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THE PROMISE AND PROBLEMS OF US CONSTRUCTION INDUSTRY
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Jeff Grabelsky
May 8, 2024
Commonwealth Beacon
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_ A former union leader wrestles with the challenge of making
construction work the path to the middle class it once was _
, Peggy Marco
_The Way We Build: Restoring Dignity to Construction Work_
By Mark Erlich
University of Illinois Press
160 pages
CONSTRUCTION IS ONE of the most important and least understood sectors
in our economy. It is also one of the most visible of all
industries. As Mark Erlich observes in _The Way We Build: Restoring
Dignity to Construction Work_, pedestrians on the street are
transformed into sidewalk superintendents as they watch skyscrapers
rise up from deep urban foundations. But to these casual observers,
as well as to many policy makers, industry regulators, and “future
of work” enthusiasts, the way our built environment is actually
constructed remains something of a mystery. Erlich’s book unravels
that mystery by examining the industry’s economics, its production
process, and the role of new technologies.
Erlich is the retired secretary-treasurer of the New England Regional
Council of Carpenters and a fellow at Harvard Law School’s Center
for Labor and a Just Economy. His observations about the industry’s
shifting labor relations landscape, the changing demographics of its
work force, the impact of immigration, and the lived experience and
subculture of construction workers make this book noteworthy. His
analysis of the role unions have historically played in the industry
is particularly incisive.
Construction was once one of the most densely unionized sectors of the
economy. In the immediate post-World War II era, over 80 percent of
the industry was union. In a single generation, the level of
unionization in construction fell to less than 20 percent.
This precipitous decline foreshadowed and tracked with falling union
density in the overall economy. Today, private sector unionization
stands at about 6 percent of the workforce. Of the 8 million US
construction workers, less than 15 percent are now represented by
unions.
Today, building trades unions are still a vital part of the
construction ecosystem, primarily in urban areas on the east and west
coasts and in the industrial heartland. But outside those centers,
construction unions have been driven to the margins of the
industry. Unions are strong in Boston, but weaker in western
Massachusetts; strong in New York City, but weaker in upstate New
York; strong in Chicago, but weaker in downstate Illinois.
Erlich — who is also a member of the board of MassINC, the nonprofit
civic organization that publishes _CommonWealth Beacon_ — explains
how declining levels of construction unionization have undermined
labor’s political influence and bargaining strength. As union
density, membership and market share have decreased, the one-time
promise of good family-supporting jobs has become increasingly
elusive. _The Way We Build_ explains how and why wages and benefits
have stagnated, jobsite conditions have deteriorated, and coveted
construction careers have lost their luster. The heart of this book
is captured in its subtitle: _Restoring Dignity to Construction
Work_.
One of the many strengths of this book is the different lenses through
which Erlich views construction. His direct and personal experience
working in the Boston area as a carpenter, superintendent, and
high-level union leader enables him to construct an unusually rich
portrait of the industry. Erlich effectively welds his lived
experience as an influential player in the industry with his talents
as a writer of history and astute observer of current events.
His analysis of the growing underground economy in construction
reveals the nature and extent of unscrupulous and often illegal
practices like misclassification, in which firms treat employees as
independent contractors, and payroll fraud. These are so pervasive
that he characterizes them as the prevailing “business model” in
some sectors of the industry. Combined with the decline of regulatory
enforcement, these practices have driven down labor standards and
threatened the viability of the many decent contractors competing in
the industry.
The book’s examination of the impact of new technology is both
illuminating and something of a challenge for the “future of work”
devotees who lack the author’s depth of understanding about if and
how the industry is likely to change in the coming decades. He shows
how the potential of technological transformation has often gone
unrealized in construction. But he also presents promising examples
of technical innovations like construction robotics, computer-aided
design (CAD), building information modeling (BIM), and 3-D computing
that are gaining some traction in the industry.
It is clear that Erlich loves the construction industry. But while
working in the trades can be deeply satisfying, he understands that
there is nothing intrinsic about a construction job that makes it a
good, middle-class career. _The Way We Build_ is filled with powerful
stories about the experience of non-union and often undocumented
construction workers who endure terrible indignities and hazardous
conditions because they lack a collective voice and union
representation.
Erlich tells the tale of one non-union carpenter named Julio Beldi,
who worked across New England for over 10 years. He was mostly paid
in cash, frequently not paid for weeks, and often paid a fraction of
the wages required by law. Routinely laboring 10- and 12-hour shifts
and rarely receiving mandated overtime rates, Julio’s experience was
not atypical. What turned his grueling job into a rewarding
career? He joined the Carpenters Union and began to enjoy the direct
benefits of collective bargaining.
Julio’s story brings us back to the central and unifying theme of
_The Way We Build_: the critical role building trades unions have
played in organizing the industry’s workforce and elevating its
conditions of life and labor. An unfortunate part of that story is
how building trades unions – once a singularly powerful part of the
US labor movement and a dominant force in the industry – were
weakened by an unrelenting corporate assault determined to undermine
their strength and vitality.
But Erlich concedes that construction unions were also hampered by a
range of internal flaws, including a stubborn resistance to change, a
complacency that allowed a non-union market to grow around and away
from the union base, and an exclusive model of membership that
neglected the need to organize an expanding non-union (and often
non-white) work force. As a result, building trades unions represent
a shrinking share of the construction labor pool and unionized
contractors control a smaller slice of an industry they once
dominated.
The book’s narrative leads to an inescapable question: If building
trades unions are the key to restoring dignity to construction work,
what can they do differently to reverse their declining power and
influence in the industry? There is no silver bullet or simple
answer to that question. Erlich offers a range of innovative
organizing, political, and regulatory strategies to help construction
unionists recapture lost markets, rebuild bargaining power, and
reshape the industry. If successful, the way we build could once
again offer construction workers a path to a more dignified and
rewarding life.
_Jeff Grabelsky is a senior extension associate at the Worker
Institute and Climate Jobs Institute at the School of Industrial and
Labor Relations at Cornell University. _
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