News
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Street Roots • October 6-12, 2017
P H O T O BY E M IL Y GREEN
Construction workers attend a Workers Rights Board meeting in July. The T-shirt being shown says “si se puede, ” or “yes we can, ” coined by labor leader Cesar Chavez.
City stalled on fair and equitable contracting
Portland labor groups demand end to worker exploitation on all publicly funded construction projects
BY EM ILY GREEN
S T A F F W R IT E R
ressure is mounting on local
policymakers to ensure taxpayer-funded
construction projects aren’t used to
exploit workers, but rather to train and provide
meaningful employment to members of
marginalized communities.
To accomplish these goals, on
recommendation from local trade unions and
labor rights groups, the Portland-area Workers
Rights Board wants officials
to use the Community
Si
Apologies a sil morals
Benefits Agreement model
on all construction projects
and a few ta itd re d boas-
in Portland and Multnomah
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on Oct. 3 and to Portland
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Is one of the most taper»
It’s not a new idea. City
Council in 2012
ia a l things we can do.
unanimously passed a
CHLOE e y O A L Y ,
P O R T L A N D C ITY' C O M M IS S IO N E R
resolution to consider CBAs
for projects costing $15
million or more. Since the
completion of two successful pilot projects,
however, the model has been abandoned.
CBAs establish minority and women
apprenticeship and journey-level goals, as well
as the utilization of contracting companies
owned by members of disadvantaged
communities.
The agreements were created in response to
a 2009 disparity study that showed significant
P
underutilization of women- and minority-owned
contractors on city projects.
The CBA model was tested on two city
projects, the Kelly Butte Reservoir and
Interstate Maintenance Facility. Both
surpassed women and minority apprenticeship
goals and disadvantaged-contractor goals. Only
the goal for women journey-level positions was
unmet.
Both projects came in on time and under
budget and utilized an oversight committee to
ensure fair labor practices were being met at
job sites.
Proponents of these agreements are
dumbfounded as to why the city is proposing to
replace CBAs with what they say is a watered-
down and loophole-filled plan for projects
costing more than $10 million.
“I’m perplexed why we wouldn’t stick to the
proven model of the CBA when we’ve had two
very successful pilot projects that were run
through the Water Bureau,” Commissioner
Chloe Eudaly said. She campaigned, in part, on
more widespread use of this model and said
much of what makes CBAs successful is
missing from the city’s proposed plan.
“Apologies and murals and a few hundred
housing units are not enough for what’s been
done to minorities in our community,” Eudaly
said. “Providing workforce training and living-
wage jobs to people who have been denied
economic opportunity for generations is one of
the most important things we can do, and
these are public dollars that we’re spending,
and I think we should be spending them on the
most responsible and beneficial way possible.”
CBAs include oversight committees that visit
job sites, checking on-the-ground compliance
and talking to workers. Labor rights activists
say this ensures that tax dollars aren’t going to
exploit workers because unscrupulous
contractors and subcontractors are quickly
expunged from projects.
“They key to success lies in the teeth of the
oversight committee. Otherwise we basically
run the risk of becoming another feel-good
ordinance that looks great on paper but really
does nothing to help anyone,” Ben Basom
recently told a room full of construction
workers and their families. Basom is the
communications director at Pacific Northwest
Regional Council of Carpenters and helped
shape the CBA model.
It was July 27, and he was speaking in the
auditorium at St. Charles Church in Northeast
Portland. It was packed for a meeting of the
Workers Rights Board.
The four-member board - composed of
Oregon Rep. Diego Hernandez (D-Portland),
Portland State University economics professor
emerita Mary King, the Rev. Jack Mosbrucker
and community organizer Ranfis Villatoro -
was convened by Portland Jobs With Justice in
response to a request from the Northwest
Regional Council of Carpenters.
It was from this meeting that the board’s
report delivered to Portland officials this past
week was crafted. It’s titled “Exploitation of
Immigrant Carpenters in Portland: Community
Strategies for Justice,” and can be read in full
at news.streetroots.org.
The board listened in the church’s
auditorium that day to four Latino wood
framers share stories of being exploited in
Portland’s construction industry.
Jésus Pulido immigrated to the U.S. from
Michoacân, Mexico, when he was 6 years old.
At age 16, he followed in his father’s footsteps
and began working in construction. He said
that right away, he noticed Hispanic workers
See CBA, page 5