Unions: Minority membership 20%; most in one trade

One in five members of local construction unions belongs to a minority group, according to numbers released yesterday by the unions in the lead-up to City Council's vote to move ahead with the $700 million Convention Center expansion.

City Council had threatened to hold up the expansion if unions did not increase minority participation.

However, more than half of the 4,442 minority union members come from Laborers International Union of North America Local 332 - a predominantly African American union.

"There are [minority] numbers from some of these unions that by any standard are quite low," said Paul Clark, a professor of labor studies at Pennsylvania State University in State College.

"That's surprising to me, given the labor movement as a whole has been getting increasingly diverse."

Although 12 out of 15 unions provided statistics, some of the largest did not. Among the missing were the United Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners Metropolitan Regional Council, which has 12,762 members, and the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 98, which has 4,543 members.

Electricians chief John J. Dougherty said officials should look at numbers over the last 10 years.

"Does Michael Nutter want to be judged on John Street's record?" Dougherty offered by way of analogy.

Dougherty said he would cooperate with a new advisory commission on diversity in the construction industry that Mayor Nutter established yesterday, but refused to give numbers to City Council, because, his spokesman said, Council is too political.

The unions provided information on how many of their members were from Philadelphia, and how many were African American, Hispanic, Asian, other, and female.

Nutter said the numbers were an important benchmark but not an excuse to beat up on the unions.

"This is not an exercise in fingerpointing or who did what to whom in the past," Nutter said.

Nutter asked the 15-member advisory commission to establish the availability of minority workers and create long-term plans for increasing their participation in the industry.

Federal statistics show that building-trades unions in the Philadelphia region are only 8 percent minority, but that includes the whole region.

A recent Inquirer analysis of statistics from the city's Office of Housing and Community Development on publicly funded projects in Philadelphia showed that 80 percent of the union workers were white and 70 percent lived outside the city.

Only one union, the Laborers, had the majority of its members from Philadelphia. Most had less than one-third.

In their responses, many union leaders pointed out that they draw their membership from wide geographic areas, which could have an effect on their statistics.

"Our council covers 26 counties in Pennsylvania, the entire state of Delaware and South Jersey," wrote Harry T. Williams, business manager for District Council 21 of the International Union of Painters and Allied Trades.

Membership in the painters' union totaled 5,463. Of those, 105 were African Americans, 244 were Hispanic and three were Asian. Of the 5,463, 1,147 were from Philadelphia.

Union leaders say their members earn enough money that they can live where they choose.

"What if we say that nobody from Philadelphia can work in Montgomery, New Jersey and Bucks?" asked Patrick Eiding, who heads the Philadelphia AFL-CIO, an umbrella organization.

Public-relations executive A. Bruce Crawley, a veteran of minority-inclusion battles, said the numbers were important "because when we say unions are going to do their best effort, we need to know what the total capacity and availability [of minority workers] are."

Councilman Curtis Jones Jr. said he understood why some unions had been reluctant to give their numbers. He compared it to an unwanted trip to the doctor, "because they have to get naked and exposed to some of their inadequacies," Jones said. "But that's the first step in getting well."