REBUILDING AMERICA: C L E V E L A N D
David J. Wondolowski, Executive Secretary of The Cleveland Building & Construction Trades Council with Terence P. Joyce, President of The Cleveland Building & Construction Trades Council.
For the Cleveland Building & Construction Trades Council, rebuilding and resiliency go hand in hand.
For Cleveland’s building and construction trades unions, rebuilding is just another day on the job. While most of the country saw construction projects grind to a halt during the COVID-19 pandemic, the more than 29 member unions of the Cleveland Building & Construction Trades Council (CBCTC) never stopped working.
“Our union members had the shared resiliency, will, and fortitude to get up and go to work every morning, and to continue to support their families on union wages,” says David J. Wondolowski, executive secretary of the CBCTC. “The contractors and owners we work with never had to stop building."
While other organizations were still struggling to adapt to the challenges of the pandemic, the CBCTC was already providing solutions that kept construction projects moving in the Greater Cleveland area. The CBCTC moved quickly, providing handwashing stations, negotiating for staggered start and lunch times, and providing masks and other personal protective equipment. As a result, the organization never had to manage a major outbreak.
“We collaborated with our contractors and the development community to ensure all safety precautions were implemented on those projects,” says Wondolowski. “People often ask me how our members are doing as we pull out of the pandemic. My answer is always the same. We never really had any major problems. We made adjustments and got right back to work.”
BUILDING AN INCLUSIVE AND DIVERSE FUTURE
One of the biggest challenges facing the construction and building industry is “refilling the ranks” as the current workforce ages and retires. Skilled labor recruitment has been an ongoing headache for the building industry, with many potential workers never even considering these jobs as a career option. Instead of a problem, the CBCTC sees an opportunity.
In collaboration with the city’s contractors’ associations, the CBCTC recently launched a new 501(c)(3) nonprofit called Cleveland Builds, which is dedicated to growing the area’s skilled labor pool with a significant focus on diversity and inclusion. The CBCTC also supports this work by providing a wealth of apprenticeship and pre-apprenticeship resources
.“One of our most encouraging diversity and inclusion initiatives is our Women’s Council,” says Terence P. Joyce, the CBCTC’s president. “This is a group of women in our industry who regularly meet to plan new ways to increase female participation in our unions. They provide true mentorship, and their outreach efforts have a completely different kind of impact. For women who are looking to ask real questions about apprenticing in a trade, there’s no better group to provide answers than our union sisters.
”Yet again, Cleveland’s resilience is paying off. “We connect construction projects with the highest skilled tradespeople that you can find,” says Wondolowski. “There’s a lot of work in the Greater Cleveland area right now and much more in years to come.”