There is no doubt that if the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA) were to select North St. Louis city as the location for its new Western Headquarters that it would be a big benefit to the city. Retaining the NGA’s 3,100 employees while driving reinvestment in North St. Louis would certainly make a significant impact to the city, state, and region.
But we believe there are additional opportunities to make lasting, positive change, change that will help the NGA, the federal government and its priority initiatives to invest in urban areas, and the region’s workforce, which would be greatly benefit from an increase in minority training and hiring.
That is why, on behalf of the St. Louis Building and Construction Trades Council of St. Louis, AFL-CIO, and our affiliates, I recently wrote to NGA Director Robert Cardillo to propose an innovative West Community Workforce Agreement, an agreement that is unique in the United States. Our proposal will include the following goals for work on this project:
- For minority and female workers of at least 37 percent of all labor hours;
- For women of at least 7 percent of all labor hours;
- For city residents of at least 23 percent of all labor hours.
We also will expand our Building Union Diversity (BUD) program, which provides opportunities for minorities and women, as well as existing journeymen to become apprentices with participating unions so that they can learn the skills that will help them be employable for the rest of their lives. City residents and people living in designated Promise Zones within the region will receive priority status.
Though our proposed St. Louis Community Workforce Agreement, the region will truly begin to address issues and challenges raised by the Ferguson Commission, the East-West Gateway Council of Governments’ report on racial disparities, the Office of St. Louis Mayor Slay, and the Governor’s Office of Equal Opportunity.
It is our goal to build the skills and capabilities of minority and women workers who will be trained and will work on this project. And when this project is completed, they will have the skills and training to go to work on the next project – and so on.
Our Community Workforce Agreement (CWA) is based on three key goals.
Employment: It is estimated that during the construction phase of NGA West, 1,350 construction jobs will be created. These will be construction workers whose skills will build the exacting facility needed for this critical project. Once the facility is operational, not only will it house the current 3,100 NGA employees, but will also stimulate the revitalization of the surrounding North Side area, creating thousands of new job opportunities in an area that desperately needs them.
Opportunity: Our CWA will create unprecedented life-long career opportunities for minorities and women. Our BUD program has already placed 85 percent of the graduates from its first three programs into apprenticeship programs and actual jobs. With a goal of over 37 percent of all hours worked committed to minorities and women, this project will open up sustainable career opportunities for urban core residents that are ready to take on the rebuilding of the community, and with the training and skill set to do so.
Revitalization: The North St. Louis area proposed for NGA West offers the federal government a dramatic opportunity to demonstrate how positive government decisions can act as a catalyst for massive rehabilitation of a depressed urban core with new businesses, homes, and recreational and entertainment facilities. This project will create not just construction jobs for the NGA campus, but thousands of new job opportunities for area residents.
St. Louis winning the NGA West project and our implementation of the Community Workforce Agreement to build the new headquarters will serve as an example for future construction projects locally and nationally to adopt and build on. It will also change our region’s landscape and show the rest of America how to make their economies more fair, inclusive and equitable as they look to revitalize their urban cores.
This innovative proposal should make clear that the St. Louis Building and Construction Trades Council is committed to working together with the NGA and local, state and federal officials to keep NGA West in the City of St. Louis.
Jeffrey Aboussie is the executive secretary-treasurer of the St. Louis Building and Construction Trades Council, AFL-CIO.
