Union leader advocates for diversity in the construction industry.

Labor leader Ryan Boyer is optimistic a new project labor agreement (PLA) could help increase minority participation in the city’s construction industry.

Mayor Jim Kenney’s administration is considering a PLA with the Philadelphia Building Trades Council for projects that could receive revenue from the recently passed sugary-drink tax. Under the Rebuild Philadelphia projects, about $300 million could be in the pipeline for improvements to city recreation centers and parks.

During a recent Tribune editorial board meeting, Boyer said the agreement is different from other initiatives that sought to increase diversity in the city’s construction industry.

“I’m very confident that it’s going to work,” said Boyer, business manager of the Laborers’ District Council of Metropolitan Philadelphia and Vicinity. He is also chairman of the Delaware River Port Authority, which will have no role in new municipally funded construction in Philadelphia.

He pointed to how the management of the Pennsylvania Convention Center met its diversity goals on the $786 million expansion project as a success. There was a 38.6 percent rate of minority workforce participation on the project, he said.

“The reason why I think this is different is because we have a success model that we can use,” Boyer said. “I always say that success is replicable.”

He said convention center management made a serious commitment about ensuring the project’s diversity goals.

“If we look at the Pennsylvania Convention Center expansion as a template, you had three key elements that made that successful,” Boyer said. “You had leadership in the form, at the time, of Ahmeenah Young, driving from the top down; a serious commitment from the Pennsylvania Convention Center Authority that every contractor would adhere to those goals; if not, they would be taken off the job.

“Secondly, you had enforcement provisions contained in the contract to allow for removal of a contractor if they didn’t live up to the agreement that they signed. Thirdly, it was adequately communicated to the contractor community, the labor community, and a board was willing to act.”

Through negotiations with the unions, Kenney’s administration seeks to develop a labor agreement that addresses the submission of each building trades’ membership demographics, pre-apprentice programs for the city’s high school students, development of an apprentice-ready program recruited by census tracts with the high levels of poverty and unemployment and community referral.

Boyer says Kenney’s work on diversity and inclusion within the construction industry will be helped by the relationship and the coalitions he has built with the city’s building trades. John Dougherty, the head of the Philadelphia Building and Construction Trades Council, was one of Kenney’s allies during the mayoral primary campaign.

“The building trades’ affinity for Kenney, and Kenney pushing this issue, is going to help him,” Boyer said. “He is internally letting people know how important of a priority this is for his administration to get this right. I think that his friends want to see him be successful.”

Boyer says public education is a major issue that can impact the ability to increase diversity within the construction industry.

“We have to admit that we have a serious deficiency in the product that is coming out of Philadelphia public schools,” he said.

He says many high school graduates who are taking a variation of the Wonderlic test — a basic skills test — are not reading or performing basic math skills at an appropriate level.

Boyer said trade unions are trying to develop a standardized version of the test that will help determine what trade is a best fit for an applicant.

The Laborers’ District Council recently started the Sam Staten Sr. Academy to help overcome hurdles that may deter applicants from getting into an apprenticeship program. The academy, which is named after former union leader Sam Staten Sr., helps participants increase math and reading skills and obtain a license and GED.

“People just don’t have the building blocks,” Boyer said. “But once they get the building blocks for success, it’s very easy because if you have educators, they know how to give an assessment test to find out what you’re missing.”

Boyer said in order to have the maximum number of African Americans in the city’s building trades, a finishing school should be created for high school graduates. After graduating from high school, a potential student could enroll in the finishing school and be placed in a union apprenticeship program, where he or she would receive on-the-job training.

Source: Philly Tribune