The following is a conversation between two women who work in construction in the United States in the time of COVID-19. One works in the field, having just graduated from her apprenticeship, and the other is a union leader for a building trades union.
“Mary Francis Carpenter”: Hi, “Kathleen.” Let’s start by sharing what you do for work.
“Kathleen Fitzgerald”: I am a journeyman operating engineer. I run heavy equipment, like excavators, bobcats, loaders, and paving equipment on big construction jobs.
M—: I know you were working on a seven-day-a-week job leading up and into the coronavirus pandemic. What was it like for you on the job as a female as the virus was ramping up [intensifying]?
K—: It was a struggle to think about staying on the job—it seemed to be about whether I was “tough enough.” It was exciting to trust my mind and decide that my body matters and my health matters even if the sexism, class oppression, and men’s oppression around me said otherwise. Really, all of our bodies are so precious. But the oppression makes it so hard to act like that’s true.
K—: How would you describe the work that you do?
M—: I’m a union organizer for one of the building trades unions. I do a lot of things. I started in my apprenticeship thirty years ago, worked in the field doing a lot of heavy concrete form work (roads and bridges), and have worked for my union in various roles for about twenty years. Right now, a lot of my work is getting more women into these good union careers, with a priority of opening these doors to women of color.
K—: What has it been like to be a woman during COVID-19? What has it been like to lead women?
M—: It’s been hard. Some government officials have shown real leadership and have shut down construction in some areas, but most are still calling it “essential.” There are several problems with this:
1) Many construction projects are not essential in the time of a pandemic (like building luxury apartments, sports stadiums, or even school buildings).
2) For the jobsites that are open (whether or not they should be), there is little ability to enforce following the COVID-19 safety requirements, like social distancing and frequent hand washing. For example, we generally have no access to running water at construction sites, and jobsites clearly don’t have enough hand sanitizer given the shortage. And there’s the question of masks: All masks should be going to healthcare workers. In fact, the workers, contractors, and unions in our area have gathered masks from our basements, jobsites, and training centers to donate to nurses, but that leaves construction workers without masks.
All the above means to me that jobsites should be shut down except for a small number—for example, sites with hospital work related to the virus or for keeping the water, sewer, and lights working in the community. And even those projects should be shut down until we can ensure safety for the workers.
We (construction unions) are actually good at safety training and implementation for hazardous conditions (like hazardous materials training and work rules), but the COVID-19 trainings haven’t been well developed yet. As a result, the industry is just sending people to work based on someone’s idea of what safety might look like. It’s not driven by actual data and knowing something for sure (there is ongoing discussion of how far the virus can travel in the air).
We are being told we are essential but are being treated like we’re expendable.
Also, let’s be real. The only reason so much construction has been going on is because the lobbyists for construction companies and developers are strong—they are pushing elected officials hard to keep construction going. There is about six billion dollars’ worth of construction in my state.
As a female, I feel like I can see all this, but I am still struggling with how to talk to and listen to the men (because that’s who is in charge in my union) about it in a way that makes good things happen that are outside of men’s oppression and working-class oppression. At times I feel like my skills at connecting and listening are being useful, and other times I feel useless. I try to keep discharging and keeping my attention out.
K—: The conditions are similar for me and my friends. We have been told repeatedly to wash our hands, but many of our jobsites have no running water. My friends who are mothers struggled enormously in the first days to find childcare and then struggled again when childcare centers were set up but only for hospital workers. Some of us have been told we can take a layoff without consequences. But as women we are concerned about looking “weak” or calling attention to our femaleness. Some of us have had good conversations about deciding it is strong and courageous to safeguard health. Others of us feel so marginal and threatened in the industry to begin with that we do not trust there will be jobs for us once it is safe to return to work. After a lot of discharge, I decided to request a layoff from my job. My re-evaluation was that “even if it is barely noticed, deciding to leave is an important piece of leadership.”
K—: How does COVID-19 impact the women’s liberation work for the women you lead? What are things looking like to you as we go forward?
