April 20, 2022
Page 3
INSIDE L ocaL N ews
Biden to Visit Thursday
President to tout
infrastructure
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President Joe Biden is scheduled to be in Portland Thursday to talk
about investments being made with last year’s infrastructure bill,
and hold a fundraiser for other Democrats.
on these kinds of initiatives as
his more ambitious agenda to
boost education, social services
and climate change initiatives
remains stalled.
With the midterm elections
approaching later this year, the
president is eager to convince
voters that one of his adminis-
tration's top accomplishments
is creating concrete progress af-
ter years of unfulfilled promises
from his predecessor, President
Donald Trump, who never cut a
deal on infrastructure spending.
According to reports, while in
Portland he will also raise money
for Democrats running for office.
Mark Washington, Sr.
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Cori Stewart--
President Joe Biden is sched-
uled to visit Portland on Thursday
where he is expected to talk about
investments being made with the
passage of last year's infrastruc-
ture bill. One potential target is
the proposed Interstate Bridge Re-
placement Program, which aims
to replaces the I-5 twin bridges
over the Columbia River that con-
nects Portland to Vancouver.
Under the $1 trillion infrastruc-
ture law, taxpayer money will be
available nationally for infrastruc-
ture investments, targeting things
like the replacement of lead wa-
ter pipes, the build-out of broad-
band internet, projects to protect
against climate change and repairs
to roads and bridges.
Biden has repeatedly focused
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Diversity in Hiring Pledge Grows
Promotes
women and
people of color
in construction
A new agreement amongst
local government agencies and
labor unions aims to make a dra-
matic improvement toward hiring
more women and people of color
on construction projects in the
Portland area.
The Regional Workforce Eq-
uity Agreement announced last
week by the regional government
Metro covers specified projects
undertaken by Metro, Multnomah
County and the city of Portland
over the next five years.
For Metro, all capital projects
of more than $5 million will be
subject to the terms of the agree-
ment. Multnomah County Chair
Deborah Kafoury has signed the
agreement. The City of Portland
is expected to approve it later this
month, officials said.
Workforce agreements are le-
gally binding contracts that set
standards for wages, benefits and
safety protections for workers. For
project owners, they are a tool to
control costs, improve job quality
and efficiency and prevent work-
ers from striking.
Officials say they can also be an
opportunity to address historical
wrongs. Women and people have
color have been shut out of lucra-
tive construction jobs in the past,
while minority-owned firms have
not always been able to compete
Deborah Kafoury
Maurice Rahming
on projects covered by traditional
workforce agreements.
“We began with equity,” says
Sebrina Owens-Wilson, regional
impact manager at Metro, describ-
ing how Metro’s Diversity, Equi-
ty and Inclusion team set out to
negotiate the agreement. On one
side of the table were the public
agencies, on the other the building
trades and carpenters unions.
Maurice Rahming, president
of O’Neill Construction, served
on the equity advisory table. “We
identified opportunities and bar-
riers and came up with solutions
for this crisis we’re facing: A sil-
ver tsunami of workers retiring,
and we aren’t filling the void. We
needed to make sure that women
and people of color get the op-
portunity to fill those higher-paid
construction jobs.”
The agreement implements
hiring targets that ramp up over
five years. Eventually, 14% of
work hours at every jobsite will
have to be performed by women,
25% by people of color and 20%
by apprentices.
Also addressed, is bullying and
catcalling by coworkers, a prob-
lem for everyone in the construc-
tion industry, but especially for
women and people of color. The
workforce equity agreement re-
quires that everyone on a jobsite
participate in anti- harassment or
respectful workplace training.
The agreement also includes
protections for BIPOC and wom-
en-owned smaller firms who al-
ready have a diverse workforce.
Mark Matthews, president of
open shop firm Pacificmark Con-
struction, says under the agree-
ment, he can use his own work-
force and is not required to hire
through union hiring halls. “It lev-
els the playing field.”
On March 30, Metro issued
a request for proposals to ren-
ovate or replace the operations
and maintenance facility at Blue
Lake Regional Park. The project
will be the first to be governed
by the Regional Workforce Eq-
uity Agreement.