Workers Defense Project Outlines 2016 Accomplishments, Victories In Central Texas

EAST AUSTIN, TX — Officials at Workers Defense Project — an organization advocating on behalf of low-income workers — outlined a number of accomplishments achieved through its Better Builder Program promoting worker protection in 2016.

Since 2012, the WDP has worked to ensure safe construction work sites for workers in Central Texas. In glancing at the list of accomplishments toward that goal, last year was a very good year.

"Through our long-term organizing efforts, we made critical progress toward that end in 2016," officials said via a press release. "From Travis County to Capital Metro to The White House, public institutions and major developers have begun to formally recognize Better Builder as the path to responsible development and construction in Texas.
Among the most notable successes achieved through the Better Builder Program were:

• More than 14,300 men and women have been construction workers on Better Builder sites since 2012, including 4,619 men and women in construction during 2016 alone;
• Among the projects for which WDP advocated were at the Apple campus, Green Water Treatment Plant, Homestead Oaks and others;
• Forty-five percent (45%) of men and women interviewed report receiving OSHA-10 safety training for the first time;
• More than 46 percent of construction workers reported receiving workers’ compensation insurance for the first time, thanks to the WDP's efforts;
• Fifteen percent (15%) of construction workers interviewed report receiving a pay raise of, on average, $1.12 compared to their previous job, officials said.

Yet for all their accomplishments, WDP officials stress their work is continually needed: "But for every mother or father who has the opportunity to work on a Better Builder construction site, there are many more who must work on sites defined by poverty wages and often deadly working conditions," officials said. "It is that realty that drives our organizing work as we continue our mission in 2017."

Officials also outlined what they categorized as "critical victories" during 2016, achieved by construction workers and community groups organizing for change across Central Texas. Among these victories and the arenas in which they were achieved:

• City of Austin: On Sept. 1, the City of Austin voted 9-1 to initiate a process to ensure worker protections are required for developers who wish to participate in the city’s new, voluntary expedited permit review program, WDP officials said. The city also requested Better Builder standards for those seeking to develop the [Re]Manufacturing HUB, they noted.
• Travis County: Workers Defense Project, its members, and faith and community allies organized to win Better Builder standards at Travis County, on infrastructure construction for all future public improvement districts, and when the county leases public land to private developers, officials said. WDP continues to organize "..to ensure all construction within public improvement districts result in good, safe jobs through Better Builder standards," officials said.

• Capital Metro: The mass transit system board members voted to require Better Builder standards on all future transit oriented development, WDP officials said. These developments include more than 70 acres of future construction at North Lamar Transit Center, Lakeline Station, Leander, and Tech Ridge, officials said.

• Foundation Communities: In 2016 Foundation Communities signed two Better Builder agreements at Cardinal Point and Garden Terrace, according to WDP officials.

• The Grove: ARG Bull Creek Ltd has committed to the City of Austin that, while it did not commit to Better Builder standards across the project, it will commit to Better Builder standards on a parcel of approximately 120,000 square feet of office and retail space located at the Grove, officials at WDP said. Conversations among Austin City Council members, residents at affected neighborhood, and the developer continue, officials noted.

• Plaza Saltillo: After two-and-a-half years, Endeavor Real Estate Group submitted to requiring approximately 140,000 square feet of commercial development in order to become Better Builder eligible. "This is in addition to requiring living wages for all construction workers, and OSHA-10 and workers’ compensation insurance for some construction workers, on all 11-acres of the Saltillo tract," WDP officials said. "While Workers Defense Project remains concerned about the lack of worker protections on some aspects of this development, we see Endeavor’s most recent decision to incorporate full Better Builder standards as an important step in the right direction."

The WDP's work in helping to ensure worker rights and fair pay at the Apple campus caught the attention of the New York Times in an article on the company published in November. Expounding on the company's strides in ensuring a good workplace for employees, the piece noted that Apple officials have allowed the WDP to continually monitor worker conditions.

“There is a high road, and Apple followed that path,” said Bo Delp, director of the Better Builder program at the Workers Defense Project. “It sent a pretty strong message to others in Austin.”

For more information on the Better Builder Program, visit BetterBuilder.org.

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