reducing racial and gender harassment in the local construction industry. Given the recent developments in City Council, however, we’ve modified those to six proposed action steps:
1. Construction work sites in the city of Philadelphia should increasingly reflect the demographic composition of the City’s overall population. Until that objective is achieved, the City’s public and private sector leadership should work together to establish black and minority workforce and contractor participation goals. The ultimate responsibility for monitoring and ensuring goal achievement should rest with the Mayor’s Office and Governor’s Office. By the way, Governor Rendell has made it very clear that black and minority workforce and contractor inclusion is a top priority issue for him in the City’s proposed Convention Center expansion, and in other statewide construction projects.
2. The city of Philadelphia’s public and private sector leadership should work together to ensure that black and minority workers and contractors are included among the companies and workforce participants who provide office interior “fit out” work on new and existing office towers throughout Center City Philadelphia. To date, virtually no black contractors or workers participate in that multimillion-dollar industry segment.
3. In recognition of the fact that black contractors are significantly more inclined than mainstream contractors to hire black construction workers, the city of Philadelphia should launch expanded programs to support the creation and development of small, black construction firms.
Such support should extend to the inclusion of such businesses and their employees in continuing training and education programs that have long been available to large, mainstream contractors.
4. With the expansion and support of programs similar to those in operation with PIDC and several local banks, the City should increase the availability of financing and bonding assistance to qualified black and minority contractors. Without such financial support mechanisms in place, no small contractor – black or white – can be successful.
5. The city of Philadelphia should create a fair, open, accountable and accelerated apprenticeship program for African Americans interested in working in the construction industry. The program in place today for minority applicants is excessively long with an unacceptably high attrition rate. Ideally, the current program would be supplemented with one that is open to those in the City’s high schools and that would initiate actual apprenticeship training in the 10th through 12th grades.
6. We strongly support Councilman Darrell Clarke’s Bill # 070914, which addresses the issue of racial, ethnic and gender harassment on construction sites, and in other work places.
We further believe, however, that construction managers and developers of Philadelphia construction projects should also be held accountable for finally maintaining an accountable, “no tolerance” policy for harassment on their sites. That accountability should include the potential of substantial, enforceable fines for repeated incidents.
In that regard we also believe that individuals found guilty of violating the industry’s “no tolerance” policy should be included on a centralized database whose content would be shared among all local construction management and development companies. Once listed, the perpetrators would be barred from work on any public-or private-sector construction site.
Currently, those who perpetrate racial harassment are simply reassigned to another local construction site, where they are free to continue their discriminatory practices.
We believe that, if these steps are taken, Philadelphia’s economy will be strengthened, its construction workforce capacity will be substantially improved, and the City’s unemployment and poverty rates will be commensurately reduced. In addition, the availability of new employment opportunities will begin to reduce the propensity for people, who have lost all hope of economic inclusion, to become involved in criminal activities.
We will continue our meetings with GBCA, with other members of the construction industry and with elected officials at the municipal and state level, to address each of these issues.
It is time for Philadelphia to “move the needle,” finally, on black and minority inclusion in the construction industry.
###
Monday, October 15, 2007
Comcast Noose Incident Follow-up: A 13-Step Program for Black Inclusion in Philadelphia’s Construction Industry
Let's be clear, if somebody wanted to get the attention of the black community in Philadelphia, if they wanted to remind us that we are still suffering from a pre-Civil Rights style of racial harassment in the local construction industry, then they did that by shaking a hangman’s noose in Paul Solomon's face on October 1st.
And it was at the Comcast Tower that a member of the Glaziers' Union told that same Paul Solomon that he "wanted to hang somebody."
Let's also be clear that the kind of racial harassment that Paul Solomon experienced is not limited just to him, and not limited to the Comcast construction site. In fact, we've been informed that racial discrimination and harassment against black workers and businesses take place at virtually every construction site in this city.
As much as the community is focused, now, on bringing an end to the racial harassment at the Comcast Tower and at the City's other construction sites, African Americans also are now committed to making sure that Philadelphia finally begins to include blacks, in numbers reflecting their representation in the workforce, throughout every level of the local construction industry.
There can be no dispute that we've been virtually shut out up to this point. Nationwide, the 8,736 African-American-owned construction firms "with employees" constitute just 1.2 percent of the 729,843 construction firms in the country. Those same black firms generate only .6 percent of the gross revenues of the national construction industry, $9.5 billion, compared to $1.2 trillion for white-owned firms.
