Dive brief:
- After taking heat for failing to meet initial workforce diversity hiring goals, a Gilbane-Turner joint venture has awarded 40 percent of the contracts for the Buffalo Bills’ new NFL stadium project to companies owned by minorities, women or veterans with disabilities, Turner. Construction told Construction Dive.
- The Orchard Park project in New York has awarded 55 subcontracts worth $163 million to businesses owned by minorities, women or disabled veterans. That makes up 39.9% of the $408 million in awards so far on the job, according to Turner spokesman Chris McFadden.
- The Bills and their contractors fired of Erie County Legislature Speaker April Baskin in July for failing to meet initial recruitment goals. Turner CEO Peter Davoren told Construction Dive that Baskin’s efforts had an impact on the project. “April shook the tree and it needed to be shaken,” Davoren said. “I’m glad I did, because now I feel like all the stakeholders are on the same page.”
Diving knowledge:
Gilbane-Turner’s updated claims about underrepresented workforce participation in stadium work are a sharp turnaround from initial results earlier this year.
In June, Empire Development, the economic development arm of New York State, found that the project had hired only 2.3 percent of minority-owned businesses, 4.7 percent of women, and 0.4 percent of service-disabled veteran businesses for work. The agency did not respond to Construction Dive’s inquiries for comment on the project’s current claims.
Funded with $850 million in public dollarsthe Bills must make a good faith effort to employ 15% minority-owned businesses, 15% women-owned businesses, and 6% service-disabled veteran-owned businesses in the new stadium, which could cost up to $1.7 billionaccording to the Associated Press.
Diversity and workforce participation from traditionally underrepresented groups, especially in high-profile, taxpayer-funded jobs, has become a rallying cry in the construction industry. The industry is trying to untangle itself its racist image, only for white boys and recruiting more workers of color to help combat an endemic labor shortage. The sector’s upcoming Construction Inclusion Week, which begins on October 16, is an initiative that aims to do both.
But in the wake of Empire Development’s findings, Baskin expressed concern that the JV team was only making the moves to establish a paper trail that had made a good-faith effort, before submitting waivers once completed the project, one a practice that is considered common in the construction sector.
Davoren said Baskin’s knowledge of the industry impressed him, but he wasn’t surprised that she collected companies using waivers at the end of the process when targets have not been met.
“I wasn’t surprised, because it’s done,” Davoren said. He noted that companies sometimes approach workforce participation goals at the start of a job with a preconceived view that they won’t be able to meet them, given the capacity challenges of underrepresented contractors in many markets.
In that case, “you’re already a loser before you start,” Davoren said. “But if you set your goals that we’re going to do everything humanly possible to include these companies and companies like this so that there’s equity, then the percentages will be even higher than the goals.”
The dirt almost finished
As for the stadium’s construction progress so far, McFadden said Construction Dive crews are almost done excavating and will begin foundation work shortly, followed by structural steel. Minority-owned businesses, women, and service-disabled veterans have participated in early work, including site closure, demolition, temporary lighting, and excavation.
He also said Gilbane-Turner was holding additional “meet the best” sessions with local businesses, including one on Nov. 1, to facilitate connections with local businesses.
After the initial lack of workforce participation was made public, Baskin defended holding these sessions somewhere other than just the stadium site in Orchard Park, New York, about 20 minutes from downtown Buffalo, where urban workers can live.
Additional sessions have since been scheduled in East Buffalo and the cities of Tonawanda and Lackawanna.
But now that apparent progress has been made on the initial goals of the underrepresented workforce at the stadium, Baskin has another plea for the NFL team and its contractors: get more local businesses into the mix of recruitment
According to the Buffalo Newsthe Erie County Legislature voted Oct. 5 to create a new stadium community inclusion task force to help ensure that happens.
The newspaper quoted Baskin as saying, “How are we going to include local residents in this project?”
