North Chicago residents call for minority participation on the new Cultural Center

News-Sun Staff Report Nov 8, 2010 4:02PM

Some residents are calling for more minority and female participation in the expansion project at the Greenbelt Cultural Center in North Chicago.

The $5.6 million project includes the construction of a new 18,500-square-foot building adjacent to the existing facility, which is owned and operated by the Lake County Forest Preserve District.

Waukegan resident Chris Blanks, local president of Al Sharpton’s National Action Network, said Thursday that no black or female laborers are working on the project.

“It’s an embarrassment,” Blanks said. “This is a Lake County cultural center erected and established in the name of cultural expression and diversity, but we don’t see this as far as where our tax dollars go in. This is $5 million building.”

Blanks said Thursday morning that members of his group would protest at the center Thursday afternoon.

Lake County Forest Preserve Board member Angelo Kyle of Waukegan said he was aware of Blanks’ complaints. Kyle said that he had spoken with the general contractor of the project, who said they use the workers sent to the project by the unions.

Kyle said he believes contractors could exert authority to request minority and female participation. He said he was unsure if the forest preserve district would address the matter, but added that he feels minorities need to be involved “with the influx of construction in the county” resulting from federal stimulus programs.

District Executive Director Tom Hahn said Thursday that the district has a purchasing policy that includes open bidding and the selection of the lowest responsible bidder. The district does not have a minority hiring policy included in its contract awards, he said.

http://newssun.suntimes.com/news/2241764-418/project-minority-district-participation-blanks.html

Foresters ask contractors to hire more minorities

By Jim Newton jnewton@stmedianetwork.com Nov 11, 2010 08:50PM

Following a protest last week at which pickets pointed out the lack of diversity among construction workers at the Greenbelt Cultural Center expansion project in North Chicago, Lake County Forest Preserve District officials have asked the project’s contractors to increase minority participation.

District Executive Director Tom Hahn told the Forest Board’s Finance Committee Thursday that following the protest, he consulted with district legal counsel and was told that under state law, the district cannot force contractors to hire women and minorities, but it can request that they do so.

District officials then made that request to the $5.6 million expansion project’s construction manager and 20 contractors.

“I think we are doing all we can within the policy and laws we are covered by,” Hahn said, noting that the district already had been encouraging minority contractors to produce bids in through the Forest Preserve District’s open bidding process.

The board’s three black members, Angelo Kyle and Mary Ross Cunningham of Waukegan and Audrey Nixon of North Chicago, all said the lack of black workers at a project in the heart of a minority community was especially upsetting to residents.

“It’s in a community that’s mostly African-American,” Nixon said at Thursday’s meeting.

The committee agreed that minority and female representation should be increased in forest preserve projects in all communities, and agreed to consider looking at the qualification requirements for contractors to see if the “benchmarks” with regard to issues such as years of experience and the number of past projects are too high, a suggestion made by committee member David Stolman of Buffalo Grove.

Although construction projects are down because of the economy, Forest Board President Bonnie Thomson Carter of Ingleside said the district should continue to address the issue each year and consider legislative proposals that could give the district more leverage in boosting minority hiring.

http://newssun.suntimes.com/news/2340061-418/district-contractors-forest-minority-preserve.html

Portrait of a San Francisco construction worker: Not Black, Not a Woman, Not a City Resident

Portrait of a San Francisco construction worker

11.11.10 - 2:22 pm | Sarah Phelan

Protesting unemployment

Sarah Phelan

The nation has a black president and a female Secretary of State. But only three percent of San Francisco's construction workforce are black or female.

One of the many fascinating pieces of data to emerge in the discussion about Sup. John Avalos’ proposal to mandate local hiring is a recently published analysis of the characteristics of construction workers whose primary workplace is San Francisco.

In October, L. Luster & Associates published a labor market analysis, using data from EDD payrolls and the U.S. Census American Community Survey, that shows there were 14,629 construction workers employed in San Francisco in June 2010. And that five trades currently dominate this workforce and constitute more than 75 percent of the total numbers of construction workers employed in the city.

Carpenters are the biggest group (4,623 workers) followed by construction laborers (2,796 workers) painters (1,459 workers), electricians (1,119 workers) and plumbers, pipe fitters and steamfitters (1,023 workers).