In the Philadelphia Metro Area, according to the 2002 Census, there were 174 black-owned construction firms with employees. Those firms generated $141 million in revenues and employed 1,138 persons. By comparison, revenues for all Philadelphia metro area construction firms are estimated at about $16.2 billion. That gives local black construction firms about .8 percent. In addition, it is estimated that 80 percent of the skilled union tradesmen working on Philadelphia construction sites live outside the City, and approximately 95 percent of them are white. This takes place in a city wherein 61 percent of the population is non-white. I don’t care who’s doing the math, it doesn’t add up. It doesn’t make sense.
With this most recent wake-up call, the African-American community is now committed to finally receiving fair levels of participation, economic parity and workplace respect, from the city of Philadelphia's construction industry.
This may sound uncomfortable to those who defend the racist status quo, but it will actually be good for the industry and for the Philadelphia economy, as a whole.
We believe that a meaningful African-American inclusion in the industry will increase the capacity of the City's construction industry workforce, so that Philadelphia will gain greater competitive advantage in attracting national developers and more jobs to our city.
We believe African-American inclusion can make the local construction industry more effective, more competitive.
We believe that if black people are finally included in what has historically been a racially discriminatory construction industry, the City's construction management companies and developers will no longer have to rely so heavily on bringing workers in from New Jersey, Delaware, West Virginia, Tennessee and, illegally, from Mexico, to fill jobs that are available in Center City, North Philadelphia, South Philadelphia and at other citywide construction sites.
As we have noted, the result will be more jobs for Philadelphians and a stronger local economy.
- We believe that if African Americans are finally included in the City's historically racist construction industry, we can create jobs in black communities, where 50 percent of African-American men are currently unemployed.
For those who may be wondering why we have so much violent crime and social maladjustment in our city, it's important to note that 40 percent to 50 percent of those currently serving time in Philadelphia's prisons were unemployed at the time they were arrested. But we have a plan:
Back in the late 1930’s, the people at Alcoholics Anonymous came up with something they called the 12 Step Program, to aid people in recovering from addiction, compulsion and other behavioral problems. The program usually includes:
Admitting that one cannot control one’s addiction or compulsion,
Recognizing a greater power that can give strength,
Examining past errors with the help of a sponsor,
Making amends for those errors,
Learning to live a new life with a code of behaviors, and
Helping others that suffer from the same addictions or compulsions.
In our opinion Philadelphia’s economy, and especially its construction industry, has been addicted to racial discrimination and harassment, and we’ve devised a 13-Step Program to restore the industry to economic health, as follows:
1. - We believe that the construction work sites in the city of Philadelphia, beginning now, should begin to look increasingly like the demographic composition of the City's overall population.
To achieve that, we believe the city of Philadelphia should establish clear goals for black workforce participation and black contractor participation on these sites. This should happen on both public and private construction sites and should be clearly monitored by the government and private sector leadership. Ultimately, it should be the responsibility of the Mayor's Office and Governor's Office to ensure that these goals are achieved on an annual basis.
2. - We believe the city of Philadelphia needs to ensure that African-American workers and contractors are included among the companies and workers who provide office interior "fit-out" work on new and existing office towers throughout Center City Philadelphia. To date, virtually no black contractors and workers participate in this multimillion-dollar industry.
3. - Recognizing that black contractors are significantly more inclined than mainstream contractors to hire black construction workers, we believe the city of Philadelphia needs to launch expanded programs to support the creation and development of small, black construction firms.
4. - In addition, with programs similar to that already in place at PIDC, the City should expand efforts to provide financing and bonding assistance to qualified black contractors. It is no secret that, without such financial support, no small contractor, black or white, can be successful.
5. - We believe the city of Philadelphia needs to create a credible, accountable, accelerated apprenticeship program for African Americans who are interested in working in the construction industry. Today, it takes far too long for blacks to become card-carrying union members and the percentage of blacks who do successfully complete the overly-long, pre-apprentice and apprentice programs is abysmally low.
6. - We believe the city of Philadelphia needs to launch a credible, accountable program to ensure that qualified, experienced, African-American construction workers and construction firms are no longer denied access to union membership.
7. - We believe the city of Philadelphia, through, both, its public and private sector leadership, should commit to a locally administered and monitored anti-harassment policy.
8. - Individuals who violate that policy should be included on a central, computerized, database, whose content would be shared among all City construction management and development companies. Once listed, those who have a record of committing racial harassment should be barred from working on any City construction site.
