By Sentinel News Service

Following a victorious congressional election, President Joe Biden must follow through on a New Year’s resolve to Black workers. He must, in particular, fulfil his pledge to educate and employ skilled workers on an equitable basis for the 700,000 jobs expected under the $1.2 trillion infrastructure bill, particularly in highway building.

Failure to do so will result in a re-enactment of previous infrastructure projects’ discriminatory results. According to the United States Bureau of Labor Statistics, African Americans are grossly under-represented in the important building sector, accounting for only 5% of the workers compared to 14% of the population. In comparison, approximately 61 percent of the population is Caucasian, and 30 percent is Hispanic. (In addition, approximately 25% of the population is made up of legitimate and illegal immigrants.)

In the same way that the Biden administration must move, Black political and labor leaders must prepare to examine state infrastructure policies. Constant monitoring is the best method to ensure that inclusive employment policies are followed. Approximately 6,000 projects financed by the infrastructure package are currently under construction, and approximately $185 billion has been distributed to states.

When the administration urged Lawmakers last year to support the measure, it promised to educate and hire Black trained labourers in the building industries. After Biden signed the act into law in November 2021, Congressional Black Caucus Chairwoman Rep. Joyce Beatty (D-OH) notified voters of the upcoming employment.

For example, she described a discussion she had with Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg, whose agency allocates money for highway initiatives. According to Beatty, she “reached out to speak about diversity and equity in initiatives” and was assured that it would be a focus of the government.

Cedric Richmond, a former CBC head and White House senior adviser, confirmed her knowledge. He detailed the training and employment for thousands of building positions for underserved Black labourers. Road construction, weatherization initiatives, and the electrification of bus services are among the positions available. “94% of these positions will not require a four-year degree,” Richmond noted.

According to Travis Watson, head of the Boston Employment Commission, bringing more Blacks into the business will necessitate conquering racial obstacles with profound origins in modern history. Watson is the head of the agency in charge of setting job objectives for city building initiatives. In an article for the Stanford Social Innovation Review titled “Union Construction’s Racial Equity and Inclusion Charade,” he detailed both the attraction of union construction employment and the methods used to stymie Black qualified workers.

“Union construction positions are not just excellent jobs, they are wonderful jobs,” he wrote, adding that the jobs “have a comparatively low entry barrier and give world-class training, great pay, and benefits that enable members to retire with dignity. However, what is frequently overlooked is the racism of union construction, and the fact that those excellent jobs, especially leadership roles, are intended to be filled by white males.”

Five Ways the Government Encourages a Diverse Construction Sector

Little-discussed clauses in the Infrastructure Act encourage equity in the construction professions. Here are five of the most essential ones in a 1,000-page document with numerous directive parts. For example, the following wording appears in the hiring criteria for “Surface Transportation” initiatives, mainly government highways:

First, Section 11203, titled “State Human Capital Plans,” mandates the Biden administration to urge each state to create a five-year plan “for the state’s current and long-term staff and labour requirements.” Although participation is optional, the state plans have a deadline of April 2023 and should be made public.

Second, state plans should outline strategies for increasing the racial and gender diversity of the state building workforce. Section 13007, “Research, Technology, and Education,” for example, asks for “targeted marketing and collaborations” as well as paid work chances such as “pre-apprenticeships, apprenticeships, and professional prospects for on-the-job training.”

Third, the designs should incorporate the wording in Section 25019 regarding “Local Hiring Preference for Construction Jobs.” It focuses on ex-offenders, people with impairments, and “individuals who reflect groups that have historically been underserved in the workforce.”

Fourth, state plans should estimate labour requirements for energy infrastructure and building improvements. Section 40513, titled “Career Skills Training,” finds methods to identify and recruit employees from “target populations of people who would profit from training” in order to “achieve economic self-sufficiency.”

Finally, the legislation requires the transportation minister to investigate methods to increase the number of women in the trucking business. The following directive is found in Section 23007 on “Promoting Women in the Trucking Workforce”: “It is the opinion of Congress that the trucking business should investigate every chance to promote and support the pursuit and retention of jobs in trucking by women.” It proposes the formation of a government “Women of Transportation Advisory Council.”

