The COVID-19 pandemic has slowed life down for millions of Americans, but it hasn\u2019t for Evan Adams, a specialty sports contractor based in Northern California. He currently has five in-progress construction projects, mostly installing school gymnasium floors, that are going full steam ahead due to contractual obligations. In construction, time is money, even during a global health crisis. \u201cMore than anything we need schools to extend deadlines and just slow the pace,\u201d Adams says. \u201cIt is not essential to keep going at normal speeds.\u201d<\/p>\n
The federal government hasn\u2019t issued specific mandates to the construction industry, so states and cities are enacting their own policies. California Gov. Gavin Newsom issued an executive order<\/a> on March 19 instructing all residents statewide to stay at home, but he granted exceptions for essential workforce<\/a>, which includes \u201cconstruction workers who support the construction, operation, inspection, and maintenance of construction sites and construction projects, including housing construction.\u201d<\/p>\n Because of the nature of his projects as a flooring subcontractor, Adams and his team are typically brought in toward the end of a project, when multiple subcontractors are also at work, and everyone is jockeying for space. He offered to pay his workers overtime, out of his own pocket, if they want to come in over the weekend and finish their job when the job site would be empty.<\/p>\n \u201cMy guys want to do their part, but they don\u2019t want to crawl over everyone at the end of a project,\u201d he says. \u201cThey just want to stay home. They have wives that might have immune system issues, they might have older parents at home that they are caring for.\u201d<\/p>\n From coast to coast, stay-at-home and social-distancing orders have been issued to help stop the spread of the COVID-19 coronavirus. By the end of last week, 21 state orders took effect<\/a>, limiting activity to critical infrastructure and services. The list of states and cities telling people to stay home<\/a> is growing. While some of the essential businesses seem uncontroversial\u2014like hospitals and grocery stores\u2014others fall into a gray area. Construction, which employs over 7 million people nationwide<\/a>, is one of them.<\/p>\n While some cities and states are shutting construction down, others are granting exceptions, particularly where it relates to the nationwide housing shortage<\/a>. Meanwhile, industry groups are pushing for federal-level designation of construction as an essential business. Individual workers and small-business owners are torn between concerns for health and safety, the very urgent need for a steady paycheck, and legal contractual obligations.<\/p>\n Amid a worsening pandemic, just how essential should construction be considered? Curbed spoke to construction workers, contractors, small-business owners, industry groups, and trade unions to hear what they have to say.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s a crisis that\u2019s putting a strain on construction, but it\u2019s kind of multifaceted,\u201d says John Doherty, communications director of the International Union of Painters and Allied Trades<\/a> (IUPAT), a union that represents 160,000 construction workers in the United States and Canada. While major cities are banning or limiting construction, which is causing unemployment, some areas, particularly those that haven\u2019t begun widespread testing and aren\u2019t experiencing their peaks, haven\u2019t altered activity. \u201cA lot of our members may be in danger there. Those areas have to make sure they\u2019re following the right protocols, like the EEOC guidance on personal protective equipment and cleaning down job sites. At the end of the day that\u2019s the number-one priority, that these projects are safe.\u201d<\/p>\n How states and cities are handling construction during the COVID-19 pandemic<\/strong> Gov. Newsom isn\u2019t alone in categorizing construction as an essential business. However, some California cities and counties have taken their own, and sometimes stricter, stances on what type of construction work is permissible in their jurisdictions during the pandemic.<\/p>\n San Francisco city and county considers<\/a> \u201cpublic works construction\u201d and \u201cconstruction of housing (in particular affordable housing or housing for individuals experiencing homelessness)\u201d as essential. The list also includes \u201cairport operations, water, sewer, gas, electrical, oil refining, roads and highways, public transportation, solid waste collection and removal, internet, and telecommunications systems (including the provision of essential global, national, and local infrastructure for computing services, business infrastructure, communications, and web-based services).