Construction Inclusion Weeks Turns 4 with DEI Under Fire
Date Posted: October 15, 2024
Posted In: Discussion,
From Construction Dive: The fourth annual Construction Inclusion Week, a grassroots event conceived by industry leaders to combat hate on jobsites, kicks off Monday, Oct. 14 amid a renewed push to draw workers from a variety of backgrounds into the sector.
With 41% of the current construction workforce planning to retire by 2031, creating an inclusive environment is essential to meet a surging demand for construction, architecture and engineering positions, according to a CIW news release.
“To continue to deliver on our promises to build the infrastructure and spaces our communities need, we must also deliver on our promise to offer an inclusive and welcoming workplace for the industry,” said Ray Sedey, CEO of St. Louis, Missouri-based McCarthy Building Cos., and chair of CIW 2024, in the release.
A pre-election bump
The week unfolds as bias-motivated actions, which can include racist or sexist graffiti in bathrooms, displays of nooses on jobsites or hazing of workers, among other exclusionary practices, have ticked up on jobsites recently.
Turner Construction, the industry’s largest firm by annual revenue, walks and monitors its projects daily for signs of hate. With 120,000 workers on its sites, its data provides a sample into what’s happening across the industry.
After declining earlier this year, bias-motivated events — mostly graffiti in bathrooms — rose slightly this summer, according to Chris McFadden, Turner spokesperson. McFadden said the uptick follows a trend the firm has noticed in previous presidential election years.
“Tensions rise and people find reasons to disagree,” he said. “I haven’t seen anything political in our [daily] reports, but there’s just an increased angst.”