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European Institute of Construction Labour Research (CLR)
Seminar: Changing employment conditions in the construction industry
Wednesday 17 June 2015,
3.30pm-5.30pm
University of Westminster, 35 Marylebone Road, London NW1 5LS, Room M324
If you would like to join the seminar and/or CLR AGM, contact: Linda Clarke at
[log in to unmask] or
(: ++44/203 50 66528
The seminar on changing global employment conditions in construction includes the following speakers:
·
Phil Toner and Mike Rafferty (University of Sydney) on
Financialisation and labour in the Australian construction industry
·
Susan Moir (University of Massachusetts) on
Building racial and gender diversity in the US construction industry
·
John Calvert (University of Vancouver) on
Construction labour issues in Canada
·
Professor Phil Toner
and Dr Mike Rafferty
(University of Sidney), Financialisation of the Australian Construction Industry
Over the last 3 to 4 decades the Australian construction industry has been strongly influenced by financialisation. This paper focuses on two principal effects of financialisation: increased
competitive discipline in the production process and the shifting of risk from strong to weak parties in a contractual relationship. In this, financialisation has intensified those trends already evident in the construction industry. The sources of financialisation
include increased reliance on global capital markets and securitisation of construction projects. Second, large private developers have divested themselves of internal construction skills and largely withdrawn from control of the construction process to focus
almost exclusively on financial management. Third, the role of the public sector in financing projects and employing construction workers has greatly diminished, increasing the scope for private capital. Financialisation is a means to manage and shift risk
but it also generates its own particular risks in the construction industry, especially by causing an intensification of subcontracting and non-standard forms of employment. These changes constrain investment in skill formation, capital equipment, innovation
and R&D.
Dr Susan Moir
(Labour Resource Centre, University of Massachusetts) on
Building racial and gender diversity in the US construction industry.
Unionization in the construction sector in the US is highly variable by trade and by region but is about 15% nationally across all trades. This is down from a high of almost 40% in the 1970’s. The rate of decline in construction closely parallels the decline
in union membership across the US economy. However, in the past 50 years, the demographics of non-construction unions have changed with the gender and racial shifts in the workforce. As the service sector has grown and industrial production has declined, union
members have become more female and more racially diverse. Construction has bucked this trend. As recently as 2008, the US construction workforce was 89.4% white and 97.5% male. In addition to the social, political and potential legal problems of exclusion
and discrimination, the historic patterns of recruiting to the trades from closed networks have resulted in cyclical labor shortages. The industry has been through three boom cycles since the late-1980s and each time there has been much handwringing and lamenting
on the failure of the college-educated sons to follow in the fathers’ footsteps and the “need for more skilled labor.” The old leadership failed to see the need to open the doors to communities desperately in need to good jobs, but recently a number of new
initiatives are driving greater diversity in the unionized construction workforce across the US. While the leadership in the building trades is still almost all white men, a new and younger generation has recognized that the imperative to open the trades to
disadvantaged populations will strengthen the unions and the industry.
Professor John Calvert (Simon Fraser University, Vancouver)
on Construction labour issues in Canada Unions in the Canadian Construction industry have been influenced by the federal nature of the Canadian state and the continued role of international building trades unions headquartered in the US. While overall
union density in Canada has remained stable at roughly one third of the construction workforce over the past two decades, there have been modest gains in membership in Quebec and the Toronto region, counterbalanced by significant declines in large parts of
the West and in less densely populated areas. Union density also varies significantly by trade. Unions whose members have skills needed by the oil, gas and mining industries have largely maintained membership, while those with skills less in demand have experienced
declines in the West. Unionization is highest in large industrial, government and commercial construction, but very low in small commercial and residential building. In a number of provinces, such as British Columbia, governments have deliberately adopted
policies designed to erode the membership of the construction unions and undermine their role in apprenticeship and trades training leading to significant declines in membership. However, in the Toronto area, unions have consolidated their position through
multi-employer collective agreement provisions that fund training institutions through payroll deductions. Quebec is quite different from the rest of Canada, due to legislation that effectively requires union membership in key sectors of the industry. This
has resulted in the highest level of union membership in the country. While employers have been attempting to erode this system, thus far, Quebec unions have been able to keep it largely intact.
The seminar will follow from the earlier CLR AGM which participants are welcome to attend:
Agenda annual meeting 2014-5 CLR
12.00pm – 3.00pm.
Lunch (12.00-12.30 pm)
-
brief presentation by the participants -
-
to be presented in advance on paper -
Members of the network who want to present a project for discussion (point 4) should mail us a brief outline so that we can distribute it. If you are looking
for cooperation with other CLR-participants or have anything else to announce or communicate, please let us know. Jan Cremers, CLR coordinator.
If you would like to be part of the CLR network, contact:
[log in to unmask] or visit the CLR website: www.clr-news.org
Professor Linda Clarke
Centre for the Study of the Production of the Built Environment (ProBE)
Westminster Business School
University of Westminster
35 Marylebone Road
London NW1 5LS
Tel: 0044 (0)20350 66528
email: [log in to unmask]
The University of Westminster is a charity and a company limited by guarantee. Registration number: 977818 England. Registered Office: 309 Regent Street, London W1B 2UW.
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