Black people in the trades like construction. Latinos losing = Black people winning?

[RamsayBolton]

This was posted in that thread about people fleeing from ICE where TLR was somewhat happy to see it. Interesting yet depressing read.

How Black workers got locked out of construction’s best jobs

Black workers have never gotten a fair shot at the building trades’ economic ladder. Can today’s unions change?

www.inquirer.com

Cherise Farris had languished at a dead-end job for years before she found out about union carpentry.

When she finished the program and became an apprentice in 2018, her life changed. Apprentices start at $18.35 an hour. She started treating her family to Jamaican food more often, saying yes to her kids more.

Farris finished her apprenticeship last spring and now makes $40.60 an hour.

Legions of workers have turned to union construction to solidify their families’ status in the middle class. It’s one of the last remaining well-paying jobs available to people without a college degree. In 2022, construction workers in the United States made an average of $32 an hour, with union workers often making more. These are good jobs. If you can get them.

In that way, Farris’ experience is not the norm. She’s a Black woman who broke into a union full of white men – an industry whose workforce, both union and nonunion, was just 6% Black in 2021, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. And in big U.S. cities that are building trade union strongholds, such as Philadelphia and Boston, Black workers have long been locked out of these organizations.

Data from the federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission show that among 40 Pennsylvania unions that refer workers to contractors, 91% of their more than 39,000 members were white in 2018 and 5% were Black.

Nationally, white workers made up 75% of the 843 building trade unions that reported their demographics to the EEOC, while Black workers were 16%. North America’s Building Trades Unions, which represents more than 3 million trade union workers in the United States and Canada, did not respond to requests for demographic data.

These statistics echo a 1902 national survey of skilled trade unions analyzed in W.E.B. Du Bois’ “The Negro Artisan,” published in the American Journal of Sociology. Du Bois found that in the North, Black union tradesmen were a rarity: "There are ... numbers of competent Negro painters, carpenters and masons -- yet who has seen one at work in a Northern city?"

The centuries-long battle to integrate the building trades has had lasting, and damaging, effects on a city where poor people of color still struggle to find a ladder out of generational poverty.

Through her years doing construction, Farris has learned some things.

For one, pick your battles. “If you’re arguing with a third-generation [union worker] and his dad is running the job, it will definitely not end well for you.”

Two, not everyone on the job site – a place with workers from all different trades – is going to be accepting. Racist graffiti in the porta potties is common, as are comments from male colleagues like, “I couldn’t find a job for two years because I’m not Black.”

And you’re often the odd one out. The workers will have known one another forever; their grandfathers grew up together.

There was Shenecqua Butt, one of four Black women who filed a discrimination lawsuit against the Carpenters in 2008 after consistently being denied work and laid off. When Butt was laid off after two days at a refinery, she said a white shop steward told her, "We have to take care of our own first.”

And Dent, the operating engineer who was beaten by his union brothers, told Council in 2008: "I don't expect to see full integration in my lifetime.”

There is still a long way to go for the trades to reflect the diversity of the city and the industry, and that will also depend on bringing Latinx workers into unions. One in five Latino men work in construction, but they are much less likely than white workers to be unionized, according to an analysis by the Institute for Women’s Policy Research of 2021 U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data.

TL;DR: Black people get betrayed and shyt on if they join labor unions, and racially abused even if they don't. Construction is mostly a white boy network across the U.S. The Latino workers on these sites are most likely NOT in a union so they get paid significantly less. Only people who continue to win are white people.

Looks like every time we distract from the main issue (RACIST WHITE PEOPLE IN POWER) and try to get little "wins" elsewhere it's not really doing all that much.

 

[RamsayBolton]

bump

 

[get these nets]

OP

Those are some good quotes. Especially the parts of 3,4,5th generation white tradesman having things on lock, and fighting anybody else tryibg to come in and get those positions.

Trump is putting a halt to any actions taken to help bring in groups of people who werent/arent traditionally in those industries.

 

[ORDER_66]

get in where you fit in...

And never let a chaotic situation go to waste

 

[Voice of Reason]

Yes you are cutting off the racist white boys cheap labor source.