But while this population shows racial diversity (whites and Latinos each make up about 40 percent of the workforce, followed by Asians and Pacific Islanders at 17 percent) African Americans and women each account for only 3 percent of this market. In other words, only 440 African Americans and 405 women were construction workers in June 2010, compared to 5,830 Latinos, 5673 whites, 2,528 Asians and Pacific Islanders.

So, how do these ethnic percentages compare with San Francisco’s overall distribution?
“Latinos make up a considerably larger portion of workforce than they do the overall population (40 percent of construction workforce v. 13 percent of city’s population),” the Luster report states. “ All other major racial categories constitute a smaller portion of the construction workforce than they do of the total population: Whites (39 percent of construction workforce compared to 49 percent of city population overall) followed by Asian and Pacific Islanders (17 percent compared to 28 percent overall) and African Americans (3 percent compared to 6 percent overall.)

(That last statistic should be a shocker: What?! Only six percent of San Francisco's current residents are African American?! But the city produced a report two years that detailed the "black out migration” –but provided little money or authority to help follow through on the report’s various recommendations).

Meanwhile, Luster’s report concludes that, “the main imbalance between the employed construction workforce and the San Francisco population lies with the gender distribution. Women comprise only 3 percent of the 14,629 construction workers in San Francisco, whereas they account for nearly half of the overall population.”

Next up in the Luster report was the question of residency. And according to its findings, only 39 percent of workers employed in San Francisco’s construction industry call the city and county of San Francisco their home.

San Mateo County is home to 18 percent of this workforce, Alameda County accounts for another 17 percent, Contra Costa County is home to 13 percent, Sonoma and Marin each are home to 8 percent, and Napa and Solano County each account for a further 5 percent.

These numbers are significant in a number of ways. For instance, 2, 636 workers commute in from San Mateo, 2,418 from Alameda, 1,929 from Contra Costa, 1,197 from Sonoma and Marin, and 773 workers from Napa and Solano, all of which adds up to wear and tear on roads, impacts on air quality, and increased levels of greenhouse gas generation (depending on whether these workers take public transit, car pool or drive the freeways solo, of course).

It also means that when communities oppose aspects of a local construction project—be it a proposed bridge over Yosemite Slough, or a proposed mega-hospital on Cathedral Hill—they are likely to encounter opposition from a workforce that increasingly lives outside San Francisco, faces a 40 percent unemployment rate, and can be mobilized to show support for these projects, either through showing up physically at meetings or through union dues that can be used to wage political wars with far-reaching percussions for the ability of local residents to influence local land use and economic development decisions.

So, why do so many construction workers live outside San Francisco? The obvious reasons are their relatively low income levels and their related inability to afford housing in the city.

According to Luster’s report, “nearly 33 percent of these workers report earnings of less than $30,000 per year” (based on data that incorporates union and non-union workers, and part-time workers).

Another way of looking at this is to study Luster’s analysis of construction workers who currently live in San Francisco.

“From EDD payroll data and from historic employment relationships between San Francisco, San Mateo, and Marin counties, we estimate there were 7,855 construction workers residing in San Francisco and who were employed as of June 2010—roughly 1 percent of total residents in the city,” Luster reports.

The Luster report also notes that the same five trades make up an even higher proportion of the resident employed construction workforce than they did the total employed construction workforce in the city (86 percent v 75 percent). But now the top two places are reversed: Construction Laborers is the largest trade with 2,442 workers, followed by Carpenters (1,914 workers), Painters (1,122 workers), Electricians (814 workers) and Plumbers (484 workers).

The ethnic distribution of these resident workers is also diverse. Whites (34 percent,) Latinos (31 percent), Asians and Pacific Islanders (30 percent, which is considerably higher than for the overall workforce employed in San Francisco) and African Americans (5 percent).

But women, once again, make up only 3 percent of residents in construction employment.

The Luster report takes the analysis one step further by looking at age distribution. This criterion reveals that the white resident construction workforce is aging, as is the Asian resident construction workforce, though to a lesser extent.

“By contract, the Latino workforce is concentrated among the younger age groups, particularly among the 25-34 age group,” Luster notes. “Of note, 47 percent of the resident San Francisco construction workforce is over the age of 45. Moreover, 23 percent is already 55 years and older. Currently, the number of workers aged 55-64 is 1,544 and declines to 264 for workers aged 65 and older, dropping from 20 percent of the workforce to 3 percent. If construction workers continue to leave the sector in the same proportions by the time they reach 64, a sizeable number of new openings will be created.”

