With construction on the Interstate 87, Watervliet-Shaker Road overpass in the background, county, religious and local union leaders met on Thursday, Aug. 30, in an effort to steer federal transportation money toward minority and women’s work programs in the Capital District.
Holding a report detailing construction employment numbers, members of county social services, local unions and members of A Regional Initiative Supporting Empowerment, ARISE, pointed out trends in the area that show low numbers of minorities and women at work in the construction trade.
Although Albany County has participated in programs such as the Capital District Worker Center, a program to help place low-wage workers in the booming construction trades, advocates say much work needs to be done in neighboring Schenectady and Rennselaer counties.
The group is calling on state and county leaders to make use of millions in federal transportation funds doled out for dozens of regional projects throughout the year to aid in workforce development.
The Roads to Jobs: Patterns of Employment in the Construction Industry, a study conducted by The Transportation Equity Network (TEN), surveyed 18 metropolitan areas in the United States. The report outlined year 2000 populations figures, hourly construction wages, living wages for two adults and living wages for those with children. Among the study areas were Syracuse, Buffalo and Albany.
The Albany figures incorporated Albany, Schenectady and Rennselaer counties.
ARISE advocates pointed out that despite past efforts to steer low-wage women and minorities towards construction jobs, only 3 percent of the construction workforce were women, and minorities made up only 8 percent of the total figure.
ARISE hopes to work with local unions and religious groups to boost those numbers and tap into the more than $987 million in transportation projects in the area, and the more than 8,000 construction and support positions that will be made available.
`This is the opportunity to turn that trend around. Here in the Capital District, things have already begun to turn around,` said Dick Dana, ARISE president.
The area is ahead of most trends and efforts in metropolitan areas around the country, he said. But with millions in construction projects expected to break ground in the coming years, the time to begin training a workforce is now, he said.
ARISE is calling on leaders to implement the full amount of workforce development dollars or one-half of 1 percent of federal highway funds coming to the state.
Since 2005, Albany County’s work center has helped place dozens of low-wage workers on the path to well-paying jobs, with good benefits and a secure future. That was made possible with $72, 900. If more money backed the program, and helped to begin similar programs throughout the study area, the number of new workers could be much higher, he said.
`I really believe that this is a good thing and provides an opportunity for people that don’t have the proper upbringing and education to find a normal job,` said Ramone Clow, 25, of Albany.
Clow has been in the Albany County program for four weeks. He is hoping to complete it and land a plumbers union apprenticeship. It would pay better and he would get better benefits than his previous job of installing tires for $12 per hour. It wasn’t bad money, he said. But he would have been stuck at that wage for a good part of his life.
To date, the Capital District Worker Center has helped 50 people land better, well-paying jobs in the area’s construction fields. This year, the center will extend its 12-week program to 75 candidates. In February 2008, the program’s funding runs out and the hope is that more than just the county and nonprofits will be footing the bill. Advocates hope to see some of the one-half of 1 percent of federal money sent to the state.
ARISE is looking to future construction on the scale of an Albany County Convention Center, the I-87 bridge over Watervliet Shaker Road, and the much larger Route 7 redesign and reconstruction of that bridge. That project has been slated to begin next year.
`It’s not a black issue, it is not a white issue. It’s a reality issue,` said the Rev. Victor Collier, ARISE vice president.“