Meeting the Demand for Skilled Craftworkers
“How many jobs will be created by growth in construction,
and who will fill these new positions?” were questions
addressed by the BAC Executive Council as part of its work
on the Millennium Morning Project. At their first meeting
of the year, Council members heard from a series of experts
on the outlook for construction and labor-force trends.
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| Source:
U.S. Department of Labor |
Kim
Kennedy, Manager of Forecasting for Dodge Analytics, updated
the Council on the outlook for construction activity. Dodge’s
revised forecast is calling for a 2 percent drop in the
value of contracts for new construction this year to $481.9
billion. Even with this setback, the value of contracts
for new construction will still approach the historic high
reached last year, and is expected to regain its momentum
in 2003. With this increase, demand for masonry craftworkers
will also grow.
Michael Horrigan, Assistant Commissioner
for the U.S. Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics,
told the Council that the outlook for employment in the
masonry industry is positive. Reporting on the Department’s
latest labor-force projections, Horrigan said that between
2000 and 2010, roughly 48,000 new jobs are expected to
be created in the masonry trades, and another 91,000
jobs will open up due to masonry craftworkers leaving
the trades due to retirements, deaths, and career changes.
This creates a potential for more than 100,000 masonry
job openings during this period.
Where will these workers — the
next generation of BAC members — come from? According
to Horrigan, the “2010
labor force is expected to have a greater proportion
of women and Hispanics than the 2000 labor force.” Along
with more traditional sources, women and Hispanic workers
will be a prime source of new masonry craftworkers
and BAC members in the years ahead.
Bob Blakely, Director of the Canadian Office of
the Building and Construction Trades Department, presented
sobering figures to the Council on what the future
holds for unions not willing to expand their ranks
and increase efforts to organize more minorities
and women. “Bob’s presentation leaves
no doubt that current workforce demographics and
projections for the construction industry are going to require
substantial action on our part, both in the short
and long term — in
the U.S., as well as in Canada,” President
John J. Flynn told the Council.
“The trends
in the U.S. and Canada are similar. Our ranks are
aging,” Blakely explained to Council members. “According
to Statistics Canada, a major demographic shift will
take place in the next ten years. As a result, more
career opportunities will open up for skilled masonry
craftworkers. But this trend will also create challenges.
There are literally thousands of reasons people can
invent as to why we don’t need
new people in the trades, almost all of those are
bogus!” said
Blakely.
He reminded the Council that we are part
of an industry that does not stand still. “We
need to expand our market share by organizing small
contractors, because small contractors become large
contractors. We also need to do more to attract and
retain members. And we need to train now to ensure
that we can meet the current and future demand for
skilled masonry craft workers,” he added. The
masonry industry’s “future
viability strongly depends on the availability of
an adequate supply of skilled labour,” said
Blakely. “There’s
no time like the present, because tomorrow will be
too late.”
Dale McCormick, founder of Women
Unlimited and the current Treasurer of the state
of Maine, encouraged BAC leaders to take advantage
of community based women’s groups for
help in reaching out to women. She noted that these
groups could help BAC make the connection with women
interested in pursuing careers in the masonry industry. “Every
industry will be competing for these workers,” said
McCormick. “The industries and organizations
that effectively reach out to these workers will
be the ones that are able to meet their industry’s
labor-force demand and continue to grow.”
In
fact, having a steady supply of skilled craftworkers
is the biggest challenge identified by employers,
Geoff Garin, President of Peter Hart Research, told
attendees. Reporting on a series of surveys conducted
for the AFL-CIO, the Building and Construction Trades
Department, and the International Masonry Institute,
Garin said that unions face challenges convincing
future workers to choose a career in the construction
industry and join a union. When the public was asked
to rank construction as a job choice it fell in the
middle, with jobs such as computer programmer, computer
technician, X-ray technician, and airplane mechanic
ranking higher.
Although the public’s attitude towards
labor unions has improved somewhat, their opinion of labor’s
influence and understanding of what unions do has declined.
More than half of adults surveyed said they know little to
nothing about unions in general and they know less about
construction unions. Further, when asked if they would vote
for a union in a representation election, only 42 percent
said they would vote for a union. When the term “employee
association” was
substituted for the word “union,” 78
percent said they would vote for an employee association. “This
is significant,” said Garin. “What
do they think the difference is between an employee
association and a union?” Attracting
young people to the masonry industry and helping
potential members and the public understand the
benefits of a union are challenges union members
and leaders need to address.
The Council also discussed
next steps in the Millennium Morning Project including
conducting research on masonry’s
market share, and union and non-union masonry contractors’ and
workers’ outlook for the future.
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