Sirotablog
David Sirota is a political journalist and nationally syndicated newspaper columnist at Creators Syndicate. David writes about political corruption, globalization and working-class economic issues often ignored by both of America's political parties.
-
August 31, 2007 11:51 AM
Disturbing Trends In the Construction Industry
A new Labor Day report by the Transportation Equity Network highlights some disturbing trends in the construction industry. Here's the key excerpts from the press release:
"Though it comes at a time when transportation-related construction work is booming, this Labor Day will find African-Americans, Latinos and women being passed over for these living-wage jobs in large numbers, according to a study of 18 American metropolitan areas. In every area studied, white males dominate construction work, regardless of the racial and gender makeup of the local workforce as a whole. The study found that, based on their share of the population, more than 42,000 black workers are missing from the construction workforce. Though half the population, women held 6 percent or less of the jobs, even though construction has become increasingly mechanized. Latinos lagged in at least 5 of the metropolitan areas studied. The report comes two years after Congress directed transportation agencies to ensure that disadvantaged local workers are trained and hired for construction projects as they spend the $244 billion authorized in the 2005 transportation bill."
Read the whole report here - and make sure to check out the local data.
-
TAKE ACTION
-
About David Sirota
David Sirota is a political journalist and nationally syndicated newspaper columnist at Creators Syndicate. He is the New York Times bestselling author of Hostile Takeover. He lives in Denver, Colorado. His daily blog can be found at CREDO Action. He contributes regularly to the Denver Post's Web site, is a senior editor at In These Times magazine and is working on his second book. He has been profiled in Newsweek and the Rocky Mountain News and is widely known for his reporting on political corruption, globalization and working-class economic issues often ignored by both of America's political parties. Sirota serves as co-chair of the Progressive States Network, a 501(c)3 organization that supports state legislators and that is a partner of CREDO.
You can subscribe to Sirota's e-mail newsletter by going to davidsirota.com and signing up in the lefthand corner. To find out more about Sirota, download his official biography or see his recent media appearances. You can e-mail him at sirota@credoaction.com.
The views expressed on this blog are his own, and do not necessarily represent the views of Working Assets (publisher of CREDO Action) or the institutions Sirota works for.
-
Recent Sirotablog entries
- Discussing McCain's Pro-Child Molestor Ad On MSNBC's New Rachel Maddow Show
- McCain Used "Lipstick On a Pig" To Describe Hillary Clinton
- Maddow at 9:45pm EST
- Editor Hysterically Cites France, Rather Than Neighboring State
- Analyzing Obama's Convention Speech
- Cuba and China Working to Drill In Gulf, Say Those Who Insisted Saddam Was About to Nuke America
- Trampling Working-Class Voters With the Professional Ideal
- Engaging In Dubious Battle
- McCain supporter blows whistle on election stealing strategies
- Vacationing In A Secure Undisclosed Location
-
More David Sirota
-
This Modern World
-
September 9, 2008 -
September 3, 2008 -
August 27, 2008 -
August 19, 2008 -
August 13, 2008
-
-
Donations Recipients
-
RSS feeds
Discussion
They forgot to include Native Americans. Of course many(the majority in fact) of the Latinos who come here from Mexico and Central America are Native American, but our indigenous Native American population is getting ignored, in spite of the fact that unemployment among Native Americans is higher than any other group.
Most women employed in road construction are flaggers, though I am noticing more female equipment operators. Hoooah!!!
From my experiences with the military, and especially the Engineer battalion, that I was assigned to for several years, female operators take better care of their equipment, and also follow survey stakes more closely, improving down time and costly redos of grading.
As a maintenance tech, I learned to operate several types of heavy equipment for purposes of diagnosis and quality control.
Ladies, you're missing something!
Operating something that's like driving a house is a power trip! No wonder guys want to keep it to themselves. Demand the good jobs at the big pay, you CAN do it! Don't let the male egoists Bullshit you!
BTW, I drive a FWD pickup with veteran's plates, and NO, it's not my husband's.
Here in Southern CA especially in housing construction in CA its primarily hispanic with a lot of illegals in the mix. Just a smattering of whites(mostly management) and almost no blacks.
As for county construction firms like CAL-TRANS they are almost impossible for a outsider to get hired. Its one big nepotism party.
Private outfits like Granite seem to be a mix of whites and hispanics.
When I worked as a HV electrician at the local cement plant, the work force was a mix of white and hispanic, with black women skip loader operators(the really big ones BTW) and labor gang workers. There were very few black men there(maybe 4 at the max out a crew of a 100). The black women worked out fine, great work ethic and had no problem doing the same work the men did.
The labor aspect of all these jobs are not pleasant nor attractive to folks who don't like getting tired, working in toxic and lethal environments and worn out by the end of the day. A lot of it physically hard as hell so it doesn't suprise me it isn't attractive to bling wearers and layabouts.
Asphalt crews for example have to work with ashpalt thats laced with toxic petrochemicals that kill a lot of them when they hit their 60's(mostly cancer). In the cement plant where I worked silicosis was a problem and black lung to a lesser extent. Then there were 700 degree outgassing from the kiln that was toxic and deadly as they come.
IMO these sorts of jobs are not for stupid nor lazy people(liberals like to think that construction trades are for stupid people). So it doesn't suprise me that companies are not hiring welfare deadbeats and the like. These people bring nothing but problems, provided you can find any that can pass a drug test.
Do we have to have quota's to drive nails now?
Waltc is correct, lots of illegals in Texas too, stupid folks aren't needed. I've yet to see someone not hired here because of race or sex (well, not often anyway) but I've seen a lot that don't show up for the second day or week.
Join the Discussion