The report, which goes into detailed breakdowns of apprentices (each of the four largest ethnic groups have almost equal shares, and women have 10 percent), the construction trades (which has a greater participation of white workers) and journey people, also gets into workforce projections (the bulk of the jobs generated by the city’s Capital Plan will be generated within the first five years) local hire programs and policy issues. As such, it’s a must-read for those following Avalos’ proposed local hire legislation, and you can view the full report by clicking here.

http://www.sfbg.com/politics/2010/11/11/portrait-san-francisco-construction-worker

Feds investigate NY Public-Works Construction Hiring: Fraud, Exclusion, or Unrealistic DBE Requirements?

Fraud Inquiries Focus on Public-Works Construction Hiring in New York
Public works projects in New York are among those under federal scrutiny, with contractors’ evasion of hiring requirements suspected.

Hiroko Masuike for The New York Times

Workers from Skanska USA Civil Northeast at the Fulton Street Transit Center in Lower Manhattan. The company is the subject of an investigation by federal prosecutors in Manhattan.

By WILLIAM K. RASHBAUM

Published: November 23, 2010

Two of the nation’s major construction companies are under federal investigation, suspected of defrauding government programs on some of the biggest public-works projects in and around New York City, according to people briefed on the inquiries.

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The projects under scrutiny include the city’s $2.8 billion Croton Water Treatment Plant and the Metropolitan Transportation Authority’s $1.4 billion Fulton Street Transit Center in Lower Manhattan, the people briefed on the investigations said.

The two inquiries focus on accusations that the contractors used what were essentially front companies to evade requirements that they hire a certain percentage of subcontractors owned by minorities or women, or businesses certified by government agencies as disadvantaged, the people said.

One of the investigations is expected to be resolved in the coming days with an agreement between one contractor under scrutiny, Schiavone Construction Company, and federal prosecutors in Brooklyn. The agreement will allow Schiavone, one of region’s biggest tunneling contractors, to avoid criminal charges but will require it to pay more than $20 million and maintain certain internal reforms it has put in place, the people said.

The second investigation focuses on Skanska USA Civil Northeast, a subsidiary of Skanska USA, which is ranked among the nation’s top 10 contractors in several categories, including transportation, general building revenue and new contracts, according to several of the people, who, like others interviewed for this article, spoke on the condition of anonymity because the cases had not yet been made public.

While that inquiry, which is being conducted by federal prosecutors in Manhattan, is not as far along, people briefed on that case said it could lead to a similar — perhaps even larger — payment.

Neither company has been charged with a crime.

A lawyer for Skanska, Martin Flumenbaum, said Tuesday: “We understand that there is a broad inquiry relating to the use of minority business enterprises in public-works construction projects in the New York area. Skanska is cooperating fully in connection with that inquiry and is committed fully to complying with laws and regulations governing the use of minority business enterprises.”

Austin V. Campriello, who represents Schiavone, declined to comment. The company was bought in 2007 by Dragados Inversiones USA, part of a Spanish construction conglomerate, after the conduct at the center of the investigation was said to have occurred.

Taken together, the two cases underscore what some law enforcement officials and analysts say is the systemic abuse of similar city, state and federal programs put in place in an effort to level the playing field for companies owned by minorities and women and those certified as disadvantaged.

In New York State, billions of dollars have flowed through this patchwork of programs in recent years, although precise figures are hard to compile.

The projects under scrutiny in the two investigations, which prosecutors are conducting with the transportation authority’s inspector general, are not the only major undertakings by Schiavone and Skanska in the city. In joint ventures with a third company, they are also involved in some of the authority’s most ambitious efforts. They have a $1.14 billion contract to build the tunnels and station structures for the No. 7 subway line extension and a $337 million contract to build some of the tunnels for the Second Avenue subway, though no accusations of wrongdoing have been raised in connection with those projects.

The schemes at the center of the two investigations are simple: Rather than hire a minority- or women-owned subcontractor or a company the federal government has certified as a struggling business, the contractors ran the payroll for their own workers — or paid another subcontractor — through a minority company that served as a “pass through.”