Currently, those who perpetrate racial harassment are simply reassigned to another City construction site, where they are free to continue their racially discriminatory practices. That's exactly what happened in the case of the man who shook a noose in the face of Paul Solomon. He's not at Comcast, but he is working somewhere else, right here in the City, as if nothing ever happened.
9. - We believe that construction managers, and developers must also be held accountable for maintaining construction workplace environments that are free from harassment and discrimination.
10. - A series of significant fines should be imposed by Municipal and State governments on construction managers and developers who allow harassment and discriminatory practices to be carried out on their construction projects.
Further penalties, including debarment from bids on future public construction projects, should also be enforced.
11. - We also believe, given that workers who are harassed on a construction site are often reluctant to report the incident out of fear of losing their jobs, the City and Commonwealth should establish a construction industry "harassment hotline" to be used by workers who have been the victims of racist and/or discriminatory practices.
12. - We believe that monthly and quarterly construction industry "harassment incident reports" should be provided to the Mayor's Office, to the President of City Council and to the Governor's Office.
13. - We believe the City and Commonwealth should require that security cameras be placed on construction sites as a further deterrent to future harassment and discriminatory practices.
Finally, we believe that, if all of this is done, Philadelphia's economy will be strengthened, its construction workforce capacity will be substantially improved, the City's unemployment and poverty rates will be reduced and we can begin to reduce the propensity for people who have lost all hope of economic inclusion to become involved in criminal activities.
The fact is that in the face of more than 122 years of virtual exclusion from Philadelphia’s’ mainstream construction industry, the black community has been far too patient.
We have been so patient and so excluded, for so long, that people in this city have forgotten that, from 1684 when the first 150 African slaves were brought to Philadelphia, up through 1885, when the first racially exclusive construction trade unions were established, it was Africans who did a substantial majority of the construction work in this city, and many of the buildings that they built are still standing today. According to “African Americans in Pennsylvania,” by Hopkins and Smith, “…slaves were likely to work alongside their masters as sailmakers, bakers, carpenters, charcoal-iron workers, farmhands, or domestic servants.”
In fact, we’ve been forced to the margins of this construction industry for so long that people in this industry, and even some of African-Americans, have come to believe that we are now unqualified to do the construction work that we have always been able to do.
But now, thanks to this despicable noose incident, our eyes are wide open and we can think clearly again, and we will absolutely not be satisfied until we have our rightful place in this industry.
This is not an affirmative action issue, this is an economic issue. This is the issue that will determine, in large part, whether a significant percentage of the members of Philadelphia’s black community will have the resources to put bread on their tables and roofs over their heads, and we will not stop, today, we will not stop, ever, until it is finally resolved.
We look forward to participating in the Construction Industry Summit, being planned by Comcast Executive Vice President David L. Cohen, and other local construction managers and developers, to address these issues.
####
Monday, October 8, 2007
If You Liked the Hangman’s Nooses at Jena, You’ll Love the Comcast Tower Construction Site
About two weeks ago, several busloads of activists left Philadelphia to join about 30,000 other demonstrators from across the country who wanted to show their support for the “Jena Six." As you will recall, the African-American high school students in the small town of Jena, Louisiana had been engaged in a physical confrontation with white classmates, after someone in the town placed three hangman’s nooses on the so-called “white tree” on the school’s campus. Following their confrontation, members of the Jena Six received unusually harsh and unfair criminal charges from the local district attorney, with potential sentences ranging up to 20 years in prison, for what was essentially a high school fist fight.
Thousands of other primarily African-American Philadelphians, who didn’t make the trip to Louisiana, also evidenced their solidarity with the Jena Six, by wearing all-black clothing to work on the day of the national demonstration. As in many other cities across the country, local demonstrations were also held in Philadelphia, wherein mostly young participants pledged their continuing support to fighting racism and injustice, wherever they raised their ugly heads in the future.
In light of recent events, it appears that if they wanted to demonstrate against hangman’s nooses and discriminatory treatment, the protesters didn’t really have to make the 24-hour bus trip to Jena, after all. It’s clear now that they only had to go to 17th and John F. Kennedy Boulevard, in Philadelphia, the site where the City’s largest office building, the Comcast Tower, is currently under construction.
Last Monday, a white construction worker at the Comcast worksite shook a hangman’s noose in the face of Paul Solomon, a black hoist operator, and, according to Solomon, said he “wanted to hang somebody.”
Curiously, the Philadelphia Police Department’s Special Victims Unit, following its investigation, said that the noose incident at Comcast Towers was just a “joke.”