\u201d Santa Clara<\/a> and Alameda<\/a> counties\u2014in the south and east bay, respectively\u2014have similar policies with respect to what type of construction is allowed during their shelter-in-place orders. Meanwhile, some local building departments are turning to virtual inspections<\/a> to keep some projects moving.<\/p>\n The city of Los Angeles has adopted a broader definition of essential construction, and allows \u201cany work necessary to to build, operate, maintain or manufacture essential infrastructure, including without limitation construction of commercial, office and institutional buildings, residential buildings, and housing\u201d in its stay-at-home order<\/a>. Mayor Eric Garcetti also announced<\/a> that the city is forming a special coronavirus inspection team that will visit construction sites to make sure proper safety protocols are followed.<\/p>\n Chicago<\/a> is allowing \u201cconstruction required in response to this public health emergency, hospital construction, construction of long-term care facilities, public works construction, and housing construction.\u201d<\/p>\n The city of Boston enacted an indefinite construction moratorium<\/a>, but is allowing work<\/a> on buildings that promote public health and safety, like hospitals; work to make residential buildings fully habitable; and residential construction in dwellings that are three units or less, including kitchen and bathroom renovations.<\/p>\n The state of Pennsylvania has adopted some of the strictest restrictions on construction. Only emergency repairs are allowed statewide, according to Gov. Tom Wolfe\u2019s guidelines<\/a>. However, thousands of waivers have been filed and construction is continuing in some areas, like Philadelphia<\/a>.<\/p>\n In other areas, construction remains unchanged. Construction of Amazon\u2019s HQ2 in Arlington, Virginia, is on schedule<\/a>.<\/p>\n After initially designating construction as an essential business<\/a>, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo recently changed course. As of March 27<\/a>, only work on roads, bridges, transit facilities, utilities, hospitals or health care facilities, affordable housing, and homeless shelters will be considered essential.<\/p>\n Jay Inslee, governor of Washington state, stated that all residential and commercial construction must stop<\/a>, with exceptions for emergency repairs and construction related to government functions, like publicly financed low-income housing.<\/p>\n \u201cDifferent parts of the country are experiencing [the pandemic] in different ways,\u201d says Sean Green, founder and COO of Aforma<\/a>, a small general contracting company based in Portland, Oregon. His state\u2019s governor, Kate Brown, said that all construction can continue so long as social distancing protocol is followed<\/a>. \u201cHere in Oregon, we see the actions in California and Washington and from our own government. We get sometimes-conflicting messages on the level of importance. And I feel like we\u2019ve gotten ourselves into a position\u2014especially in Oregon, with the lack of testing\u2014where it\u2019s unknown to us what the level of spread is. We know we\u2019re facing severe shortages in personal protective equipment, in hospital beds, and we\u2019re really not getting much support from the federal government.\u201d<\/p>\n Just how essential is construction during a public health crisis?<\/strong> \u201cFrom a federal point of view, we\u2019ve been working pretty aggressively to get the Department of Homeland Security and the Trump Administration to amend some guidance that the Department had put out earlier in the month about essential industries<\/a>,\u201d says Brian Turmail, vice president of public affairs and strategic initiatives AGC. \u201cConstruction wasn\u2019t identified as an essential industry. We\u2019ve been working hard to get them to include construction because it\u2019s essential economic activity… You\u2019d get minimum health benefits, but maximum economic damage, for people who are in high-paying, middle-class jobs by shutting down job sites.\u201d<\/p>\n The necessity of construction versus slowing the COVID-19 pandemic\u2019s spread weighs differently on everyone working in the construction industry.<\/p>\n \u201cFirst you ask if construction is essential, but you have to then ask, \u2018Essential to what?\u2019\u201d says Joe Rigazio, CEO of Talisen Construction Corp<\/a>, a New York-based commercial construction company that does general contracting and construction management. \u201cEssential to the economy? Yes, definitely. If you\u2019re going to say essential to snuffing out the pandemic of COVID-19, I think you have to ask the next question: Who are you working for and what\u2019s going on? A lot of our projects are helping health care providers. It\u2019s a tough one.\u201d<\/p>\n Before Cuomo halted construction in New York, Rigazio was trying as hard as possible to maintain business. \u201cWhile New York is flattening the curve and pushing the peak out in time, we\u2019re doing whatever we can to not flatten the curve of the production cycle and schedule.