In the case of Schiavone, based in Secaucus, N.J., part of the scheme centered on a company hired to haul away dirt excavated from the water-treatment plant project and work at the $530 million South Ferry subway station renovation and at the Times Square station. The company did a tiny part of the work, while most of it was performed by another company, a mob-connected trucking firm, the people briefed on the case said.

Skanska, those with knowledge of that case said, paid workers for dewatering and demolition at the Fulton Street Transit Center site through a company called Environmental Energy Associates in Ridgefield, N.J. That company, a certified disadvantaged business enterprise, or D.B.E., collected a fee for the service it provided, handling just the payroll, the people said.

Representatives of the offices of the United States attorney in Brooklyn, Loretta E. Lynch, and the Manhattan United States attorney, Preet Bharara, declined to comment on Tuesday.

Several law enforcement officials who investigate construction corruption acknowledged that the goals for the participation of minority- and women-owned contractors and disadvantaged businesses often did not accurately reflect the universe of qualified companies.

A longtime construction industry official who has worked with community groups in an effort to increase the level of participation by female and minority contractors said the often-limited options had made a range of sometimes illegal — at times blatant — solutions commonplace.

The complex set of requirements for certification as a disadvantaged contractor includes being a member of what the federal government characterizes as a “socially or economically disadvantaged” group — women, blacks, Native Americans, Asians and others — as well as a $750,000 limit on personal net worth, a maximum average gross receipts for the business over three years of roughly $22 million and a certain measure of independence from non-D.B.E. firms.

Prosecutors, investigators and industry observers said it was hard to measure the scope of this type of fraud, but most agreed it was widespread. And while such crimes do not result in the theft of government funds — the money is paid and the work is done — they undermine the intent of the federal, state and local laws, which were written to create opportunities for struggling and minority- and women-owned companies. Also, in the view of some, they contribute to a culture of corruption in the industry.

Prosecutors in the United States attorney’s office in Brooklyn have long focused on such cases.

Its Federal Construction Fraud Task Force has made 61 arrests over the past decade for crimes related to this type of fraud. As a result, forfeiture orders have totaled more than $150 million, and 28 people and companies have been banned from seeking additional federal contracts, according to a recent court filing.

But while the United States attorney’s office in Manhattan has seldom made such cases, the investigation of Skanska signals an increased focus in this area for the prosecutors there, some officials have said.

The reasons seem clear. In the past year, New York City’s four-year-old program has resulted in $511 million in prime contracts and subcontracts for certified companies, according to the Mayor’s Office of Contract Services. Over the life of the city’s program — referred to as W/MBE, for women- and minority-owned business enterprise — more than $1 billion has gone to such contracts, according to the office.

At just one federal agency, the Transportation Department, a similar program resulted in $617 million worth of prime and subcontracts in 2009 in New York, New Jersey and Connecticut, officials said. That money was for highway and transportation projects, like the Metropolitan Transportation Authority ones under scrutiny in the two cases, the officials said. That federal program, which certifies and assists what it characterizes as disadvantaged business enterprises, was in some measure the model for the city’s effort.

The investigations developed in two ways. The Brooklyn inquiry grew out of a case focused on mob influence in the trucking industry and the work of an independent monitor who had been hired by the transportation authority to oversee the downtown projects after a scandal involving the construction of the agency’s headquarters, at 2 Broadway.

The trucking investigation uncovered the scheme at the water filtration plant, and the monitor, Toby Thacher, developed information indicating that the disadvantaged business enterprises working on the authority’s projects were fronts. The information was passed on to the office of the transportation authority’s inspector general, Barry Kluger. His office and the federal prosecutors, who in the Brooklyn case worked with the city’s Department of Investigation on the water-treatment plant inquiry, built the cases.

This article has been revised to reflect the following correction:

Correction: November 23, 2010

An earlier version of this article misstated the location of a water treatment facility for New York City.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/24/nyregion/24fraud.html?pagewanted=1&_r=5

Walsh gives boost to Woman Contractor who gives boost to Tradeswomen

Subcontractor gets boost to contractor

POSTED: Thursday, April 22, 2010 at 04:11 PM PT
BY: Justin Carinci
Tags: Great Kate! Construction, Walsh Construction

Walsh Construction is helping build the skills of small contractor Great Kate Construction, letting it serve as general contractor on the Celilo Court Apartments renovation. The experience will allow Great Kate to bid million-dollar-plus projects as a general contractor. (Photo by Dan Carter/DJC)

Kathryn Merritt had remodeled enough homes that the Celilo Court Apartments project didn’t scare her. “I could do these buildings in my sleep,” she said.

