Federal Efforts To Increase Minority Opportunities in Skilled Construction Craft Unions Have Had Little Success

Gao ID: HRD-79-13 March 15, 1979

An evaluation was conducted on the impact of major federal programs on the representation of minorities in the unionized skilled construction crafts. The term "skilled construction crafts" included asbestos workers, brick masons, carpenters, cement masons, electricians, glaziers, iron workers, lathers, operating engineers, painters, plasterers, plumbers, roofers, and sheetmetal workers. GAO analyzed union apprentice and journeyman membership data and union members' earnings data.

Ineffective enforcement and inadequate monitoring by federal agencies resulted in minorities making little progress from 1972 through 1976 in increasing their representation among journeymen in skilled construction craft unions. This lack of progress occurred primarily because the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) and the Department of Labor (DOL) have neither actively monitored and enforced their programs nor adequately coordinated their activities. EEOC has made only one self-initiated investigation of a national construction craft union; instead, enforcement actions by EEOC have been directed at complaints against construction unions. Membership data that unions sent to EEOC were inaccurate, incomplete, and not verified. Executive Order 11246 does not give DOL authority over the unions, since they are not a party to the government contract. The Apprenticeship Outreach Program (AOP) contractors and the Job Corps centers had little success in placing minorities in construction apprenticeship programs. The Job Corps centers visited by GAO had not coordinated their construction craft training programs with either the Bureau of Apprenticeship and Training or the unions.

Recommendations

Our recommendations from this work are listed below with a Contact for more information. Status will change from "In process" to "Open," "Closed - implemented," or "Closed - not implemented" based on our follow up work.

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