“Indecent dressing” is hereby banned for students and staff under a strict new code at the prestigious Godfrey Okoye University, Enugu State, Nigeria, among other schools.

The vice chancellor, Rev. Fr. Christian Anieke, announced the details to students returning from holiday breaks. Henceforth, all students are to be dressed in their faculty uniforms with appropriate ties and shoes. “No student is expected to wear slippers, shorts, rugged jeans, long fingernails, face caps, or artificial eye lashes,” he directed.

Only black and brown hair will be allowed on campus for either men or women. Staff and students were given one month to adjust to the new rules or else face disciplinary action.

The pronouncement follows similar restrictions at Rivers State University, which banned students from wearing miniskirts, ankle chains, and extended lashes.

Sagging trousers by either male or female students are prohibited at Rivers State, as is the wearing of earrings by male students and nose rings by female students. The school management also banned students from having tattoos and dressing in a certain way considered “indecent” on campus.

Anieke expressed regret that most students and staff were wearing t-shirts with unauthorized inscriptions, contrary to the dress code of the institution. For the future, he continued, men were to be in suits with University ties to match. Further, male students must comb their hair well or shave their heads.

Additionally, final-year students were warned against plagiarism, stressing that the University librarian had been directed to carry out plagiarism tests on all research works by the students and staff of the institutions.

The vice chancellor revealed that the management of the University had introduced qualitative assessments of all the teaching and non-teaching staff of the University. “Principal officers of the institutions will henceforth visit the lecture halls to assess the lectures by the academic staff while the non-teaching staff will submit their roll calls at the beginning and closing of each day’s activities.

“Students who fail to attend lectures will not be allowed to sit for examinations,” Anieke warned.

The clergyman made it clear that none of the female matriculants would be allowed to wear any shoe that was more than four centimeters high, and students must wear decent dresses.

Finally, in a related development, the Anambra State Government placed a ban on the wearing of mini-length uniforms in schools across the state in September, according to SaharaReporters. 

The state’s education commissioner, Professor Ngozi Chuma-Udeh, made this known during an interactive meeting with education secretaries of public and mission schools held in Awka.

The commissioner did not hide her displeasure at what she saw as “the growing trend of putting on mini-length uniforms [skirts and gowns] in schools.” According to her, “it goes against the acceptable dress code for schools in the state.”

Feedback from female students on social media included the following comments:

“Every adult should have the freedom of expression. Fashion expresses a person. It is not okay to take away that right,” wrote a user named Jessica.
“Then stay at home And [sic] express your right..No one care [sic],” replied another user named Jenny.
“There are many schools where students wear miniskirts and let’s also talk about sports uniforms! Why not focus more on the enrichment of education which all universities in Nigeria lack?” wrote a user named Tabytha.

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* This article was originally published here

In the oppressive summer heat of August 1963, the New York Amsterdam News ran a short story on page 7 of its August 10th edition: “Plumber To Be First In Union.” 

Just a few hundred words long, the story highlighted “Edward Curry, the 25-year-old Negro plumber on the verge of entering the all-white Plumbers Union, Local 1 admittedly knows little of the reasons for the long well-publicized demonstrations at the Downstate Medical Center in Brooklyn.”

For weeks, hundreds of clergy and activists had been arrested while blockading the site that our newspaper in other stories called “near lily white”, demanding that at least 25% of workers be “Negro or Puerto Rican.”

“It doesn’t mean too much to me,” Curry is quoted as saying of the demonstrations, but the timing of the announcement of his barrier breaking hiring was likely a direct result of the demonstrations that had, and would continue on and off for years, to convulse not just New York city, but cities around the country.

In the middle of the 20th century executive orders and laws were put into place, through the hard work of activists and organizers for civil rights, to ensure that the American workplace, including construction sites and union halls, became integrated. But the laws and regulations were meaningless without enforcement and it fell to many of those same activists, and to even more radical organizers, to ensure that the construction sites of America’s cities, both North and South, East and West, were desegregated.

A Dream Deferred

“All the way through the 1960s, not all trades in the construction trades were racially discriminatory, but the highest skill, highest wage ones were very racially discriminatory,” Dr. Trevor Griffey, a lecturer at the University of California, Irvine said in an interview with the Amsterdam News. 

While organized labor had grown in power during the first half of the 20th century, many of the unions that represented the skilled and highest paid trades like plumbers, electricians, pipe fitters and steel workers still marginalized Black Americans.

“A number of those unions were very militant, but also very racially exclusive. And then they fought against the inclusion of racial discrimination prohibitions in labor law,” Dr. Griffey added. With the passage of the Civil Rights Act, racial discrimination in hiring and employment was banned but construction sites continued to be bastions of de facto segregation.