However, Merritt, owner of Great Kate Construction, hadn’t counted on the paperwork and administrative hoops required in public contracting, “I’m going to print up my own MBA when this job’s done,” she said.

Great Kate is general contractor for that 28-unit apartment complex overhaul in Northeast Portland, worth more than $1 million.

The project came from a unique arrangement between Walsh Constructionand Great Kate. Walsh won a contract with the Housing Authority of Portland to serve as construction manager-general contractor on five apartment complex remodel jobs.

For one of those, Celilo Court, Walsh turned the project over to Great Kate. It’s a vote of confidence, said Dan Snow, senior project manager for Walsh; he knows his company’s reputation with the housing authority is on the line.

“We’re ultimately responsible for everything on the project,” Snow said. “They know they can come back to us on anything.

“We hold (Great Kate) to pretty high standards - the same standards we’re held to,” he said.

Great Kate has done the type of work on the project - new floors, furnaces, water heaters, kitchens - many times. “It’s not a huge construction leap for her,” Snow said. “Administrative, yes. Construction-wise, it’s not too far out of her box.”

Walsh has twice worked with small contractors like Great Kate, helping them develop skills so they can grow from subcontractor to general contractor. When she’s done with Celilo Court, Merritt can bid as a general contractor on housing authority or other projects, which she plans to do.

Kathryn Merritt, owner of Great Kate Construction, discusses work at the Celilo Court Apartments project in Northeast Portland. (Photo by Dan Carter/DJC)

That puts Walsh in the position of boosting companies that will compete against Walsh for projects. “That is a concern,” Snow said. “But giving smaller companies, target businesses, minority- and women-owned companies the opportunity to succeed … more than outweighs the risks of having them compete against us.”

For the Celilo Court project, Merritt considers herself as much of a mentor as a mentee. “Because we have work and other people don’t, we have a responsibility to share it,” she said.

Merritt hired out-of-work contractors and sought to make sure her subcontractors use a diverse workforce. She also pays special attention to apprentices, ensuring they have opportunities to grow.

Carrie Davis, an apprentice carpenter for the Celilo Court project, said female apprentices at other jobs get stuck doing cleanup or driving trucks. “I talk to my friends and they always say, ‘I’m the only woman on the job,’ ” Davis said.

“That’s never the case here.”

Merritt, who started working as a carpenter in 1979, still resists pigeonholing. She wants to do good work, period, and not just good work for a minority-, woman- and emerging-small-business firm.

“I don’t really want to be known as a really good MWESB contractor, just like I never wanted to be known as a really good female carpenter,” she said. “We don’t need that diminutive attached to what we do.”

Part of Merritt’s training goal is to encourage talented tradeswomen to be vocal. “I have to teach them to speak up and be assertive, to say ‘Hey! I’ve got the other end of something.’ ”

Another piece is making connections. “Who you know socially affects who you can get a job from,” Merritt said.

She first connected with Walsh by meeting one of the company’s carpenters on a Habitat for Humanity job. That led to a house remodel job, and eventually Celilo Court.

Doing good work and going through established channels isn’t always enough, Merritt said. Some contractors prequalify for agency lists, register as MWESB firms and still don’t get work.

“Some of these things aren’t as valuable as taking the project manager out for a beer,” she said.

http://djcoregon.com/news/2010/04/22/subcontractor-gets-boost-to-contractor/

African Americans and Women Construction Workers on the Brink of Extinction in Chicago

Thursday, March 4, 2010

Construction’s costly decision

by David Thigpen

The closing of Chicago-area building trade union apprenticeship programs is a major setback for jobless adults enrolled in programs to help them get into the unions. But the inability of new workers to get jobs could wind up hurting contractors across the region if insufficient numbers of minorities and women are in the pipeline to meet government participation requirements.

There are two ways to look at the unions' decision to stop taking in new apprentices: Supply and demand. The government requires 19.6 percent minority and 6.9 percent participation by women on federally funded projects. In the last 10 years, participation by African Americans in nearly every union has declined. From 2001 to 2005 less than 3 percent of apprentices in northeastern Illinois were women. Latinos have made strides in the lower-paying unions, but are poorly represented in higher paying ones such as the electricians and plumbers, according to a 2006 study commissioned by the City Colleges of Chicago.

