ANALYSIS: A Plus Week for Equity in Our Industry
Date Posted: August 11, 2017
Posted In: Ideas, Workforce,
by Tom Finan, Executive Director, Construction Forum STL
This was a week that offered some insights, some drama, and possibly some long term hope in the efforts to create equity within our industry and our region.
Wednesday morning St. Louis Community College unveiled its 2017 State of the St. Louis Workforce Report. The report revealed what we in the construction industry have known for too long: There is a huge looming gap in skilled workers, which we have already been feeling. Fifty-three percent of the jobs that are available are in the “middle skills” area, requiring a diploma or GED, but not a degree.
Dr. John Gaal, director of workforce development and training for the STL/KC Carpenters regional council spoke eloquently on the need for focus on apprenticeship. He noted the success of the recent “BUD Light” program which placed all eight of its first class — four from Parkway and four from SLPS. But he noted that that the city students had more difficulty in placement, simply because of their lack of access to transportation.
That same morning the word was circulating that changes were afoot at the St. Louis Agency for Training and Employment (SLATE). The previous day, in a meeting in Mayor Lyda Krewson’s office, longtime SLATE Director Michael Holmes had been told that he would not be reappointed in Krewson’s administration.
Thursday afternoon Mayor Krewson announced that Dr. Alice Prince, who has initiated some very innovative programs at SLATE, including a 24-hour school to allow young people to earn their diplomas and “employment pop-up shops” that go into high crime neighborhoods to connect young people with jobs.
In an April interview on the city’s public access channel, Dr. Prince said that her group had “street cred” — something that has been sorely needed in the effort to connect young people with jobs.
Late Thursday afternoon the fat lady more or less sang in the (soap) opera of the contentious MSD Deer Creek Tunnel award saga. The MSD board approved the award of the project to SAK Construction as part of its consensus agenda, meaning that there was no discussion. SAK had protested the award of the contract to JD/FK, a joint venture from Michigan and Indiana. The protest was based on the inclusion of A.L.L Construction, an MBE contractor with which MSD had previously had issues.
Tom Sullivan, longtime MSD ratepayer goad, spoke during the public comment section of the board meeting, alleging political collusion in the bid process. Sullivan has requested St. Louis Circuit Attorney Kimberly Gardner to investigate the award to SAK as a violation of MSD’s charter. On Tuesday, Anthony Lumpkin, owner of A.L.L. announced that he was filing suit against MSD, claiming that its removal of his company from the Deer Creek bid had severely damaged his business. An unsuccessful bidder from Wisconsin with a history of protesting flawed bidding processes weighed in with a letter to MSD.
By coincidence, the day before the board meeting I sat next to MSD Executive Director Brian Hoelsher at the SLCC workforce report presentation.. We talked briefly before the presentation about the situation at his agency and about the workforce and contractor situation in the industry in general. Hoelsher pointed out that, because of their heavy equipment/excavation nature, the MSD projects in the pipeline will employ only about 500 people.
I reminded him of an analysis we had published: “MSD Projects: Bidding in a Dysfunctional Game.” The bottom line is that people game the system because they have to. We simply don’t have the capacity in the MBE/WBE contractor arena, or in the trades — never mind the race, ethnicity or gender — to do the work we have in the pipeline. We don’t have MBE/WBE contractors because we don’t have sufficient minorities and women in the trades, which is the most reliable path to business ownership in our industry.
“This is going to take 10 to 20 years to fix. We have got to help kids find out about the opportunities in our industry,” Jeff Aboussie, former head of the St. Louis Building and Construction Trades Council said when we talked about some of these issues on Thursday.
We could not agree more. The unofficial mantra of the Construction Forum Education Foundation is, “the future of the industry and the region is under five feet tall.” By that we do not at all mean to ignore the efforts to move unemployed young adults to productive careers or to help build MBE/WBE businesses.
But a collaborative, region-wide, effort to engage young people, to broaden their horizons regarding possibilities for a productive life, and to walk alongside them with life skills mentoring is long overdue.
Mayor Krewson has demonstrated her grasp of both the global and the granular detail of this issue by her appointment of an educator with “street cred” to head SLATE . We hope that this can be a first step in a collaborative, region-wide effort to address the issues of both employment and social equity.