It didn’t take much research to determine that the Comcast noose incident was not a joke at all, and certainly not an isolated incident.
To put the “joke” reference into context, it should be recognized that 3,426 black Americans in the United States – a greater number than the entire population of Jena, Louisiana – were lynched between 1882 and 1947. For the vast majority of those lynching victims the last thing they saw before they were killed by the mobs was a hangman’s noose. Understandably, therefore, there is little tolerance or acceptance of noose “jokes” by African Americans.
Solomon went on to explain that this was, as far as he knew, not the first noose incident on the Comcast site. Just four months earlier, another white construction worker, he said, was caught on camera hanging a noose at the project and had been fired.
To their credit, managers working for the project’s developer, Lincoln Property Trust, have spoken forthrightly about their intolerance for this kind of racial harassment, when questioned by reporters. The more important issue is whether the company will move to make the long-overdue systemic changes at their projects that will eliminate these cowardly, racist activities, once and for all.
According to construction workers who would only agree to speak anonymously to the city’s largest black newspaper, the Philadelphia Tribune, “Racial slurs are evident on construction sites throughout the Philadelphia area. You see it on almost every construction site…. There’s a definite racist climate.”
In fact, as early as the year 2000, Ida L. Castro, then – chairwoman of the U.S. Equal Opportunity Commission (EEOC) was moved to comment on the Commission’s filing of 20 racial harassment lawsuits involving hangman’s nooses in the workplace. Describing the odious pattern, Castro said: “Since the late 1990’s, EEOC has witnessed a disturbing national trend of increased racial-harassment cases involving hangman’s nooses in the workplace. These cases are not confined to a particular geographic area or region of the country. Rather, they are occurring from coast to coast and border to border.”
It seems that the two noose incidents at Comcast clearly fit the general, national pattern and point to a need to take immediate action by people in Philadelphia who want to see an orderly inclusion of blacks and other so-called minorities in the local construction industry.
Make no mistake about it, there is a certain element within the industry that has decided to try to intimidate black workers at Comcast and at other construction sites across the City, and so far, they have been operating with impunity. After years of aggressively precluding black worker participation in city construction sites, it appears that some in the industry have moved to “Plan B,” i.e., “If you can’t prevent them from coming to the work site, let’s insult them, disrespect them and do everything we can, including racial intimidation, to drive them away.”
That’s where the noose comes in. The knotted rope seems to be the modern iteration of the old Klansman’s hood, a symbol meant to frighten and intimidate blacks, to hold them down, drive them out, while providing anonymity to those who use it. It appears that, since the 90’s, hoods are out and nooses are definitely in.
If you think I’m kidding, consider this:
- In 1997, at an Indianapolis construction site, Tyrone Neal, a black construction worker, was subjected to racist graffiti on the walls of a workplace toilet, a hangman’s noose was dangled in front of his face and another noose was placed around his name on a welding machine.
- In 2001, in Miami, according to the EEOC, a technical operations manager at Adelphia Cable Company subjected black employees to racial epithets, placed a noose in his office and, on a company-sponsored “bring your child to work day,” hung the noose over his office door, where it was clearly visible to black employees and their children.
- In March 2002, the EEOC reported a settlement with Rockdale, Illinois – based Scientific Colors, Inc., in which the company agreed to inspect and remove any racial graffiti, derogatory references, images and photographs on a daily basis and to install video cameras in an effort to identify culpable employees. The racial harassment at the company has included graffiti and hangman’s nooses.
- In October 2006, according to an article yesterday in the Minnesota Spokesman – Record, an African-American- focused community newspaper, Tyrone Burns, a black boom truck driver for Winroc Construction Company in Bloomington, Minnesota, walked into the company’s warehouse and found a salmon-colored rope, tied in a hangman’s noose, dangling from a hook over his vehicle. Burns and a black co-worker, Marvin Dortsch, have filed a joint federal lawsuit against the company, alleging a pattern of racial harassment, discrimination and retaliation at Winroc. Coincidentally, the defense attorney for the construction company has referred to the noose as an “allegedly threatening rope” and Winroc’s managers initially told the two black workers that the entire noose incident was a “joke.”
- Just last week, federal investigators began to review an incident in the Hempstead, Long Island Police Department locker room, where a noose was found hanging from a ceiling pipe, apparently directed at Willie Dixon, a deputy police chief.
- Also last week, the head of the U.S. Coast Guard and a congressman visited the Coast Guard Academy to investigate the discovery of two small hangman’s nooses on Coast Guard properties, and
- On October 4, in the third incident of racial workplace intimidation in the Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania area over a single, one-week period, a noose was discovered on a construction site in O’Hara Township.