In January, the bricklayers, cement pourers, drywall finishers and carpenters became the latest to suspend programs, darkening the hopes of 52 adults who have come more than halfway through a 28-week training program at Dawson Technical Institute.

Pre2, as the program is known, sponsored by the Chicago Urban League, is funded with a federal grant and includes both classroom and hands-on training. Another 58 applicants are preparing to begin their training. Pre2 is viewed by participants as a clear pathway to a job. Now, with entry into the unions blocked, the students will need a Plan B.

For African Americans and women, entry into the construction trade unions has historically been blocked by factors that have included racism, nepotism, and hostile work environments. But the closing of apprenticeships and the shrinking legacy of Blacks working in construction threatens to hasten their near extinction from the trades.

“When I'm driving past a construction site, do I see my skin color? Maybe three or four,” said Rondale Williams, 35, a father of two who is enrolled in Pre2. “A lot of Blacks weren't interested in going into that kind of work. So I'm not knocking the unions. We shut ourselves out of a lot of things.”

Williams vowed to complete the program but is frustrated by his now bleak prospects. “I went to school for this and I still can't get in?” Williams said. “Does that mean I'm going to be sitting on the sidelines again?”

Paying upwards of $70,000 a year, construction jobs are some of the highest-paid in the country not requiring a college degree. Construction work, however, isn't for the faint of heart. It's back-breaking, dangerous and uncertain, known for long periods of layoffs.

The apprenticeship closings aren't surprising in an industry that has been marked by steep decline in the last 10 years. There are a lot of journey workers unemployed, too. But these high-paying union jobs are worth fighting for. The industry will eventually recover. But with fewer minorities and women in the pipeline, and the U.S. Department of Labor more strictly enforcing participation rules, the region's ability to compete for government contracts is in danger.

“How are you going to continue to do these projects? They are either going to get fined or shut down,” said Cheryl Freeman-Smith, director of workforce development for the Chicago Urban League. “We got federal support to get more Blacks into the union. That is the whole point of this Pre2 program. We're concerned because in an industry that has long had trouble meeting its requirements, closing the unions is going to compromise a lot of the work that's being done.”

Ironically, just four years ago, builders and construction trade unions were bracing for a wave of retirements they said threatened their ability to maintain a skilled workforce.

The Builders Association got on board to sponsor more minorities into the union apprenticeship programs, but the number of African Americans getting in remained at a trickle.

Freeman-Smith said she will continue to work to get people employed with builders participating in the Urban League's Contractor Development Program. Also, Fifth Third Bank has donated a house for Dawson students to train on. But alternatives to a total apprenticeship shutdown must be considered to maintain the industry's workforce diversity if Chicago's construction sector is to make a true and lasting recovery.

David Thigpen is vice president of policy and research at the Chicago Urban League.

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Below is an article from the Bureau of National Affairs on the Town Hall meetings on OFCCP regulations that took place in February.

Groups Call on OFCCP to Revise Hiring Rules for Construction Industry

CHICAGO—Organizations representing minorities and women in the construction trades attacked the rules governing affirmative action hiring on federally funded construction projects during a federal field hearing Feb. 5, calling the current regulatory structure antiquated and ineffective.

Groups representing African American, Hispanic, and female construction workers in the Chicago area pointed to numerous gaps in the affirmative action hiring rules administered and enforced by the U.S. Department of Labor Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs. The organizations called on OFCCP to impose more strict minority and female hiring requirements on federal contractors and harsher penalties on contractors that fail to meet their compliance duties.

Under Executive Order 11246 contractors must demonstrate good faith efforts to meet affirmative action goals for the employment of minorities and women in the construction industry. The national participation goal for women is 6.9 percent. The goals for minority hiring vary by region. The current goal for the Chicago area is 19.6 percent.

OFCCP Director Patricia A. Shiu acknowledged weaknesses in the program and promised revisions designed to enhance the roles of women and minorities on federally funded construction projects. OFCCP has previously announced plans to issue a notice of proposed rulemaking amending construction industry affirmative action requirements in January 2011.

