Making allies in construction

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This article was published 14/06/2024 (658 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Men lined up, holding their graduation certificates for a photo. They’d been educated on a new subject: managing females in the construction industry.

“When I started back in 2012, doing courses on women in construction and workplace culture, it wasn’t a thing,” said Carol Paul, executive director of the Manitoba Construction Sector Council.

But in recent years, amid a retiring workforce and labour shortages, there’s been an increased appetite for female staff. Still, women count as just five per cent of Manitoba’s on-site construction labourers.

“I thought, ‘What are we missing?’” Paul relayed.

The construction sector council has implemented quarterly round tables, mentorship programs and a woman-focused trades conference.

Then, two years ago, Paul attended a conference and learned of a program happening through YWCA Halifax. Via the program, men were taught to identify and handle challenges arising from adding female workers to construction sites.

Making the workplace more friendly for women was another focus.

“We (hadn’t) looked at men as allies,” Paul stated. “(It’s) making sure that the men feel they have the tools that they need to welcome women into the workplace.”

The Manitoba Construction Sector Council partnered with groups across Canada and secured funding for such programming.

Shift Change — the course 12 male supervisors graduated from Friday — is one of three programs the sector council plans to unveil over the next two years to assist men as “allies.”

The YMCA-YWCA of Winnipeg will continue Shift Change training, likely at its downtown location.

Christian Fais, a superintendent at Bird Construction, was in the first Manitoba graduating class. He spent 30 hours over six weeks gathering information, which he plans to rehash to his 19 fellow superintendents.

“The industry is becoming more and more diverse,” Fais said. “We have to give (workers) the tools to succeed.”

On the last project Fais oversaw, just two of roughly 100 workers were women.

“From my own experience, everything was kind of going well and smooth,” Fais said. “But overall, you don’t know what they are living (with).”

During Shift Change, he learned women often don’t feel like they belong in the industry and they may deal with microaggressions from peers.

Bird Construction has a respectful workplace policy; even so, Fais believes he now has more tools to pay attention to details, have better conversations and prepare his work crew.

James Murphy, another graduate, promotes the trades as a community and youth liaison with the Manitoba Construction Sector Council.

“What I find is a lot of the girls … don’t see themselves in the trades,” Murphy remarked. “We want to make sure that this type of program can create a level playing field.”

Murphy, a former Winnipeg Blue Bombers player, said he aims to mentor both young men and women coming into the trades. Learning about challenges women face in the industry will “make us uncomfortable, but the more we know, the more knowledge we have that we can use.”

A second program, tackling gender-based violence, is slated to be run by Blue Bombers alumni in January, according to Paul.

The three-day program, called “Be More Than a Bystander,” mirrors a course led by B.C. Lions alumni.

A final program bearing a different name — We are Trades — will happen by the spring of 2026, Paul said.

Meanwhile, the YMCA-YWCA of Winnipeg will continue Shift Change at least once per year, depending on uptake, Paul added.

“(We’ll be) working to build this and, hopefully, moving into other industries because the content is so solid,” said Darcie Fraser, YMCA-YWCA of Winnipeg people experience specialist.

Women and Gender Equality Manitoba, a provincial body, earmarked $25,000 to implement Shift Change in Manitoba.

BuildForce Canada projects 9,100 retirements in Manitoba’s construction sector — 20 per cent of the current labour force — within the next 10 years, according to a 2024-33 outlook.

It forecasts 10,200 new entrants are needed during the decade-long window.

gabrielle.piche@winnipegfreepress.com