“When an employer needs people, they often tell the people who are working there, ‘we need to hire some more people, go tell your friends, and tell your family’. And so if you have an all white workforce, that’s going to mean that the people who hear about those job openings are all going to be white,” said historian Dr. William Jones of the University of Minnesota, explaining why it was so difficult to diversify worksites despite the passage of Federal nondiscrimination laws.

While he believes that the building trades have made enormous improvements, Jeff Grabelsky, the Co-Director of the National Labor Leadership Institute at Cornell, told the AmNews in an interview that “there was a time in New York City when some major unions, in a city that was becoming majority minority… where there were local unions without a single Black member.”

During this era, construction unions largely mirrored private industry which also excluded workers of color from the most lucrative trades. 

“Direct action protests started targeting these construction sites in the sixties. It started in Philadelphia, quickly moved to New York and then was nationwide. People occupied the arch in St. Louis as it was being constructed,” Dr. Griffey noted. 

The threat of action during World War II led to the creation of an executive order which prohibited discrimination in the defense industry. Direct action also led to both the inclusion of Title Seven, in the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and President Nixon implementing the “Philadelphia Plan” which began to force companies seeking Federal contracts to ensure that they employed Black Americans.

But these hard fights for laws and regulations had their limits Mr. Grabelsky noted. 

“Through legal action and community organizing, building trades unions were forced to bring in Black community members. And in some cases, six months later, they were all gone because nothing else changed in the union and they entered this hostile environment that made it exceedingly difficult for them to succeed.”

They say get back, we say fight back

There was an intense backlash to what would become known as “affirmative action” that pushed back on what little progress was being made at the time.

“There are counter protests against affirmative action in ’69, that look a little like hate marches,” said Dr. Griffey. In 1970 “A group of construction workers in New York, descend on a peace rally and beat the shit out of the protestors, then march to City Hall and protest affirmative action in the construction trades, [on the] same day,” he added.

Some organized labor officials also found ways to oppose the integration of their unions; and in one case, was rewarded with a cabinet position.

“These are long time Democrats. Many had never voted for a Republican in their lives. They’re campaigning for Republicans on a law and order platform. And when they help with the landslide election of Nixon, [Peter Brennan], the head of New York City building trades is rewarded by being made head of the Department of Labor where he guts what remains of affirmative action in the construction industry,” said Dr. Griffey.

But right wing construction workers and their leaders weren’t the only ones taking to the streets in the 1960’s and ‘70’s. As large, publicly funded construction projects went up in New York and other cities, activists and organizers of color began to demand their fair share.

“There’s these big public construction sites in Black communities, where Black workers aren’t being employed. And so these protests are around the construction sites to get people employed in those jobs and to open up those jobs,” said Dr. Jones. 

“The argument was: ‘Our tax dollars are paying for this construction. We should be able to get these jobs as well.’ And in that case, it was largely the construction, the skilled trades unions that shut Black workers out of these jobs,” he added.

Across the country in Los Angeles, Black workers have also been fighting for their share of the pie.

Janel Bailey, Co-executive Director of Organizing & Programs at the Los Angeles Black Worker Center, spoke to the AmNews about efforts her organization has undertaken to ensure that Black workers are represented on job sites. As L.A.’s mass transit system expanded into Crenshaw, the organization in partnership with other labor organizations negotiated an employment agreement with the Los Angeles Metropolitan Transit Authority which they say increased the number of Black workers on the project from zero to 20% in 2015.

“Folks at our organization came together, with allies of course, to really step to Metro and asked them: ‘how you have all this money coming through our neighborhood, but [its] not going to the workers and the families that are actually here? You need to hire more Black workers’.” Bailey said in an interview. 

During their negotiations she said they encountered “the usual things of like, ‘Oh, well, we can’t just say Black [workers] and we don’t know any Black workers’. Which to be perfectly honest, I believe them when they say, ‘I don’t know any Black workers.’ I believe them because the culture of exclusion that they’ve built set up their network such that it doesn’t include Black people.”

Bailey is also critical of labor unions and the apprenticeship system in Los Angeles.

“This culture of exclusion didn’t come up overnight and so I’m naming all these policies that broadly create a culture of exclusion,” she said. Apprenticeship programs are “wonderful for workers because it created a control of the market on labor, such that if you wanted to hire, to bring folks in to do that work, then you had to go through the union and you could set standards. Safety standards and wage standards for workers. Which is beautiful.”

But she went on to say that “the values of the folks who created and maintained that program were anti-Black. And so when they chose to create this wonderful pathway for workers, it was not inclusive of Black workers. And so what we’re seeing today is the fruits of that legacy. 

