Wisconsin Builder - The A List

The Long Arm

Is government extending its reach too far?

By Jeremy Harrell

One of the goals of governmental policy is to move society toward things that people agree are good. Gainful employment: good. Health: good. Safe streets: good.

Governments for years have applied the same logic to construction. Few would dispute, for instance, that minority-hiring standards have broadened the demographic representation of the industry, helping to turn what has been traditionally a white-male bastion into something more representative of society at large.

But in the last year alone, several public entities have wielded their considerable clout in new directions, sometimes sparking outcry from the industry those agencies are purportedly trying to help. The state Department of Workforce Develop-ment, for instance, recently instituted a policy requiring all electrical contractors — those working on both public and private jobs — to set a journeyman-to-apprentice ratio in the hope of increasing on-site instruction and job safety.

Also, a committee within the DWD, reaching back to a decades-old executive order drafted by former Gov. Patrick Lucey, is contemplating an apprenticeship-threshold requirement for all state projects.

The Milwaukee Metropolitan Sewerage District recently approved a similar apprenticeship goal requiring a certain number of new workers on MMSD projects.

The Madison Metropolitan School District in the last year has made waves for two bold moves. First, the district adopted a policy — loudly denounced by contractors and embraced by labor — giving union-affiliated and locally owned companies a bidding edge on large district projects. And in another power play earlier this summer, the district's School Board voted 4-3 to reject an electrical bid because board members thought the company, Forward Electric Inc., Madison, didn't have enough women and minority workers on staff.

Government responsibility

Nick Kemp, an electrician with Town & Country Electric, Sun Prairie, finishes up wiring for phase two of the City Center West project in Madison. State government has adopted mandatory journeyman-to-apprentice ratios, which in the future would affect a project like this. Is this kind of policy good for the industry, or is government overreaching?

Juan Jose Lopez, the School Board member who spearheaded the vote, said he wanted to put the district's muscle behind the notion that the industry needs to be more inclusive. Honchos from the local chapter of the National Electrical Contractors Association and the Inter-national Brotherhood of Electrical Workers later pointed out that Forward is one of the industry's most inclusive employers.

Still, the point for Lopez is that industry folks keep saying they're making progress on becoming more open-armed employers and drawing new and different faces to the trades. But he said he's seen little confirmation.

"These kind of issues keep coming up over and over," he said. "Recruitment means more than sending out a flier. I definitely wanted to have a wake-up call and say enough is enough. We're giving up millions and millions of dollars, and I'm tired of seeing my people — Latinos — and other people of color left out."

Lopez said the message seems to be getting through. "I feel (contractors) are saying, 'Wait a minute. This is for real.' If you all come back and things haven't changed, I'm not going to vote for your contract."

Easy does it

It's doubtful anyone disputes the goals of becoming more inclusive or getting more young workers into construction. Richard Wanta, executive director of the Wisconsin Underground Contractors Association, which is working with the Milwaukee sewerage district on ironing out the details of the apprenticeship program, said the construction work force is aging, making the MMSD's policy philosophically reasonable. But it's a big step from philosophy to reality considering that some contractors are happy letting others do the costly work of training the young workers.

"We definitely need more young people to get into the industry," Wanta said, noting that the average worker age for some trades is now above 40. "Certain contractors would do that on their own. There are other contractors that don't because they don't want to train them. That's just the nature of people."

Regardless, Wanta's message to MMSD, which it's heeding, is to proceed with caution.

"You're making all these demands," he said. "You've got to slow down and think through it."

From which trades have openings for apprentices to the safety hazards of placing new workers on dangerous projects, there are a number of factors that the MMSD, its contractors and unions need to figure out, Wanta said. And the MMSD has formed a committee to evaluate them all before it begins enforcing the new rule.

Finding a balance

Greg McDonough, an employee with Town & Country Electric, Sun Prairie, handles the end of a wire that reaches to the sixth floor of the City Center West project in Madison. The project meets state standards for journeyman-to-apprentice job site ratios for electrical contractors, but some industry observers worry the government is intruding on private business.

But even when public policy appears to be nudging the industry toward a consensus benefit, there's still the peril that government is overreaching, said John Mielke, lobbyist for the Associated Builders and Contractors of Wisconsin. For instance, the ABC has maintained that the DWD's electrician ratio policy will alienate some companies from apprenticeship programs because it's prohibitively costly to comply with the new rule.

The members of ABC, which tends to tilt to the conservative side, are traditionally the kinds of people who say government needs to operate more like a private business. And Mielke conceded that these governmental policies mirror initiatives that private companies have taken in recent years to become more "progressive."

But there's a fundamental difference, he said. Government, unlike business, must be mindful that policies don't end up costing too much or making unreachable demands on contractors. "I think (governments) have largely the same rights a private owner has, with the exception that they're dealing with taxpayers' money and have to be prudent and fair."

With that in mind, he said, government needs to determine what is good for the industry. More apprentices: good. Trying to achieve one goal while threatening competition for contractors and cost-efficiency for the public: Well, that one's up for debate.

"Moving the bar up on objective standards is not necessarily a bad thing," Mielke said. "But moving the bar up for performance measures that have nothing to do with the ability to complete a project is different."