Making Development Work for Local Residents

1. Making Development Work for Local Residents Policy Frameworks and Programs for Successful Construction-Industry Workforce Development Strategies Kathleen Mulligan-Hansel, Ph.D.

2. Construction Careers Basics Goal is to create construction career opportunities! • Job quality standards • Job access requirements • Job readiness infrastructure It is critical to do all three! • Key Caveats: • Local, State, Federal • What’s the right policy? Local context!

3. Construction Careers Basics • Policies and agreements create demand for new workers (community benefits agreement, project labor agreement, local government or redevelopment agency policy) • A good program creates a pipeline of new workers ready to take those jobs: pre-apprenticeship, apprentices, journey-level workers • Getting new workers into high quality construction jobs = have to create more opportunity for good firms to get the work • Apprenticeship/journey-level • Relationships are key: work with building trades leaders to identify and implement opportunities for new workers

4. Construction Industry Job Quality

5. Strategies for Establishing Job Quality • Community Workforce Agreement (negotiated among developer, contractors, construction unions) • Require payment of prevailing wages • Establish responsible contractor standards • Require apprenticeship utilization • Establish Best Value Contracting Process

6. Construction Industry Job Access • Journey-level vs. apprentices • Careers vs. work • Unions vs. high road • “the list” • Require firms to use workers on the list • Find ways to get new workers on the list and make sure they get called • Name call, zip coding, direct entry

7. Strategies for Establishing Job Access • Community Workforce Agreement • Targeted hire requirements – neighborhood, household income, targeted categories (public assistance, criminal justice), pre-appr. graduate • First source referral systems • Apprenticeship utilization • Responsible contractor standards • Best Value Contracting process

8. Strategies for Establishing Job Access CHALLENGES • Aggregation of work • Strong pre-apprenticeship programs necessary to supply workers • Low-road contractors may appear to have easier compliance

9. Examples Community Workforce Agreement • Community Redevelopment Agency of LA Construction Careers Policy; passed Feb 2008 • Any development that receives $1 million or more in financing, or built on CRA owned land • Project Labor Agreement • Targeted hiring: 30% of work hours performed by residents of low-income neighborhoods or hard-to-employ workers Anticipated impact: $170 million in construction, 5000 new jobs for low-income people

10. Examples Targeted Hire/Prevailing Wage Requirement • Milwaukee MORE Ordinance, passed April 2009 • Any development subsidized with $1 million or more of public funding • Must pay prevailing wage for all construction • Use city’s first-source referral system • 40% of work hours performed by targeted hires • Have worked less than 1200 hours in the preceding 12 months; • Have not worked in the preceding 30 days; or • Have a household income at or below the federal poverty guidelines. Department of City Development Report: 11 of last 23 subsidized developments would have been covered.

11. Examples Responsible Contractor Standards • Atlanta BeltLine; authorizing language requires community benefits, passed 2005 • Construction Career Ladder policy developed by Georgia Stand Up (not yet adopted) • Anticipate 48,000 construction jobs over 10 years • Construction Career Ladder Policy: responsible contractor, first source, prevailing wage, money for training

12. Examples • Atlanta BeltLine Responsible Contractor Standards • Must demonstrate compliance in order to work on the BeltLine: • Are appropriately licensed and insured • Have a proven track record of satisfactorily performing the work required • Are providing the full benefits of employment to workers • Are utilizing workers that are highly skilled and trained • Has access to sufficient workforce to complete the job • Is in compliance with related BeltLine and City of Atlanta policies, such as local hiring or first source • Provides OSHA approved training and safety plans • Have not been in violation under previous contracts with the city, BeltLine or ADA

13. Examples Direct Entry, Pre-apprenticeship graduate • Santa Clara County Building Trades Council/De Anza Foothills Technical College construction careers agreement (San Jose area) • University Hospital PLA (Cleveland) • Malloy Initiative, NYC Public Housing Authority

14. Strategies • Get language into every official document: state plan, guidance, rfp, contracts, etc. • Requirement vs. preference • Build relationships with trades • Organize locally to implement