\u201d<\/p>\n New York\u2019s former push to deem all construction \u201cessential\u201d didn\u2019t make sense to Carl Pinter (name changed to protect his identity), a carpenter who is currently working on a New York City hospital.<\/p>\n \u201cBeing considered \u2018essential employees\u2019 is a little odd for a lot of us,\u201d Pinter says. \u201cThere are projects that make sense to run, like ours, but I know guys that are working and they\u2019re not feeling like they\u2019re essential. Like retail: No one is shopping in brick-and-mortar stores [because of the stay at home order]. It doesn\u2019t matter if retail construction is done right now. In office buildings, they\u2019ve halted everything. Why would the office workers in those buildings be sent home because it wasn\u2019t deemed safe, but construction workers told to come to work?\u201d<\/p>\n A gray area that\u2019s emerged with regard to \u201cessential\u201d construction is housing. Regions dealing with the affordable housing shortage and high populations of unhoused individuals have often made exceptions for housing construction. It\u2019s impossible to shelter in place if there isn\u2019t enough shelter to go around, after all.<\/p>\n \u201cThere are certain aspects of construction that are essential and need to continue to promote the health and safety of our community,\u201d Green says. \u201cThe vast majority of construction work is only essential from an economic standpoint. However, given that shelter is an essential need, one could argue that continuing to supply the continued housing needs of a community makes housing projects more essential than nonresidential projects.\u201d<\/p>\n Moral considerations aside, some construction companies are encountering difficulty keeping projects moving, but doing their best to work around them.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s been a week and a half [since the stay-at-home order] and projects are starting to hit roadblocks,\u201d says Ben Olson, the owner of the Bay Area-based Cobe Construction<\/a>. \u201cThere are no inspections. Some cities have shut down their building departments. The next thing we\u2019ve been facing is all the subcontractors. They\u2019re in various situations. Some want to work, some don\u2019t want to work.\u201d<\/p>\n No work, no pay, no sick leave<\/strong> \u201cWhen [our workers] don\u2019t work they don\u2019t get paid,\u201d says James Williams Jr., the vice president and head of organizing at the IUPAT. \u201cSadly, most members concerned about health and safety have just asked their employer to lay them off. We have a growing number of women in the workforce and a lot of them are single mothers. With schools shutting down, they have had to make the choice of staying home or getting child care and still going to work. Most have made the choice to stay home and take care of their kids.\u201d<\/p>\n Since the COVID-19 pandemic has taken hold, IUPAT has been on the front lines talking to its members, as well as non-union workers, about their concerns and lobbying Congress to make sure relief bills account for the needs of the construction industry<\/a>. Part of its campaign includes a social video campaign<\/a> in which members ask for protections like guaranteed health care if they lose work, direct financial compensation if a worker loses their job, and more infrastructure projects to help maintain steady employment.<\/p>\n How possible is safety first?<\/strong>
\nIn the absence of federal guidelines on construction during the pandemic, state and local governments are issuing their own rules for the industry, which has led to a lot of confusion and uncertainty.<\/p>\n
\nWhile some workers, like Adams, would like to limit work during the pandemic, that\u2019s not the tack being taken by the industry on the whole. The Associated General Contractors of America<\/a> (AGC), an industry group that represents over 27,000 construction firms, is lobbying for all construction to be allowed during the pandemic.<\/p>\n
\nOne of the challenges for the construction industry is that there aren\u2019t worker protections in place, such as sick leave and paid time off. The Families First Coronavirus Response Act<\/a>, which Trump signed on March 18, requires employers of 500 or less to provide 80 hours of sick leave to full-time employees. A challenge to the construction industry is that most companies are small businesses with far fewer than 500 employees. Construction workers are often paid daily and many are part of the informal economy<\/a>.<\/p>\n
\nIUPAT and the Associated General Contractors of America are advocating for extra precautions on job sites to help stop the spread of COVID-19: social distancing (which isn\u2019t possible for a lot of construction work), screening people to make sure they do not have a fever (that said, asymptomatic transmission is a larger problem than we may know<\/a>), and the proper use of personal protective equipment, which is in short supply due to increased demand from health care workers.<\/p>\n