This year’s UCLA Community Scholars class is focused on policy initiatives that use the construction industry as a workforce development strategy to provide economic opportunity for Los Angeles’s low-income communities. This year’s scholars include representatives from key building trades unions, such as the ironworkers, painters, electrical workers, and pipe trades, as well as from community organizations in South Los Angeles who are doing cutting edge work in this area. There are also scholars from the City of Los Angeles and Los Angeles Unified School District as well as UCLA Urban Planning graduate students.
The construction industry is ripe for change. A building boom and an aging construction industry workforce has created a high demand for new, trained workers. The City’s redevelopment agency and other City departments are considering policies that would require large, subsidized projects to implement local hiring, project labor agreements, and worker education and training strategies. And job development in low-income communities is a key goal of Mayor Villaraigosa’s administration.
The Community Scholars have heard from panelists such as Dan Flaming of the Economic Round Table, Deputy Mayor Larry Frank, Workforce Investment Board member Teresa Sanchez, NDLON Executive Director Pablo Alvarado, and experts like contractors, apprenticeship coordinators, and apprentices themselves.
The class will culminate in a report to the mayor and other elected officials that makes recommendations and explains the history and debate around project labor agreements, local hire agreements, and the costs and social benefits of each.
Read the CRA Report Helping LA Grow Together: Why the Community Redevelopment Agency Should Adopt the Construction Careers Policy. |