If we are really serious about finally eliminating racial harassment on Philadelphia’s construction sites, here are several steps the City and State need to take immediately:
- In addition to a comprehensive minority workforce and contractor inclusion program, the City and State governments should adopt an absolute “no–tolerance” policy for racial harassment and intimidation, extending beyond the current, relatively ineffective, federal guidelines. Such a policy should be written into every construction industry project labor agreement, and should include strong accountability and repercussions, including permanent exclusion for individual perpetrators and contract cancellation and debarment for offending construction companies and developers.
- All racial harassment and discrimination incidents should be monitored. The data should be included as a component of a final project report to public funding sources.
- The City and State should establish a centralized “hot line” to be used by construction industry workers who experience racial / ethnic harassment or discrimination.
- All publicly funded worksites should have video cameras installed to capture any possible evidence of racial harassment or discrimination.
- All incidents of racial harassment and discrimination should be automatically reported to the EEOC.
In addition to these actions, we agree completely with Kevin Lumpkin, an African-American construction company owner on the Comcast site, who has said that racial slurs and intimidation continues at Philadelphia worksites, in part, because African-American workers won’t speak up. “They are afraid for their jobs and the backlash that will follow,” he said to a reporter at the Tribune. That, too, must change.
These steps, and others, will ensure that the long – awaited inclusion of African-Americans and other minorities in the local construction industry workforce will be carried out with minimal, future, job site antagonism.
The result should be a more harmonious growth in the overall capacity of the local construction industry workforce, a stronger local economy and a reduction of dangerously high levels of black unemployment.
What are we waiting for?
###
Thousands of other primarily African-American Philadelphians, who didn’t make the trip to Louisiana, also evidenced their solidarity with the Jena Six, by wearing all-black clothing to work on the day of the national demonstration. As in many other cities across the country, local demonstrations were also held in Philadelphia, wherein mostly young participants pledged their continuing support to fighting racism and injustice, wherever they raised their ugly heads in the future.
In light of recent events, it appears that if they wanted to demonstrate against hangman’s nooses and discriminatory treatment, the protesters didn’t really have to make the 24-hour bus trip to Jena, after all. It’s clear now that they only had to go to 17th and John F. Kennedy Boulevard, in Philadelphia, the site where the City’s largest office building, the Comcast Tower, is currently under construction.
Last Monday, a white construction worker at the Comcast worksite shook a hangman’s noose in the face of Paul Solomon, a black hoist operator, and, according to Solomon, said he “wanted to hang somebody.”
Curiously, the Philadelphia Police Department’s Special Victims Unit, following its investigation, said that the noose incident at Comcast Towers was just a “joke.”
It didn’t take much research to determine that the Comcast noose incident was not a joke at all, and certainly not an isolated incident.
To put the “joke” reference into context, it should be recognized that 3,426 black Americans in the United States – a greater number than the entire population of Jena, Louisiana – were lynched between 1882 and 1947. For the vast majority of those lynching victims the last thing they saw before they were killed by the mobs was a hangman’s noose. Understandably, therefore, there is little tolerance or acceptance of noose “jokes” by African Americans.
Solomon went on to explain that this was, as far as he knew, not the first noose incident on the Comcast site. Just four months earlier, another white construction worker, he said, was caught on camera hanging a noose at the project and had been fired.
To their credit, managers working for the project’s developer, Lincoln Property Trust, have spoken forthrightly about their intolerance for this kind of racial harassment, when questioned by reporters. The more important issue is whether the company will move to make the long-overdue systemic changes at their projects that will eliminate these cowardly, racist activities, once and for all.
According to construction workers who would only agree to speak anonymously to the city’s largest black newspaper, the Philadelphia Tribune, “Racial slurs are evident on construction sites throughout the Philadelphia area. You see it on almost every construction site…. There’s a definite racist climate.”
In fact, as early as the year 2000, Ida L. Castro, then – chairwoman of the U.S. Equal Opportunity Commission (EEOC) was moved to comment on the Commission’s filing of 20 racial harassment lawsuits involving hangman’s nooses in the workplace. Describing the odious pattern, Castro said: “Since the late 1990’s, EEOC has witnessed a disturbing national trend of increased racial-harassment cases involving hangman’s nooses in the workplace. These cases are not confined to a particular geographic area or region of the country. Rather, they are occurring from coast to coast and border to border.”