M—: I’ve heard from a lot of tradeswomen who are struggling with the same things you describe. So, I’ve been figuring out ways to counsel women and/or get the perspective out to stay home. Once women are home, it’s about finding ways to offer connection with each other via online women’s committee meetings. I now have eight women’s committees in the region I cover. I’ve led a number of Zoom calls in April with tradeswomen leaders on ways we can offer connection to women during this time.
Another challenge is that in construction we earn our health insurance by the number of hours we work. I hope to have conversations with my union about whether we can extend people’s health insurance during this time, or lower the hours needed to qualify.
I want to be part of establishing safety standards for jobsites that are open. However, I’m not sure I will be able to enter those conversations because my position in the union is not tied to that, and the conversations so far have been fairly “closed-door.”
As women, we are often last-hired, first laid off. We are thinking about helping tradeswomen be ready for when work opens up again. We’ve made great progress over the last ten years in increasing the number of women in the trades in our area and are thinking about concrete ways we can maintain that momentum. We hold monthly meetings on meeting workforce goals for women and people of color.
M—: How about your organizing for tradeswomen in your area?
K—: Well, in the short term we are thinking about giving everyone the space to decide whether or not to continue to work and what conditions to advocate for if we decide to work. I have felt grateful for the strong connections I’ve made with women in different trades. Our relationships have helped us to stay in contact and think together through this crisis. We are also helping one another to think through how to advocate for ourselves in our male-dominated unions. “I’ve been quiet about a lot of things (as a woman) but this is too much” is a perspective I have heard a lot. A lot of us are angry. In some ways the situation has brought us together.
M—: Do you see opportunities for women to lead the men here?
K—: Yes. I think the stakes are high enough that many of us are doubting our thinking less than we usually do. There is an opportunity there. The struggle is to do enough discharging that we can communicate our care and intelligence in a way in which the men might actually follow.
K—: Do you see opportunities like this?
M—: To be honest—theoretically yes; but in practice, not yet. I listened to one of my key male union leaders last week, and good things came out of it. In a later call with that same leader he was cranky and irritated, and he recommended things that didn’t make sense to me. I think our leaders (in all arenas) are super stressed.
M—: What directions are being useful to you right now as a female construction worker in the time of COVID?
K—: “Your life matters to me.” “Your intelligence as a woman really matters here.” I’ve been laughing a lot at the humor on the Internet about how yesterday we were “scumbags and drunks” and today we are “essential.”
K—: What directions have been useful for you?
M—: Working on early distress in session, and out of session trying to get my attention off myself and my distress. Remembering that connection matters and that if I can’t tell [see] that it does, that must be distress. Remembering that I am deeply connected to a large institution (my union) that has an opportunity to play a positive role. And setting up more time for discharge than I seem to want to.
M—: What are one or two things you find hopeful in construction right now?
K—: Even on a good day our jobs are dangerous, so we are skilled at recognizing hazards and staying relaxed and resolving them. COVID-19 can be regarded as a new hazard for which we need to create protocols. Also, many of us are getting to notice in a big way how classism affects us and how we are expected to put our bodies on the line in order to create wealth. Open discussion about whether we are “essential” or “expendable” has been really productive.
K—: What have you noticed that has been hopeful?
M—: A group of tradespeople, including some key rank-and-file women, became organized and got the mayor of New York City (New York, USA) to change the construction order from “all construction open” to more precisely defining essential construction and shutting down all other sites. There have been wildcat [worker-led] strikes around the country in which tradespeople have been walking off jobs that aren’t essential and don’t have safety measures in place. A mayor (formerly a working-class laborer) in Boston (Massachusetts, USA) stood up to [confronted and opposed] the owning-class governor and is keeping Boston jobsites closed. Tradeswomen have created Facebook pages to organize workers to fight to stay at home, and to offer encouragement and legal advice. Also, it’s hopeful that you and I are doing this work together!
K—: I agree!