“To say that we're behind is an understatement,” Shiu said. “We know we're behind, we're way behind. We have to do a lot to catch up. But we've got to do a lot of rebuilding before we can catch up. There was a lot that was not done. So, it is going to take some time and we are working as furiously as we can to transform.”

The comments came during the first town-hall style “listening session” organized by OFCCP as it tackles several substantive rulemaking projects this year. In addition to the rulemaking on the construction industry, OFCCP intends to issue revised affirmative action and nondiscrimination requirements under the Vietnam Era Veterans' Readjustment Assistance Act and new rules under Section 503 of the Rehabilitation Act. Similar listening sessions will be held in San Francisco, New Orleans, and Texas in the coming weeks. The agency has also held a series of web-based meetings to solicit views on the three rulemaking projects.

Tougher Enforcement Advocated

Arthur Gass, president of the Black Chamber of Commerce of Lake County, said minorities face substantial obstacles as they seek to enter the construction trades in the Chicago area. Pointing to an immediate problem, Gass noted that nearly every apprenticeship program affiliated with the Chicago and Cook County Building and Construction Trades Council has been closed to newcomers. The council has said the programs would likely remain closed for the rest of the year. Gass said the closure could prevent contractors from meeting their minority hiring targets on federal projects for years.

But Gass said the much larger problem is that OFCCP does not meaningfully enforce affirmative action hiring goals. Gass said OFCCP rarely acts to debar contractors found to be in violation and fines are not taken seriously.

“I'm concerned that the contractors will just continue to violate the law,” he said. “They know they could get a fine, but they continue to operate as usual. This is happening so much, that they will build the fine into the cost of doing business. This is serious.”

Lauren Sugarman, executive director of Chicago Women in Trades, expressed a similar perspective regarding contractors' duties to hire women.

“I think enforcement of sanctions against noncompliant contractors is the most essential thing,” Sugarman said. “I think there have been very few debarments or restrictions on contractors considered by the federal government, yet there are a lot of noncompliant contractors and that should really change.”

Sugarman suggested that the 6.9 percent goal for female hiring be boosted to ensure wider usage of women on federally funded projects. She said the 6.9 percent goal was established more than 30 years ago and does not accurately reflect the roles women are currently playing in the workforce.

In addition, Sugarman said OFCCP should revise the “good faith” yardstick by which contractors are graded for achieving their hiring targets. Sugarman said the good faith standard has become a loophole, permitting contractors to actively avoid compliance. She urged the agency to develop more rigorous strategies for assessing the performance of contractors.

“We've seen 30 years of good faith,” she said, “but good faith has not turned into good numbers or good accountability.”

Wendy Pollock, director of the Women's Law and Policy Center at the Sargent Shriver National Center on Poverty Law, agreed and encouraged OFCCP to develop standards that broadly evaluate the performance of contractors. While the agency has tended to focus on the numbers of women hired for a specific project, Pollock said OFCCP should probably be asking a much broader list of questions including: what steps are taken to recruit female workers; when are female workers hired; when are female workers released from the project; what is done to retain female workers; what training is provided to female workers; and, what steps are taken to curb sexual harassment.

“My experience in talking to women in the trades has been sort of a ‘last-hired-first- fired’ situation,” Pollock said. “The OFFCP's job has to be a lot more visionary and holistic, not only with respect to ending occupational segregation, but also as an antipoverty strategy.”

Disabilities Also an Issue

In a separate session earlier in the day, Shiu and her staff focused on potential regulations under Section 503 of the Rehabilitation Act, which requires employers with federal contracts that exceed $10,000 to take affirmative action to hire, retain, and promote qualifiedindividuals with disabilities.

Joe Chiappetta, managing director of the Chicagoland Chamber of Commerce‘s “disabilityworks” program, said businesses continue to fail to hire disabled workers in large numbers. He said many of the problems involve confusion over federal rules pertaining to appropriate procedures for recruiting and hiring. He pointed to additional confusion over legal requirements pertaining to accommodations for the disabled.

Chiappetta encouraged OFCCP to do more to offer incentives to employers. While some incentive programs encourage businesses to hire disabled workers, Chiappetta said the programs are cumbersome and underfunded.

“To me the biggest issue is that the incentives that go along with hiring people with disabilities are not understandable and not digestible,” he said. “And there just isn't enough. It's not attractive to business.”