BUILD A BETTER SOUTH CONSTRUCTION WORKING CONDITIONS IN THE SOUTHERN U.S. DR. NIK THEODORE | BETHANY BOGGESS | JACKIE CORNEJO | EMILY TIMM This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ or send a letter to Creative Commons, PO Box 1866, Mountain View, CA 94042, USA. 2017 Copyright Workers Defense Project, Partnership for Working Families, Dr. Nik Theodore CONTENTS FOREWORD ...............................................................................................................................................i ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ..................................................................................................................... vii EXECUTIVE SUMMARY ..................................................................................................................... ix INTRODUCTION ......................................................................................................................................1 Construction in the South .....................................................................................................................1 Socioeconomic Conditions in the South ...............................................................................................2 Working Conditions for Construction Workers ....................................................................................2 About the Study ......................................................................................................................................5 METHODOLOGY ......................................................................................................................................7 Survey Methods .....................................................................................................................................7 Interview Methods .................................................................................................................................9 RESEARCH FINDINGS: UNSTABLE WORK .................................................................................. 11 Employment and Wages ...................................................................................................................... 11 Living Wages ........................................................................................................................................ 12 Wage Theft ........................................................................................................................................... 12 Financial Hardships ............................................................................................................................. 13 Payroll Fraud ....................................................................................................................................... 14 Employment Benefits ........................................................................................................................... 14 Job Training and Career Advancement ............................................................................................... 15 RESEARCH FINDINGS: DANGEROUS WORK .............................................................................. 19 Injuries on Construction Sites ............................................................................................................ 19 The Social Costs of Workplace Injuries .............................................................................................20 Health and Safety Training ..................................................................................................................21 Heat Stress and Access to Water in the Workplace ..........................................................................22 WORKING CONDITIONS IN MAJOR SOUTHERN CONSTRUCTION MARKETS ................25 Atlanta, Georgia ...................................................................................................................................25 Charlotte, North Carolina ....................................................................................................................27 Dallas, Texas ........................................................................................................................................30 Houston, Texas .....................................................................................................................................32 Miami, Florida ......................................................................................................................................35 Nashville, Tennessee ...........................................................................................................................37 RECOMMENDATIONS ......................................................................................................................... 41 REFERENCES .......................................................................................................................................43 GLOSSARY .............................................................................................................................................49 DEMOGRAPHICS TABLE.................................................................................................................5 FOREWORD Our cities, in the South and Southwest, and across the country, are thriving. Young people are flocking to live in revitalized urban areas, and our cities are the motor powering the creation of so many of the nation’s new jobs. —————— owever, when you visit a corporate outrage of this report is not only that our construction headquarters in Houston, a town workers are treated so poorly, that they receive H house development in Nashville, or a too little pay and too many injuries. The outrage is condominium in Miami, it is easy to forget that it that dangerous, unjust employment occurs in plain was construction workers who built these buildings sight, in our downtowns and suburban malls and with their hands, their sweat, and their blood. office parks, abetted by owners and builders who participate in this system without complaint. There Working or living in these new buildings, or gazing is no excuse for acquiescence: the construction at their beautiful facades, you can no longer sense jobs in Dallas or Atlanta or Charlotte will not move the presence of those construction workers and the to China or Vietnam like the textile and garment challenges they faced, toiling long, hard hours to factories that left the South over the last decades. support their families. The evidence of pervasive wage theft, and of widespread employment misclassification, This report is a call to action. We can no longer be disappears once the buildings are finished and the crews silent knowing that our homes and commercial centers, go home. There is no more blood on the rebar where our universities and hospitals, are built by men and workers fell, and no signs of the back injuries that women who work long hours but who can barely feed came from lifting too heavy loads or the gasping for air their families, who face dangerous working conditions that comes from breathing silica dust day after day. daily with no recourse or compensation if they are injured, and whose labor rights are too often violated. Build a Better South reminds us that far too often construction workers across the South face working With Build a Better South, Workers Defense conditions that should not exist in the twenty- Project, Partnership for Working Families, and first century in the richest country in the world. the University of Illinois define a challenge facing This important report documents the alarming our country: how can we ensure that the workers prevalence of jobs with wages too low to feed a who build our vibrant cities earn living wages and family. It captures the impact of disabling work without sacrificing their health? This report is an injuries on workers and their families that are important step in starting to meet that challenge. made even more devastating when the employer does not carry workers’ compensation insurance, or misclassifies a wage worker as an independent David Michaels, PHD, MPH contractor ineligible for compensation payments. Professor, Department of Environmental and Occupational Health Milken Institute School of Public Health Build a Better South tells the powerful stories of The George Washington University thousands of men and women building a region. Assistant Secretary of Labor for the Occupational Readers of this report will be justifiably angry. The Safety and Health Administration (2009-2017) BUILD A BETTER SOUTH i BUILD A BETTER SOUTH CONSTRUCTION WORKING CONDITIONS IN THE SOUTHERN U.S. A COLLABORATION BY THE WORKERS DEFENSE PROJECT, PARTNERSHIP FOR WORKING FAMILIES, & THE UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS AT CHICAGO DR. NIK THEODORE | BETHANY BOGGESS | JACKIE CORNEJO | EMILY TIMM BUILD A BETTER SOUTH iii ORGANIZATIONAL BIOGRAPHIES WORKERS DEFENSE PROJECT (WDP) is a leader in the movement for good, safe jobs in Texas. WDP is a worker center, and a source of hope for thousands of low- wage workers across Texas. With offices in Austin, Dallas, and Houston, WDP organizes construction workers and fights for safe and dignified working conditions that allow working families in Texas to escape the cycle of dangerous and dead-end jobs. Workers Defense has won policies to create hundreds of thousands