“That honestly, I think if you take it straight up on paper, the apprenticeship program actually is not problematic. I think it’s actually quite brilliant…. However, applied with the values of the people who had the power to build that, it was anti-Black and it was built in a way that for some was deliberately exclusive. And so we arrive at this moment now where we have this incredible program that only benefits some workers and we’re trying to figure out how to open it up, how to expand it so that it includes workers of color.”

“There is a history of exclusion,” said Grabelsky of the National Labor Leadership Institute at Cornell. “I don’t think race and racism explains everything in our society, but I personally think nothing of any significance can be fully explained without looking at it through that lens.”

Our third installment will examine how organizers in Harlem helped launch a movement to hold builders and unions accountable

This series was made possible by a grant from the Solutions Journalism Network. Brian Palmer contributed research and reporting to this article.

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* This article was originally published here

For most New Yorkers, high school doesn’t involve welding or building bathrooms, but for the hundreds of students at the Bronx Design and Construction Academy, and the many schools like it, what students learn in their teen years puts them on a direct path to lucrative, middle class jobs. 

Career and Technical Education (CTE) is the modern evolution of what used to be called, sometimes derisively, vocational education. While more than 60,000 CTE students each year in NYC gain a practical education in a trade, they also learn advanced math and the skills that will power the Green Economy.

“I always thought that construction workers were dirty,” said Bronx Design and Construction Academy senior Issa Samake in an interview with the AmNews. Before attending the school, he believed that construction workers and those in the skilled trades “were doing a lot of dirty work, for not enough pay. I felt like people who go into construction are the people who don’t have any other choices in life—they have to go to construction to make ends meet,” he added.

A first-generation American whose parents hail from Mali, Samake, along with his classmates, takes traditional academic and even Advanced Placement classes while focusing on one of five areas: Plumbing, Electrical, Carpentry, Architecture, and HVAC. Soon after starting his first year, Samake’s opinions about the skilled trades began to change.

“I see it as hard work, and I also see it as a skill. And you need to be smart,” he said. “One of the first things I learned when I came to the school was that no matter what trade you do, what type of construction you do…you’re gonna have to be good at math.” He has focused on plumbing in high school and, thanks to the school’s state-of-the-art facilities, has learned how to build and repair bathrooms for home and commercial spaces, among other skills.

In 2020, CTE schools in New York City had an 86% graduation rate, according to the Department of Education, compared to 79% for the system overall.

“There is a huge focus on interdisciplinary instruction,” said Venkatesh Harini, executive director of Career Connected Learning in the NYC Public Schools. “We’re trying to, at all points in time, seamlessly integrate the academic requirements with the technical requirements, so that ultimately, when a student graduates from our school system, they have a core set of skills that make them both college- and career-ready soon after they graduate.”

She said that schools Chancellor David Banks “has emphasized the importance of reimagining learning so that we are connecting a young person’s passion and purpose to long-term economic security.” 

Not all roads lead to college

For decades, American educators have preached that the primary path to economic security is a four-year college degree, and many Americans still pursue that track. But the huge demand in skilled trades like plumbing means that not every student has to straddle themselves with the kind of college debt that even President Biden is trying to wipe out.

“College is supposed to prepare individuals for their chosen career. Ff a student wants to be an engineer or go into the medical field, a step to those industries [is] college, so they have to go that pathway. However, for many other careers, the pathway is not college,” said Anthony Johnson, one of Samake’s teachers, in an interview. “They can [go] from high school…directly into a career.” 

Johnson noted that some individuals are unemployed after finishing college, and their degree has nothing to do with the career they choose. “So what was the value of going to college for that person?”

For students like samake, an internship is an important step in their path. As part of his education, he spent months working at Westchester Square Plumbing Supply. Bob Bieder’s family has run the company for 99 years and he believes that being an industry partner by offering internships has huge benefits for the students, the community, and his business.

“The kids that have come from this program have been amazing,” Bieder said in an interview. “This program affords them the opportunity to make a great living. Almost all have gone on to jobs in the industry and many of the kids come from lower-income areas.”

He also noted that “there is a huge need for qualified people. Right now, I have so many contractors who tell me on a regular basis that they can’t find anyone to work for them.” Bieder said with pride that many of his former interns now come through his doors as customers who are working in the industry.

Being qualified as a skilled tradesperson can make a huge difference to the career prospects of many students.

“We have students who realize that ‘I’m struggling where I live, and one way to improve my circumstances is to learn this trade so that I could become employed and hopefully take care of myself,’” said Johnson.

“The positive is, students are able to begin their careers at 18, which will lead to them supporting themselves. As much as possible, we try to steer our students toward the high-income earning opportunities if they qualify. Unfortunately, we do not get enough students to qualify,” he added. 

Johnson said that his greatest feeling of success as a teacher comes when his former students, many of whom are under 30, return to invite him to the housewarming party for their recently purchased homes.