It seems that the two noose incidents at Comcast clearly fit the general, national pattern and point to a need to take immediate action by people in Philadelphia who want to see an orderly inclusion of blacks and other so-called minorities in the local construction industry.
Make no mistake about it, there is a certain element within the industry that has decided to try to intimidate black workers at Comcast and at other construction sites across the City, and so far, they have been operating with impunity. After years of aggressively precluding black worker participation in city construction sites, it appears that some in the industry have moved to “Plan B,” i.e., “If you can’t prevent them from coming to the work site, let’s insult them, disrespect them and do everything we can, including racial intimidation, to drive them away.”
That’s where the noose comes in. The knotted rope seems to be the modern iteration of the old Klansman’s hood, a symbol meant to frighten and intimidate blacks, to hold them down, drive them out, while providing anonymity to those who use it. It appears that, since the 90’s, hoods are out and nooses are definitely in.
If you think I’m kidding, consider this:
- In 1997, at an Indianapolis construction site, Tyrone Neal, a black construction worker, was subjected to racist graffiti on the walls of a workplace toilet, a hangman’s noose was dangled in front of his face and another noose was placed around his name on a welding machine.
- In 2001, in Miami, according to the EEOC, a technical operations manager at Adelphia Cable Company subjected black employees to racial epithets, placed a noose in his office and, on a company-sponsored “bring your child to work day,” hung the noose over his office door, where it was clearly visible to black employees and their children.
- In March 2002, the EEOC reported a settlement with Rockdale, Illinois – based Scientific Colors, Inc., in which the company agreed to inspect and remove any racial graffiti, derogatory references, images and photographs on a daily basis and to install video cameras in an effort to identify culpable employees. The racial harassment at the company has included graffiti and hangman’s nooses.
- In October 2006, according to an article yesterday in the Minnesota Spokesman – Record, an African-American- focused community newspaper, Tyrone Burns, a black boom truck driver for Winroc Construction Company in Bloomington, Minnesota, walked into the company’s warehouse and found a salmon-colored rope, tied in a hangman’s noose, dangling from a hook over his vehicle. Burns and a black co-worker, Marvin Dortsch, have filed a joint federal lawsuit against the company, alleging a pattern of racial harassment, discrimination and retaliation at Winroc. Coincidentally, the defense attorney for the construction company has referred to the noose as an “allegedly threatening rope” and Winroc’s managers initially told the two black workers that the entire noose incident was a “joke.”
- Just last week, federal investigators began to review an incident in the Hempstead, Long Island Police Department locker room, where a noose was found hanging from a ceiling pipe, apparently directed at Willie Dixon, a deputy police chief.
- Also last week, the head of the U.S. Coast Guard and a congressman visited the Coast Guard Academy to investigate the discovery of two small hangman’s nooses on Coast Guard properties, and
- On October 4, in the third incident of racial workplace intimidation in the Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania area over a single, one-week period, a noose was discovered on a construction site in O’Hara Township.
If we are really serious about finally eliminating racial harassment on Philadelphia’s construction sites, here are several steps the City and State need to take immediately:
- In addition to a comprehensive minority workforce and contractor inclusion program, the City and State governments should adopt an absolute “no–tolerance” policy for racial harassment and intimidation, extending beyond the current, relatively ineffective, federal guidelines. Such a policy should be written into every construction industry project labor agreement, and should include strong accountability and repercussions, including permanent exclusion for individual perpetrators and contract cancellation and debarment for offending construction companies and developers.
- All racial harassment and discrimination incidents should be monitored. The data should be included as a component of a final project report to public funding sources.
- The City and State should establish a centralized “hot line” to be used by construction industry workers who experience racial / ethnic harassment or discrimination.
- All publicly funded worksites should have video cameras installed to capture any possible evidence of racial harassment or discrimination.
- All incidents of racial harassment and discrimination should be automatically reported to the EEOC.
In addition to these actions, we agree completely with Kevin Lumpkin, an African-American construction company owner on the Comcast site, who has said that racial slurs and intimidation continues at Philadelphia worksites, in part, because African-American workers won’t speak up. “They are afraid for their jobs and the backlash that will follow,” he said to a reporter at the Tribune. That, too, must change.
These steps, and others, will ensure that the long – awaited inclusion of African-Americans and other minorities in the local construction industry workforce will be carried out with minimal, future, job site antagonism.
The result should be a more harmonious growth in the overall capacity of the local construction industry workforce, a stronger local economy and a reduction of dangerously high levels of black unemployment.
What are we waiting for?
###
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)