Reparative Justice for Prior Wrongs and African Construction Employees

Black political and labour leaders may want to consider the validity of claims of preferred employment as “remedial reasoning” for historical wrongs. In previous infrastructure initiatives, the Biden government recognised a trend of racial disparities. Former New Orleans mayor Mitch Landrieu, Biden’s infrastructure “czar,” recently spoke of the need to avoid comparable atrocities.

However, the government has been sluggish to advocate for solutions to the industry’s pattern of discrimination. This type of activity has kept the Black work force underdeveloped while bolstering the white middle class and big building firms. Here are some examples of how racism has manifested itself in previous government building initiatives:

Between 1935 and 1943, the federal government launched an industrial strategy to help the country recover from the Great Depression. Under President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal, the government spent $11 billion to employ over 8 million individuals through the Works Progress Administration (WPA).

Despite the Roosevelt Administration’s pledge to ban racial prejudice, the WPA programmes barred Blacks from all but the lowest-skilled and lowest-paying building positions. As a consequence, black employees were paid significantly less than white skilled tradespeople, and the WPA failed to engage in their training and retention.

The Federal Highway Act, enacted in 1956, was the federal government’s second building project. The building of 41,000 miles of interstate roads was allowed by the postwar industrial plan. Over many years, transportation designers routed some roads straight through Black neighbourhoods, sometimes on purpose. Furthermore, houses were seized through eminent domain, with those relocated receiving compensation at or below market value.

Furthermore, the highway initiatives mainly created well-paying construction employment for white males and contracts for white-owned businesses. Some of the businesses that profited from exclusive highway contracts are still in business today, competing for building projects.

When President Lyndon B. Johnson released Executive Order 11246 in the 1960s, African building labourers and vendors had high expectations. It urged the Labor Secretary to support equity in the sector, but those expectations were quickly dashed.

In a 1999 piece titled “Can You Dig It?: Affirmative Action and African Americans in the Construction Industry,” Paul King, who operated a Black construction company in Chicago at the time, remembered the period.

“On July 23, 1969, I was among the leaders who shut down Chicago construction sites due to the dearth of black labourers and vendors in HUD-financed building projects,” he wrote. Hundreds of protesters were inspired by Presidential Executive Order 11246, which required contractors on nationally funded building projects to not only stop discriminating against blacks, but also to take ‘affirmative action’ to boost African American involvement.”

Discrimination Against African Construction Workers Currently

Returning to 2022, the US Equal Employment Opportunity Commission says that Black employees in the building industries continue to experience prejudice. “The building sector has always been an essential component of the American economy, as a significant provider of America’s workers, a route to wealth and security, and a critical measure of the nation’s health,” says Charlotte A. Burrows, head of the EEOC. Unfortunately, many women and people of race have been denied or experience discrimination in the building industry.”

Burrows reported “displays of nooses; threats and physical harassment; and, on occasion, physical or sexual attacks.” Meanwhile, Travis Watson of the Boston Employment Commission detailed how building unions have used discrimination against Black workers: There is the “Catch 22,” in which people are required to have a construction job in order to join the union, but need union membership in order to get a job; “Stonewalling,” in which a union frustrates an applicant by refusing to communicate; “Biased Gatekeepers,” in which union dispatchers bypass Black workers for jobs; and “Discriminatory Testing,” in which applicants must pass a subjective test in order to be considered for membership. Lastly, there is “Explicit Racism,” in which white employees use racist terminology and place Blacks in risky circumstances.

In addition to the challenges posed by companies and organisations, Black labour faces unfair rivalry from both legal and illegal immigrants. Hispanic employees have flooded the sector since 2003, accounting for 30% of the workforce today, up from 20% in 2003. Some builders prefer them as inexpensive labour groups. Finally, the Biden government bears accountability for fulfilling the pledge of construction-related employment for Black labour. It can start by looking into the state’s intentions for highway and electricity initiatives.

Black leaders must be particularly watchful in states where their community is critical to political success, such as Maryland, Georgia, and North Carolina, as well as in states where their community is critical to political success, such as Virginia, New York, New Jersey, Michigan, and Illinois. All have a part to perform in ensuring the adoption of racially inclusive hiring for contemporary America’s infrastructure.

Roger House is an American Studies assistant lecturer at Emerson College in Boston. The following analysis is taken from The Daily Beast.