A labor bill that’s bad news for minority contractors
Earlier this month, a troubling piece of legislation slipped through the General Assembly. It involved a pilot program to include something known as Community Workforce Agreements as part of several large state public works projects.
Delaware CWA legislation allows the state to negotiate labor agreements on its projects without the threat of work stoppages arising out of jurisdictional disputes among union locals. By contrast, non-union merit shops only have to worry about the giant rat that sometimes shows up next to nonunion job sites.
The measure was brought up as part of the little-known “Mini Bond Bill” that deals with matters that came after the passage of the massive Bond (construction) Bill last year. Contractors signing CWA agreements have to register with the state and provide paperwork on hiring people from disadvantaged communities. Left out are small Black and Hispanic construction businesses that are largely nonunion.
The deck is stacked from the outset, given the small percentage of minorities who have gone through union apprenticeship programs, due, in part to past discrimination in all phases of the workplace that also cut out a pipeline of second and third-generation family members going into the trades. That family tradition is fading and contributes to the current shortage of skilled workers, both union and nonunion. But that’s a topic for another day.
Despite letters to legislators, a protest, and an amendment from Republicans that would have given disadvantaged enterprises a piece of the action, the CWA legislation was passed on a party-line vote and signed by Gov. John Carney.
The hasty passage of the bill in the early days of the session is bad news for those worried about the actions of a “supermajority” of Democrats in both houses, with even the dwindling number of moderate Dems firmly aligned with union interests. It was encouraging to see an all-white Senate and House members to take a stand on this issue.
One can only hope that some sort of carve-out for disadvantaged contractors we see in of other government-related projects can be engineered once this “pilot program” is completed. – Doug Rainey, chief content officer.