Plus Black people starting at the bottom rung of construction can eventually start their own businesses

 

[jaydawg08]

I’m gonna be honest, culturally Latin people have been built up and instilled to “work hard” no matter the job. It’s like ingrained in how they live, for better or worse. Even when paid not what they’re worth

Not saying that black men and women aren’t, I just don’t think they are too that level where they bypass the pay aspect

I don’t think young black men are gonna be out there trying to get construction jobs like that

 

[Tallac]

I’m gonna be honest, culturally Latin people have been built up and instilled to “work hard” no matter the job. It’s like ingrained in how they live, for better or worse

Not saying that black men and women aren’t, I just don’t think they are too that level

I don’t think young black men are gonna be out there trying to get construction jobs like that

How dare you? Are you a tether? Where your family from

 

[blackestofpanthers]

I’m gonna be honest, culturally Latin people have been built up and instilled to “work hard” no matter the job. It’s like ingrained in how they live, for better or worse. Even when paid not what they’re worth

Not saying that black men and women aren’t, I just don’t think they are too that level where they bypass the pay aspect

I don’t think young black men are gonna be out there trying to get construction jobs like that

This is 100% not true whatsoever. Being from California and growing up around a ton of Latinos/hispanics, they’re some of the laziest people I’ve ever seen
I was just talking to someone literally this morning about where that stereotype of them being hard working comes from, because it’s certainly false. As a matter of fact, the subject was the construction of new buildings/homes and how shoddy the quality is.

 

[jaydawg08]

This is 100% not true whatsoever. Being from California and growing up around a ton of Latinos/hispanics, they’re some of the laziest people I’ve ever seen
I was just talking to someone literally this morning about where that stereotype of them being hard working comes from, because it’s certainly false. As a matter of fact, the subject was the construction of new buildings/homes and how shoddy the quality is.

Idk man.. they work despite the fact they are underpaid. That’s generally a detriment and white people will eat off that

Idk if black workers are gonna do that. Continue to work in that field KNOWING they are being taken advantage of $$ wise

 

[cheek100]

I’m gonna be honest, culturally Latin people have been built up and instilled to “work hard” no matter the job. It’s like ingrained in how they live, for better or worse. Even when paid not what they’re worth

Not saying that black men and women aren’t, I just don’t think they are too that level where they bypass the pay aspect

I don’t think young black men are gonna be out there trying to get construction jobs like that

Na u on target. I’m in the trades and when I see a new young black man starting out I hope for the best but it rarely works out. It’s not that they’re targeting him or being overtly racist. It’s usually ends up he just ain’t built for it unfortunately.
Showing up in old Timbs does not pass for actual work boots. Why are u on a construction site wearing jewelry?

 

[BaggerofTea]

Na u on target. I’m in the trades and when I see a new young black man starting out I hope for the best but it rarely works out. It’s not that they’re targeting him or being overtly racist. It’s usually ends up he just ain’t built for it unfortunately.
Showing up in old Timbs does not pass for actual work boots. Why are u on a construction site wearing jewelry?

Ah makes sense why you spew a bunch of anti black nonsense

 

[Charlie Hustle]

Na u on target. I’m in the trades and when I see a new young black man starting out I hope for the best but it rarely works out. It’s not that they’re targeting him or being overtly racist. It’s usually ends up he just ain’t built for it unfortunately.
Showing up in old Timbs does not pass for actual work boots. Why are u on a construction site wearing jewelry?

Whats wrong with Timbs?


This one for example meets US and Canadian safety standards including ASTM F2412-11, ASTM F2413-11 and ASTM F2892-11 PR puncture resistance and CAN/CSA-Z195-14 Grade 1 with protective soles.

 

[BaggerofTea]

Whats wrong with Timbs?


This one for example meets US and Canadian safety standards including ASTM F2412-11, ASTM F2413-11 and ASTM F2892-11 PR puncture resistance and CAN/CSA-Z195-14 Grade 1 with protective soles.

What's even worse is that the poster doesn't put the guy on game.


If they are black, you know they are a hating ass motherfukker who goes out their way to sabotage other black people

 

[Turtle]

This was posted in that thread about people fleeing from ICE where TLR was somewhat happy to see it. Interesting yet depressing read.

How Black workers got locked out of construction’s best jobs

Black workers have never gotten a fair shot at the building trades’ economic ladder. Can today’s unions change?

www.inquirer.com

TL;DR: Black people get betrayed and shyt on if they join labor unions, and racially abused even if they don't. Construction is mostly a white boy network across the U.S. The Latino workers on these sites are most likely NOT in a union so they get paid significantly less. Only people who continue to win are white people.

Looks like every time we distract from the main issue (RACIST WHITE PEOPLE IN POWER) and try to get little "wins" elsewhere it's not really doing all that much.

Why do black people get shyt on for joining unions? Unions are great, they protect the people

 

[Shadow King]

Whats wrong with Timbs?


This one for example meets US and Canadian safety standards including ASTM F2412-11, ASTM F2413-11 and ASTM F2892-11 PR puncture resistance and CAN/CSA-Z195-14 Grade 1 with protective soles.

These are Timbs specifically made for safety...