Street Roots • October 6-12, 2017
News
Page 5
CBA, from page 4
weren t treated the same as other workers.
They took advantage of people because
they re afraid. They are not here legally in
this country,” he said with the help of a
translator. “One time I worked for cash, no
receipts or anything, and they ended up
owing me $3,000, and I couldn’t do anything
about that.”
His brother, Antonio Pulido, spoke of
inadequate training and safety equipment.
“Sometimes we weren’t able to attach
ourselves correctly to do the work we had to
do,” he said. “I have heard of many people
who have fallen down and gotten hurt, and
even lost their lives, without having the
adequate equipment that they needed.”
According to Oregon OSHA, there were
510 accepted disabling claims for
fund compliance activities, increasing capacity
construction-related falls and slips across the
through community outreach and workforce
state in 2015, the most recent year data is
building.
available.
While CBAs would still be considered for
Juan Sanchez, who now works for the
select city projects costing $25 million or more
Northwest Regional Council of Carpenters,
under the city’s new proposed plan, advocates
told the board that when he arrived in
say that’s too few projects.
Portland, the contractor he worked for
“The smaller projects are more accessible
deducted from his paycheck rent, money for
for minority contractors because their bonding
riding in the work van, and money to pay for
capacity is not big, so why not try to extend
the use of tools. After two months of full-time
something that has diversity goals on all the
work, he was paid $200.
projects?” asked Kelly Haines, senior project
“My story is repeating today,” he said.
manager at Work Systems. “It would help with
“Right now, somebody is working under the
scale-ability, and that’s what the city of Seattle
same circumstances that I worked under 18
has figured out.”
years ago in this city.”
Seattle uses a model similar to Portland’s
Basom, who’s been investigating labor
CBA structure, called Community Workforce
complaints for the past 11 years said, “I’ve
Agreements, on all
worked dozens of these
public works projects
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costing $5 million or
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construction projects.”
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approved without it.
P A C IF IC N O R T H W E S T R E G IO N A L
Roots reported on these
C O U N C IL O F C A R P E N T E R S
“The biggest fight
worker issues in
was with the Portland
Portland, finding that
Building (remodel),”
many taxpayer-funded
she said, “because
projects were also ripe
that’s $200 million,
with exploitation. Read the report at
and we were very vocal in all the public
news.streetroots.org/workerexploitation.
venues, and we had dozens and dozens of
Problems with worker abuse often lay with
organizations representing tens of thousands
subcontractors working under the prime
of people saying ‘Use a CBA on this,’ and we
general contractor. Typically, it’s Latino
were unsuccessful. They did not apply a CBA.”
immigrants working for these non-union
While the city has goals for minority- and
subcontractors who are most likely to be
women-owned subcontractors on other city
subject to exploitation, wage theft and threats
projects, they aren’t always met.
of retaliation if they speak up or attempt to
“We have some modest utilization goals, and
organize.
that’s what we’re making exceptions on,”
Basom believes widespread adoption of the
Eudaly said. She said in some cases,
CBA model on public projects will help change
contractors come before council to be granted
the overall face of Portland’s construction sites exemptions on meeting those goals. While she
in a positive way.
said there are legitimate challenges to meeting
“I feel we need this now more than ever. We them, it’s in part because the city needs to
are seeing a construction boom in Portland,”
invest in developing minorities and women in
he said. “If we don’t act now, Portland is just
the building trades workforce, which CBAs do.
going to become a bigger hotbed for worker
“There also has to be a consequence if you
exploitation.”
don’t meet the minimal standards,” she said.
He said because volunteers, including union
The city delayed a vote on its new proposed
representatives, on CBA oversight committees
plan for projects in excess of $10 million,
conduct much of the investigation into
called the Community Equity and Inclusion
compliance, “we feel this is a small ask from
Plan, after nearly unanimous criticism from
these public entities.”
public commenters during a council meeting
The board’s report also recommends that
in July.
CBAs continue to include a set-aside equal to 1
Commenters did, however, support an
percent of the total project cost, which would
amendment proposed by Commissioner Dan
P H O T O B Y E M IL Y G R E E N
Saltzman that would replace language to
consider CBAs for projects costing $25 million
with a requirement that CBAs are used on all of
those projects.
Michael Cox, Mayor Ted Wheeler’s
spokesperson, said a vote on the city’s plan
and Saltzman’s amendment is expected in late
October, although it could be delayed another
week or two.
He said the reason for lifting the threshold
for CBAs to $25 million was because it’s the
city’s price point for meeting both community
goals and efficiency.
But Haines worries that in the spirit of
being efficient, the city is losing the
thoroughness in its Community Equity and
Inclusion Plan that makes CBAs so beneficial.
The new plan comes after an outside
consultant’s evaluation of the CBA pilot
projects that found while most goals were met,
there was room for improvement.
Since that report, labor and community
groups have created an updated template for
CBAs moving forward, intended to address
concerns and fine-tune the agreements.
The carpenters’ union plans to share the
Workers Rights Board recommendation to fully
implement CBAs on all projects with
Multnomah County officials later this month.
The county has used a model similar to
CBAs, called Project Labor Agreements, on its
new courthouse and health department
headquarters. It publishes monthly reports
showing how close it’s coming to meeting its
equity goals online, however as of July, the
courthouse project was falling short of
meeting its minority workforce journey hour
and women apprenticeship workforce hour
goals.
Lee Fleming, who has been instrumental in
the county’s adoption of Project Labor
Agreements, agreed that site visits and
oversight are key to compliance.
But the county, too, only utilizes its Project
Labor Agreements on large, multimillion-dollar
non-low-bid projects.
A coalition of labor rights advocates,
Metropolitan Alliance for Workforce Equity,
have told City Council to vote no on its
proposed plan. Advocates say that for CBAs to
truly empower marginalized workers and put a
dent in worker exploitation, more widespread
implementation is necessary.
“For years, immigrant construction workers
in the Portland area have experienced
substantial, illegal abuses on the job,” states
the Workers Rights Board report. “Community
Benefits Agreements (CBAs) represent the
most successful strategy available for
combatting illegal abuse and under
representation on publicly funded construction
projects.”
Jésus Pulido
(right), a wood
framing
carpenter,
speaks on a
Workers Rights
Board panel in
July.