By Elyse Shaw

Tomorrow marks one year since welder Amber Czech was murdered on her jobsite by a male coworker. This was not the first murder of a woman worker on a jobsite, nor would it be the last. In 2017, apprentice carpenter Outi Hicks was murdered on her jobsite, also by a male coworker and just this July, Tasha Moses was shot while sitting in the cab of her front-end loader. In the years between these women’s deaths, hundreds of construction tradeswomen—welders, carpenters, electricians, and other professionals—were harassed, sexually assaulted, and otherwise exposed to gender-based violence and harassment (GBVH) in the workplace. These numbers are even more striking when you consider that women only make up four percent of the construction trades workforce. There is a clear GBVH problem that must be proactively addressed within the construction industry.

The good news is that the toxic worksite culture and prevalence of GBVH is a known issue and there are already ways in which employers, unions, organizations, and individual tradespeople are working to address it. Safety and respectful worksites were huge topics discussed at the recent annual Tradeswomen Institute, hosted by The National Taskforce on Tradeswomen’s Issues, and the Tradeswomen Build Nations conference, hosted by TradesFutures and North America’s Building and Trade Union, or NABTU. GBVH, worksite culture, respect and safety was central among the many other pressing issues discussed by tradeswomen—which including every level from pre-apprentices to retirees—researchers, advocates, and employers. Each conference lifted up promising practices and programs, and discussions centered ways to expand and scale programs and policies across the U.S. to ensure the safety and protection of these workers.

At the Taskforce Institute, discussions and presentations highlighted promising practices taken by states, project owners, and companies to increase tradeswomen’s physical and mental safety on the job. In addition to the toolbox talk trainings on respect and safety, Turner Construction spoke about their zero tolerance policy, where they proactively investigate any reported incidents, even going so far as to stop work and shut down jobsites to document and preserve any physical evidence. They work closely with project owners, other contractors and sub-contractors, and unions to ensure that the projects they work on are free of harassment, discrimination, and violence. The Electrical Corporation of America in Kansas City described the new policies they have instituted, including introducing anonymous reporting that uses end-to-end encryption to ensure privacy during incident reporting and investigation as well as paying for workers to receive education and training about GBVH. At the state level, Massachusetts, Illinois, and Washington have all passed laws stating that construction jobsites must include dedicated lactation stations and clean and private bathrooms for women. NABTU has worked with Tribal communities to build out training modules around working with Native and Indigenous people and communities; part of that work has meant acknowledging that the number of missing and murdered Indigenous women goes up in and around construction projects. These are just a handful of examples of activities that are being undertaken to address and prevent GBVH on jobsites.

For their part, the Taskforce is working on collecting and distilling language in union policies and practices at the international level to see what policies and protocols should be used as models across the U.S. The Taskforce is also actively studying how these protocols move from the “top down”—that is, how the language from the internationals is being interpreted and implemented by the locals. This is a critical part of effecting meaningful, long-lasting change; if the local union, or local employers or policymakers, aren’t implementing best practice policies that protect tradeswomen, then they are destined to fail.

That has already become clear, even as the Taskforce’s research continues. When it comes to keeping tradeswomen safe and protected in the workplace, everyone involved in the jobsite has a role to play. The contractor has the power to hire and fire workers and can also implement policies that could influence the standards and behavior of those who own the project. The unions can hold their own members accountable and create clear mechanisms to address worksite culture issues as part of apprenticeship training and deal with GBVH issues. And project owners can proactively set standards at the beginning of the project that all contractors and subcontractors must meet.

It’s not just everyone directly involved in a jobsite who has a role to play, though. While both local and state work on the issue of GBVH in the construction industry is essential, localized successes tied to one employer, project, or region won’t be enough to change the national landscape on their own. More dedicated funding, support, and investment from policymakers, project owners, and employers across the country will be instrumental in creating the violence- and harassment-free workplace that every tradesperson deserves.