Lola Smallwood Cuevas, Project Director, UCLA Labor Center; Director, Los Angeles Black Worker Center
William Scott, Member, Los Angeles Black Worker Center’s Black Labor Construction Council and African American Sheetmetal Workers Association
After two years as an unemployed pre-apprentice in the Iron Workers Union, Leray Williams landed a job renovating Pauley Pavilion at UCLA. He got to work at 4:30 every morning, organized his tools, and always finished his assignments in time to offer a helping hand to others on the site. As a second generation iron worker, he knows how difficult it is for black construction workers to secure employment and he wasn’t going to let anything cause him to miss this job opportunity—that is, until a noose was hung at the job site. “I couldn’t take it,” says Leray. A committed volunteer at the Los Angeles Black Worker Center, Leray had the courage to speak out about what happened to him. Luckily, his union president was sympathetic and transferred Williams to a new job site. Most of our brothers and sisters are not so lucky, ending up back in the unemployment lines.
In Los Angeles County, black unemployment hovers at nearly 20 percent overall and is estimated at nearly 67 percent for black men ages 16 to 25. Of those black workers who are employed, 30 percent in Los Angeles are in low-wage industries and earning $12 per hour or less. The lack of quality jobs in black communities leads to disproportionate poverty and suffering, manifesting itself in suicide, homelessness, domestic violence, addiction, and incarceration. Unionized construction is one of the few occupations today that offer individuals a pipeline to the middle class without much of a prerequisite beyond a good work ethic and determination. A fully employed union sheet metal worker, for example, could earn over $100,000 a year, including a pension and family medical benefits. This middle-class career requires only a high school diploma or GED.
According to a study by California State University Sociology Professor Amy Denison, black workers represent only four percent of the construction industry in Los Angeles County, while women represent less than one percent. There are several reasons for this disparity. Historic barriers rooted in nepotism and network hiring has led to institutionalized systems and practices that make it difficult for women and black workers to gain entry. This barrier leads to the overrepresentation of one gender or ethnic group on a job site, setting the stage for tensions and ultimately low retention of underrepresented groups. Moreover, the dismantling of diversity requirements and shrinking enforcement resources for contract compliance result in a lack of monitoring and enforcement of antidiscrimination and equal opportunity laws. Underrepresentation and employment exclusion rob our workers, and the families who rely on them, of vital resources, leaving little behind in the communities that most need economic infusion.
Billions of tax dollars will be spent to expand regional rail networks in the coming years. The Los Angeles Black Worker Center (BWC)’s campaign for equity, transparency, and accountability in public construction helped to win passage of a project labor agreement (PLA) and construction careers policy that will create 23,000 jobs over the next five years. The BWC’s unique contribution to this effort resulted in the inclusion of a diversity pledge, anti-discrimination language, and stronger disadvantaged worker language in the Metropolitan Transportation Authority’s first PLA, which provides that 40 percent of all work hours must be performed by workers from targeted zip codes with the highest unemployment and poverty rates, and 10 percent by disadvantaged workers who have been incarcerated or are homeless, chronically unemployed, single parents, or military veterans. The BWC’s efforts also ensured that federal civil rights and equal opportunity language, including enforcement and monitoring, is applied to both locally and federally funded projects covered by the agreement. Currently the BWC is focused on implementation and enforcement of this historic agreement, which provides quality jobs to black workers and ensures fairness in the economy. The first part of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority project is the construction of the Crenshaw-LAX connector, a $1.7 billion project to construct a rail line through the heart of Los Angeles’s black community.
What will it take to realize this policy opportunity in the lives of black folk? Once they are on the job, how do we protect our Lerays? It will take strong black leadership and sustainability strategies that pressure contractors to be accountable. Workers must know their rights. The community must monitor employers and be ready to act in the defense of our sons and brothers who must have the right to employment. Federal, state, and local agencies must enforce the law. Unions must take a stand for a diverse and unified building trades workforce. What will it take for this to happen? It will take power and a movement.
We are the change we’ve been waiting for.
We have the power of our collective knowledge, collective experience, collective voice, and collective action. The Leadership and Sustainability Institute offers a new collective power source, a network of shared knowledge, resources, and relationships across organizations of common purpose.
As I look at Leray, a beautiful and courageous young man who shares his story with elected leaders and never hesitates to encourage us at the BWC to keep going, I think about all the Lerays and all the organizations and networks determined to change things from the way they are to the way they should be for black men in our community. Built by the loving hands of the Open Society Foundations Campaign for Black Male Achievement, this is what the innovative Leadership and Sustainability Institute is all about.
As the Los Angeles Black Worker Center and its coalition stand with black construction workers, we are not alone.
Together we will win!
Lola Smallwood Cuevas is a project director at the UCLA Labor Center and director of the Los Angeles Black Worker Center.
William Scott is a member of the Los Angeles Black Worker Center’s Black Labor Construction Council and African-American Sheetmetal Workers Association.
Leadership & Sustainability Institute for Black Male Achievement 
Thank you for this wonderful post! I had the opportunity to visit with the LA BWC during ABFE conference and was truly inspired. I look forward to the development of a black workers center in Chicago and, hopefully, many other cities!