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1st appeared
16
February
2000
Program Promotes Community Hiring at Major Construction Projects A new agreement between UCSF and a consortium of community-based agencies establishes a comprehensive system to promote local hiring on all major campus construction projects, including UCSF Mission Bay. The new UCSF Community Construction Workforce Program, patterned after a pilot project that significantly increased local hiring and workforce diversity at UCSF/Mount Zion construction sites, begins immediately with construction of UCSF’s first building at Mission Bay. Future campus construction projects also will incorporate the workforce hiring program, including buildings developed by the UCSF Mission Bay Campus LLC, UCSF’s public-private partnership with the Bay Area Life Sciences Alliance.
The fundamental goal of the program is to provide access to construction jobs for all qualified local residents – many of whom traditionally have been excluded from the hiring process. The program imposes no hiring quotas but sets goals for local hiring on each project. It also creates a mechanism within the construction hiring process to ensure that resident workers are considered at the time job opportunities become available at the journey level or through the creation of apprenticeship positions. For the first building project at the UCSF Mission Bay campus, a laboratory building at 16th and Owens streets, the lead agency in the program will be Young Community Developers, Inc. The Bayview-Hunters Point-based group was selected to lead this phase of the UCSF construction program by other members of a consortium of community-based agencies involved in the program. "This program represents a great opportunity for UCSF to engage in a partnership with the community that has the potential to exceed hiring goals and truly achieve inclusion in hiring of local workers," said Dwayne Jones, executive director of Young Community Developers.
The other agencies participating in the program are Chinese for Affirmative Action, Mission Hiring Hall, Ella Hill Hutch Community Center, Potrero Hill Neighborhood House, San Francisco Building Trades Council, and the Glide Memorial Church Construction Program. Jones expects the program to see greater success in placing local workers in construction jobs as the community-based agencies continue to develop more sophisticated referral methods and additional training programs. "Contractors are going to be asked to create as many new job opportunities as possible for those who traditionally have been excluded," he said. Michael Adams, director of the UCSF Office of Affirmative Action, Equal Opportunity, and Diversity, expects the program to produce a construction workforce that reflects UCSF’s diversity. "We hope to see a more diverse workforce at all levels – entry, apprentice and journey – as a result of these efforts to increase local hiring," Adams said. To succeed, the workforce program relies on making contractors aware of qualified local workers in a timely manner. Terry Rawlins, construction compliance officer with the UCSF Office of Affirmative Action, Equal Opportunity, and Diversity, developed and monitored the Mount Zion program and will continue as UCSF coordinator of the expanded program. Rawlins carefully monitors the construction schedule for UCSF projects to inform the community-based agencies about when hiring opportunities will become available for workers in specific building trades. The workforce program emphasizes hiring goals contained in the contract and ensures that discussions take place with community-based agencies at the time work crews are being assembled for specific portions of the overall project. A pre-bid conference takes place with all candidates interested in bidding on a UCSF contract and after bids are awarded two preconstruction conferences take place to ensure prime contractors and subcontractors discuss their hiring needs directly with the community based agencies. As part of the pilot project, Rawlins developed a detailed database to track all work hours for major construction projects at Mount Zion from July 1, 1993 through June 30, 1997. This period included the construction of a major new research laboratory building and a new medical office building. The Ella Hill Hutch Community Center, which is based in the Western Addition neighborhood where Mount Zion is located, served as lead agency during the pilot project, providing local workers whenever possible for the projects under a memorandum of understanding with UCSF. The database tracked 550,000 work hours involving 3,100 workers, more than 240 contractors, and 22 different building trades. "The goal of the memorandum of understanding was to improve hiring among the local workforce. And better utilization of local workers produces a more diverse workforce," he said. When comparing hiring figures for the Mount Zion program to other UCSF construction projects completed under traditional hiring methods, Rawlins found the following:
The expanded UCSF Community Construction Workforce Program will be used for all major campus construction projects in the future, including those at Parnassus Heights, Mission Bay and other campus sites. UCSF’s long range planning calls for the construction of 2.65 million-square-feet of new space at Mission Bay over the next 20 years and extensive replacement and renovation of space at Parnassus Heights. Source: Bill Gordon, News Services |
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"The
program is designed to ensure that community groups work together
with building contractors to maximize the number of local residents
who will help build UCSF Mission Bay -- and all major campus projects.
With the experience gained from the Mount Zion construction program,
we expect even greater success with this expanded program," said
Steve Jack, manager of major projects for UCSF Facilities Management.