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ECONOMIC STIMULUS MUST ENSURE ECONOMIC EQUITY!
ENSURE HIGH-WAGE JOBS FOR WOMEN AND PEOPLE OF COLOR AS PART OF THE ECONOMIC STIMULUS PACKAGE
Statement of the National Tradeswomen Conference Participants
October 13, 2001
Denver, CO
Today, almost 400 tradeswomen from around the country have joined to pass the following resolution in response to the current national effort to create an economic stimulus package to help individual families and the country recover from the attacks on September 11, 2001.
Be it resolved that:
Tradeswomen stand with the country in our sadness for the loss of life of so many men and women on September 11, 2001 and in our commitment to support those workers in the country who have been displaced by the subsequent economic challenges facing us. We are firefighters, carpenters, ironworkers, operating engineers, truck drivers and other workers who labor with their hands. We are there to help in the recovery and rebuilding.
Don't ignore women's efforts, don't make women invisible.
We will be helping this recovery by participating in the cleanup, reconstruction, and accelerated building to replace lost space in Washington, DC and New York. We are also among the workers who have been displaced nationwide.
To ensure that these efforts are ones that guarantee equity, protect the safety of all and the right to organize, we urge Congress to:
- Support the ongoing application of federal regulations relating to affirmative action and equal opportunity, as well as worker safety and health and the right to organize.
- Raise the affirmative action goals in all jobs created through economic stimulus package. Raise these goals to require that 25% of all entry level jobs be filled by women and minorities and 10% of those related to journeyman.
- Establish a mandatory "set-aside" program that requires that ¼ of 1% of funds that are allocated to the states to establish jobs under the economic stimulus package be devoted to establishing training programs and supportive services for women and minorities that will prepare them for the high-wage jobs reflected in the trades (the Federal Highway Programs affirmative action program can serve as an example of establishing this set-aside, although our resolution urges the set-aside to be mandatory for states).
- Fund existing qualified workforce development programs that target and serve underrepresented populations through set aside dollars to serve as bridge programs to help get dislocated workers into the jobs developed in response to the economic stimulus program.
- Increase funds to enhance the enforcement of existing anti-discrimination and affirmative action programs with the goal of creating incentives at all levels of government (state, municipal) to require such compliance of contractors.
- Significant dollars will be given to the states to administer and to award contractors. The federal government should create incentives to states to establish contract guidelines to increase women's participation in the workforce, including training, hiring, promotion and retention. States should impose enforceable standards in contracts to influence the job bill.
