VIEWS: This Labor Day, vow to capitalize on opportunity to diversify the workforce

This Labor Day is a celebration of our country’s growing embrace of a new face of leadership and opportunity. In our politics, a minority woman leads a presidential ticket for the first time. And on the frontlines of our labor movement, the “toolbelt generation” has tremendous room for growth led by women and minorities.

Our challenge ahead is to recognize this important moment and capitalize on it, rather than let it slip by.

We see more young people pursue apprenticeships and careers in the trades than pursuing the traditional four-year college degree. In Springfield, Gov. JB Pritzker and the Illinois Legislature are making substantial investments in these new trades pathways, including $13.4 million for pre-apprenticeship hubs that help workers find roles in the burgeoning clean energy sector. More women and minority workers will be recruited and welcomed into these roles.

Young people are recognizing working in the trades provides a successful middle-class career and retirement security where other paths fall short. But there are hurdles that must be overcome for a more diverse workforce.

Women make up less than 11% of the workforce in the construction industry and just 4.3% in the construction trades. Despite some new momentum, recruitment and retention of women in the Illinois construction industry has plateaued at 5% for more than 20 years.

Why? The odds are still against working women finding success in the skilled trades.

Too few employers offer maternity leave benefits. Without maternity leave, women with children must go on short-term disability.

Child care is another major stumbling block. The costs are too high, or there are simply not enough options to match their schedules and needs. Non-union workers in child care often are paid poverty wages that lead to high turnover, forcing women workers to pay a heavy price if they want to support their families by heading to work.

With child care uncertainty and restrictions, women on the job face dilemmas. How do we report for work at 5 a.m. or 7 a.m. when everyone else shows up, if the daycare doesn’t open until 8 a.m.? Projects running behind schedule mean longer hours or weekend schedules. Women in construction must turn down overtime hours because there is simply no one available to watch their children.

Our union leadership recognizes these serious challenges and is taking them head on. For example, programs like the Barrier Reduction Fund, outlined in the Climate Equitable Jobs Act are one piece of a larger puzzle that we can use to address child care inequities for working women.

A resolution adopted at our recent Illinois AFL-CIO convention this summer calls for a unified campaign to significantly increase women’s recruitment and retention in the building trades within five years. We will fight hard for increased funding and smart legislation at all levels of government to directly address these gender diversity challenges. We need better training programs, more visible outreach, and strong partnerships with allies who share our goals of closing the gender gap by ensuring good, union jobs for women in the building trades.

We took an important step forward in May with our first Tradeswomen Take Over Springfield advocacy day at the State Capitol, bringing teams on the frontlines to meet with legislators and make the case in person for the investments needed to open more doors to women and minorities.

At this critical time for our country and labor movement, we encourage you to visit the IL AFL-CIO website to find a Labor Day celebration parade or event near you: www.ilafl-cio.org/events/2024/9/2/laborday2024. Ask the women in your lives how we can help them find the opportunities that have been elusive for too long. We succeed when we all can work together, to put people to work.

• Pat Devaney is secretary-treasurer of the Illinois AFL-CIO, and Hannah Hill is a commercial painter and treasurer of Local Union 90, Painters District Council 58.