Commission hears of discrimination in building trades
The 15-member commission named by Mayor Nutter to increase minority participation in the city's construction industry held its first public hearing yesterday, hearing tales of discrimination and pleas for help.
The 15-member commission named by Mayor Nutter to increase minority participation in the city's construction industry held its first public hearing yesterday, hearing tales of discrimination and pleas for help.
"I've faced all kinds of discrimination on the job site. It's just crazy," said Shenecqua Butt, a Philadelphia Housing Authority tenant who'd successfully completed a program to become a union carpenter.
Butt and fellow PHA resident and carpenter Tanya Mitchell said they'd been given precious little work and often faced harassment on job sites.
Butt said that she's been mostly out of work for the last year and a half.
She said that she was laid off after two days at a job where she was to build scaffolding at a refinery.
When she asked why, she said that she was told by a white shop steward, "We have to take care of our own first."
Both Butt and Mitchell said that their complaints to union officials were ignored or ridiculed.
No officials from the carpenters union were present to answer the charges and none could be reached last night. But commission chairman Carl Singley said that he hoped to bring the women back at a future hearing with officials from the union and PHA, which had set up the training program the women originally entered.
"This looks like a program that's designed to be a solution that isn't a solution," Singley said.
Singley said the commission faces a complex challenge both in ascertaining the number of minority workers and contractors available to work on the city's job sites and in figuring out the obstacles to increasing their participation.
Nutter appointed the commission in May after a long battle over minority participation in the expansion of the convention center and a heated debate in City Council over alleged discrimination among the city's building-trades unions.
Nutter wants the commission to issue its report by Sept. 1. Singley indicated yesterday that that may not be possible, but said that the commission would work as quickly as it can.
Commission members said that the problem of minority and female participation is more complex than simple racism and sexism among union officials and contractors.
Minority contractors face specific challenges such as bonding requirements, access to financing and a need for better technical skills among many young Philadelphians who want to learn a construction trade.
"In these hearings, we want to get the real-world experiences of people in the construction trades," Singley said, "and hear from people who actually do it on a regular basis, or in some cases can't do it on a regular basis."
Singley also said that the commission is willing to take confidential information from people who don't want to testify publicly. The commission can be reached at 215-977-2435.
The next public hearing is scheduled for July 9.
