Minority construction contractors said they want to stop fighting for crumbs and build a stronger network at Saturday’s panel discussion, “Bridge to Inclusion: St. Louis Employment and Business Opportunity Conference.”
“We have to galvanize the strength of the community,” said Yusuf Haqq, conference coordinator with the African American Business and Contractors Association (AABCA) and an investment consultant.
“There is a great imbalance in our city. The city is only as strong as its weakest link, and our community is the weakest link by far.”
Working with minority participation issues for 10 years, Haqq was the chairman of the community advisory committee for the Mississippi River Bridge project. At the conference, Haqq said that the AABCA is prepared to be a “bridge to inclusion” for minority contractors, but the community has to prepare itself.
“We’re family, okay, and being family, I can say things to you that others can’t. We have a lot of work to do,” Haqq said.
“There’s a whole platform when it comes to business development that we really have to educate ourselves on. Talking to general contracting companies, they have a lot of excuses, they really do. However, some of us have gotten opportunities that we haven’t made the most of.”
Haqq pointed out Ward 18 Alderman Terry Kennedy’s Board Bill 75, introduced last May, which would require public works contracts to include 15 percent graduates of federally-approved apprenticeship programs, 25 percent minorities and 20 percent workers who reside within the city of St. Louis.
Haqq said this would be a great initiative to bring more jobs to the African-American community. However, the board bill also includes waivers for “good faith efforts,” Haqq said.
“That means that if they can’t find you, sometimes they get a waiver so that these minority participation goals don’t apply,” Haqq said. “So that’s why we want to build the database, so that excuse can’t be used.”
All 30 attendees signed up for the database, which will help locate minority-owned businesses and minority workers. The organization also plans to send out information regarding job prospects, he said.
Tony Williams, a project engineer for Clayco design/construction firm, spoke about the skills developers are looking for. Tyrone Gibbs, a graduate of the Construction Prep Center program, shared his personal experience of going through the program and becoming a business owner.
Many of the attendees expressed concerns with the fragmented African-American contractors’ community and lack of work opportunities for minority construction workers.
Shawn Williamson, a freelance construction worker, said he is a college graduate and has gone through various training programs, including the Environmental Protection Agency’s Brownfields job training program. The courses allow participants to apply for state licensing in both Missouri and Illinois as lead and asbestos abatement workers. With all of his training, he has to travel around the country to get jobs.
“I barely work in the city of St. Louis because I have to work. I have a family,” Williamson said. “When you get to the point when you’re dealing with minorities, you are totally left out at some point.”
Williamson said he feels confounded by minority-owned businesses that can’t get along and work together.
Others said that small African-American contractors will underbid each other just to get the job.
“As a business person, you’re in business to make money,” Haqq said. “If you take a job just to say you got a job and you’re only bidding labor [costs], it undermines the type of workmanship you can produce. At the end of the day, you’ll find yourself out of business.”
Being a successful business owner requires good communication and relationships, and many of the larger businesses participate in joint ventures to maximize their capacity, Haqq said. Small minority contractors need to build a network to be able to work in the same way, he said.
At the individual level, a solid business person has to learn all necessary skills to be successful, he said.
“What makes you think that you want to be in business and you don’t have to have good credit? You don’t need to take accounting? You don’t have to do PowerPoint presentations? You don’t have to go to the golf course or the Associated General Contractors’ luncheons to network, or go to your alderman to find out what contracts are out there?” Haqq said.
“What makes you think you don’t have to build those relationships?”
It’s a relationship-based business, he said, and that was the point of having the event.
Andrew Johnson, a construction company owner, said that he has had trouble finding workers within the African-American community.
“Brothers have to clean up their act,” Johnson said. “I can’t pick you up and take you to work with alcohol on your breath. If you can’t count or can’t read, turn off your Playstation and get to it. It ain’t no joke. This is a business where ain’t nobody going to wait for you.”
Tyrone Gibbs, of U Dream It, We Build It construction company, said that he attended MoDOT’s Construction Prep Center. The center prepares participants for entry into apprenticeship programs.
Gibbs said that when he decided to get into a construction career, with his background it was a closed door. He graduated from the center’s program and went into an apprenticeship with McBride and Sons carrying lumber for a year. There were 60 carpenters in the first subdivision and he was the only African American, he said.
“I went from $5 an hour at an Amoco to $13 an hour. There wasn’t anything you could do to run me off that field – you don’t know,” Gibbs said.
“But if we keep criticizing the little growth that we do have, we won’t utilize it and see what we can accomplish. Yes, there are trials, you have to stay fast and stay in it.”
For more information about the Construction Prep Center, call 746-0700 or visit www.mokanccac.org/cpc.cfm
Haqq said that most apprenticeship programs require participants to have a GED or high school diploma.
In meetings to come, the AABCA plans to discuss how to get projects financed, business plans and training opportunities. The Metro East Black Contractors Organization also helped to organize the event.
