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Sunday, September 09, 2001

By Jim McKay, Post-Gazette Staff Writer

Construction workers police themselves for drugs, invest their pension money in building projects and jobs, and work together with the region's contractors to improve the industry's image and competitiveness in Pittsburgh.

In steel, where labor-management participation was once a dirty word, union workers at U.S. Steel's Clairton Works cooperate with management to improve the environmental cleanliness of an inherently dirty industry.

Those were among the efforts recognized last week by the annual Governor's Awards for Labor Management Cooperation. Four of the dozen awards given this year across the state came to Allegheny County, including three to the construction industry.

Here are their stories:

BUILDER'S GUILD: Construction trades unions took a hard look at themselves a few years ago and decided they needed to change the way they did business and to become more competitive, cost effective and customer friendly.

The result was the nonprofit Builders Guild, an initiative that has been embraced by the construction industry to revitalize through better cooperation between workers, contractors, architects, engineers, building owners and others.

The guild was incorporated in 1999 as the region began a multibillion-dollar building boom that included the new football and baseball stadiums, the convention center now under construction and roadway projects. It now includes 32 unions, 17 contractor or employer groups and a 40-member member advisory committee representing the industry, education, government and the minority community.

After a survey confirmed minorities were deeply distrustful of the union trades, the guild developed an outreach program titled "Trade Me" that promotes construction as a long-term career option with a specific emphasis on the recruitment and retention of minorities to apprentice programs.

Its other projects include a marketing campaign, leadership and other educational training, and a Web site that is expected to be used as a centralized depository of information on the industry.

ERECT: Another award winner is the Employee Real Estate Construction Trust, founded in 1988 by construction trade unions with the idea of investing pension funds in the region to both earn a safe return and generate jobs.

ERECT has invested in three dozen construction projects valued at more than $200 million. The trust's funds have supported more than 2.5 million job hours of union work with a combined payroll exceeding $68 million.

The ERECT funds are managed by Johnstown-based AmeriServ Financial, formerly USBancorp, with an advisory board that includes representatives of the construction unions and industry management.

There have been no work stoppages on projects financed by ERECT funds over the last 13 years because each job includes a management-labor understanding designed to keep peace.

DRUG-FREE PARTNERSHIP: More than 8,000 construction workers -- bricklayers, carpenters, cement masons, drywall finishers, ironworkers, laborers, operating engineers and plasterers -- carry a card proclaiming they are drug free.

The card is proof of participation in a drug testing program sponsored by the Master Builders Association, a 100-member contractor association, and major trade unions in 11 southwestern Pennsylvania counties.

Although testing is voluntary, some contractors require workers to be tested as a condition of hiring on certain projects, including industrial facilities such as steel mills and power plants.

Each participant must be tested at least once a year. Each is also open to periodic random tests. The program's goal is to randomly test 25 percent of the participants without prior notice once a year.

CLAIRTON WORKS: U.S. Steel has invested $258 million over the last decade in environmental control equipment for its Clairton Works. But it's the plant's 1,600 workers who pull the levers and press the buttons that make it work.

The company and United Steelworkers Local 1557 were honored for cooperative training programs that have helped Clairton address environmental standards as it cooks coal to make coke, a steelmaking ingredient.

The program essentially explains the plant's environmental controls to the union employees and shows them their role in the process and how it can break down if they fail to do their part.

"It makes people aware how important their own job is to protecting the environment," said plant manager Ray Terza. "Working together you can solve a lot of problems and significantly improve ourselves, which all of our data shows" has happened.

The company, which bills Clairton as the largest and most environmentally progressive coke plant in North America, says its pollution controls meet international standards thanks in part to the program, called CITE for Continuous Improvement to Environment. It has been duplicated at other U.S. Steel sites.

Jerry Strelick, president of United Steelworkers Local 1557, said cooperative programs like this were unusual in the industry just a decade ago. But he points to abandoned steel mill sites around the Mon Valley as a reason for change in an industry challenged by cheaper foreign products.

There are still daily arguments between union and management but they're conducted with the knowledge that the plant must operate properly to remain in business, Strelick added.

"It's got to work or we don't work," he said.

Elsewhere in the region, the governor honored Washington County and the Service Employees International Union Local 585 for collaborative efforts that included safety programs and job reclassifications. Results include an agreement banning privatization of county health services, employee time off for participation in charitable events and sick leave donation from one union member to another.

In Westmoreland County, honorees included Kennametal's Carbidie in Irwin and United Steelworkers Local 1408-74 for their labor-management committee and the Municipal Authority of Westmoreland County and Utility Workers Union Local 164, which has been strike-free for 59 years.

New graduate jobs may drop

Employers expect to hire 19.7 percent fewer new college graduates from the current senior class than they did at the end of the previous academic year, according to a survey conducted by the National Association of Colleges and Employers. The hiring outlook is worst among manufacturers, who expect to hire 30.1 percent fewer new college graduates. Service employers also expect to scale back. Not all the hiring news was bad. The survey found that nonprofit organizations and government expect to increase their hiring of college grads.