Commerce Dept. promotes female recruitment in Columbus

On June 4, the Biden Administration sent representatives to Columbus to meet privately with Intel officials, union construction leaders and other local officials to discuss its new initiative to boost the number of women in construction, especially on CHIPS Act-funded projects. 

The meeting included representatives from the U.S. Department of Commerce, Intel, Bechtel, regional and state building trades councils and area tradeswomen. The conversations focused on the recently launched CHIPS Women in Construction Framework. 

The CHIPS Women in Construction Framework is a set of five best practices that are part of a broader Commerce Department initiative called Million Women in Construction. The initiative aims to double the number of women in the construction sector over the next decade. 

According to estimates from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, women currently make up less than 10 percent of the construction industry. 

Under the new Framework, companies receiving federal funding from the CHIPS Act are encouraged to work with contractors, building trades unions and other community partners. 

These groups will implement the identified best practices aimed at expanding the construction workforce by increasing the participation of women and economically disadvantaged individuals to work on CHIPS program-funded projects. 

Intel recruiting more women 

Intel was one of the first semiconductor companies to volunteer company commitments to the Commerce Department initiative. 

The meeting took place as more than 1,000 union construction workers were onsite in New Albany, building the first two fabs and other support buildings for Intel’s $100 billion semiconductor manufacturing campus. 

Dorsey Hager, Executive Secretary-Treasurer of the Columbus/Central Ohio Building and Construction Trades Council, expects the number of construction workers on the Intel project to steadily increase as the year progresses.

Phase I of the Intel project will employ at least 7,000 union construction workers during the project’s peak. 

Hager and other building trades leaders understand they need to recruit more women into their unions in order to meet the construction timeline set by Intel earlier this year.

He noted that the Commerce Department initiative builds on steps the C/COBCTC has already taken to increase the number of women and members of the underserved community in construction. 

“There was a good discussion on what needs to be done to help bring more women, people of color and veterans into the construction industry,” Hager said. 

Hager described the meeting as a good first step in getting everyone on the same page and understanding how a career in the building trades can put people—regardless of race and gender—on the pathway to a middle-class life. 

“We need to continue to push and increase our workforce,” Hager said.