YOUNGSTOWN SCHOOLS Construction project frustrates minority workers

A contractor said more minorities will likely be hired as work advances.
By JoANNE VIVIANO
VINDICATOR EDUCATION WRITER
YOUNGSTOWN -- Tracey E. Oates said her husband wants to work.
And since losing his job through a part-time temporary service in December, he's been looking for it.
Oates was hopeful that her family would get help through the Youngstown city schools, where board members seek to have minorities, women and city residents hired to complete the district's $182 million school facilities construction project.
Oates' husband and two sons, all minorities, passed basic skills tests given by the district in May but they're still waiting for the phone to ring.
"They were saying that everybody was going to have an opportunity to get a job. Don't tell me one thing and do something else," Oates said of the school board. "We need the money in the community, there's no work. ... Don't get someone from another state when you've got people in Youngstown who went to these schools.
"This was our project, for the inner city."
Oates is not the only one complaining, said Al Curry, the school district's equal-employment opportunity contract compliance officer for the construction project.
"I have not been able to get the number of minorities and females on the job sites that I thought, naively, that I would be able to," Curry said. "It's like rolling a 200-pound boulder up a hill. You hope it doesn't roll back down on you."
Upsetting information
Curry said he's viewed payroll lists from contractors that show employees from as far away as Chester, W.Va. -- information that is upsetting when there are "people in Youngstown whose kids and families go to these schools," he added.
Construction has begun on the Harding and Taft elementary schools and ground has been broken for two other schools. In all, plans are to build six schools and renovate 10 others.
In all contracts associated with the building project, the school district has asked contractors to make a "good faith effort" to hire at least 20 percent minorities, 20 percent females and 50 percent Youngstown residents.
In the Taft project, Mike Coates Construction Co. of Niles was awarded a $4.5 million contract for general trades and a $7,000 contract for asphalt shingles.
Union labor
Mike Coates Jr., vice president, said the company uses union labor and he believes the unions are trying to bring new people into their ranks. He said minorities and locals have already been hired, but that few workers were needed throughout site work. As masonry work begins and crews get larger, he said, he expects more minorities and locals will be put to work.
"As time goes on, we're going to do what we can," Coates said. "When the job's all done, I think they'll be happy. ... It'll work out in the end."
At Harding Elementary School, DeSalvo Construction Co. in Liberty was awarded a $4.1 million general trades contract. An official there declined comment, referring a call to Curry.
Among roadblocks to hiring, Curry said, is that there are few minorities in trade unions. Curry has a list of 350 people who have passed basic skills tests and are ready to work; most are not in unions. He seeks to have them accepted into local unions' apprentice programs, considered the gateway into a building trade. But many unions accept applications only once a year, have stopped programs because work is so slow, or are reluctant to admit someone who is not already working, Curry said.
Further, he said, contractors are not always willing to sign forms letting unions know they "intend to hire" a worker once he or she is in the union. Such cooperation, he said, would help facilitate the entry of minorities into the union.
"So far, I have not had any indication from the building trades that they are willing to do anything outside the box to bring minorities and females into this construction project," he said.
The district is required to hire the "lowest, best responsible bidder," Curry explained. "There is no penalty for contractors not making a good faith effort [to meet hiring goals] but, on the other side of the coin, it is a contract. ... If they come to the table again, they may be the lowest and best but not the responsible bidder."