‘We don’t create jobs, we create careers’

What about those who don’t receive the opportunity to learn a trade while still in high school? 

For much of the 20th century, the way into a skilled trade union was essential through birth: A family or friend connection was the only way into an apprenticeship program, which led many local unions, including some of those in New York, to being lily white.

“We don’t create jobs, we create careers,” said Gary LaBarbera, president of the New York State and the New York City Building and Construction Trades Councils, in an interview with the AmNews. 

His organization provides programs that, in addition to working with New York high school students, help several groups, including veterans and those who have been affected by the criminal justice system and others, prepare to become skilled trade apprentices and join those unions. 

While many unions have had long histories of exclusion, LaBarbera highlighted the forward-thinking choices that his members have taken to create change. The programs they offer train between 600 and 800 people a year, which make up around 40% of new apprentices in New York.

“Why it so vital to reach into marginalized or underserved communities is because we believe the goal of organized labor is to lift people out of poverty into the middle class, and to build a stronger middle class and to create an opportunity for people to have family-sustaining careers where they can also have good medical coverage for themselves and their families, and ultimately have retirement security,” LaBarbera said. “This is only offered through the unionized construction industry and through our apprentice programs.”

Jamahl Humbert, Jr. is an example of how such programs make a difference. He wakes up at 4 in the morning to travel more than 90 minutes from his home in Staten Island to the International Association of Bridge, Structural, Ornamental, and Reinforcing Ironworkers Local 580 Training Facility in Long Island City. The nondescript structure could easily be mistaken for an office building, but once inside, it becomes clear that this is a place where folks work with their hands.

Humbert joined the program because it offered what he described as a “lifetime skill.” The program offers the ability to get on a pre-apprentice track that is otherwise much more challenging to get into.

“I think that for a lot of people, construction skills is definitely the way to go,” Humbert  said.

Nearly 90% of the participants in the Edward J. Malloy Initiative for Construction Skills are members of a minority community, said Nicole Bertrán, the organization’s executive vice president, in an interview. In addition, “80% of the graduates we place into unionized, apprenticeship opportunities stay and complete their apprenticeship and become journeypersons. That’s really important because a lot of the criticism or critique of programs like construction skills is that ‘you can get them into the apprenticeship, but then they never finish,’ which isn’t true,” she said.

Programs like these not only pay trainees and apprentices to learn; those students leave the programs debt-free, unlike the tens of millions of Americans struggling with college student loan debt.

No magic bullets

While these initiatives and ones like it in New York are making a real impact, there is still much work to be done on the national level. According to a recently released report by the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies, which examined all registered apprenticeship programs (including those outside the construction and skilled trades), Black apprentices are underrepresented across the country, making up just 9% of apprentices, even though Black Americans make up more than 12% of the national workforce. However, this is still an improvement from 1960, when Black workers made up only 3.3% of apprentices in registered programs.

The report also noted that Black apprentices are least likely to complete their programs and have the lowest earnings. Justin Nalley, a senior policy analyst at the Joint Center, attributes this in part to the high concentration of Black apprentices in the South.

“In the South, you don’t have the same labor standards for workers and employers,” he said in an interview with the AmNews. “The apprentices in the South are only earning 64 cents on the dollar compared to other areas in the country.” 

Real estate developer William Wallace IV of the Continuum Company, along with many of those interviewed for this article, attributed the lack of full representation in the skilled construction and construction trades to the lack of use of unionized labor. A third-generation Harlemite, Wallace is perhaps unusual among his peers, many of whom seem to only have their eyes on the ledger books, for his fierce advocacy of the use of unionized labor in the construction industry. But he also acknowledges that labor has not always been a friend to the Black worker.

“Building and construction trades had a terrible reputation, justifiably so, for not incorporating, welcoming, and including many members of color,” he said in an interview. But he noted that in New York, since “Gary LaBarbara has been president of the Building Construction Trades Council, there was an enormous turnaround—almost a mission to be as reflective as the community in which business is being done.”

While the building and construction trades have become far more inclusive, Wallace emphasized that “the amount of work that unions have been receiving, particularly for residential work in New York, has been enormously diminished. It used to be a 100% union town and that has changed.” 

Being a developer of color in an industry with so few peers is also a motivating reason behind why Wallace is so pro-union.

“My commitment is to be sure that people of color that are qualified have an opportunity to build,” he said. “I think you don’t find that personal kind of political commitment because there’s not [many] people of color in the development community.”

LaBarbera said that while his unions do work closely with many forward-thinking developers, “there are developers out there only committed to one thing, and that’s profit. And I don’t believe they’re really, truly committed to diversity; I don’t believe they’re really, truly committed to creating opportunities. They’re just looking at their bottom line.”

“If you think about it, building and construction is everywhere—we are born in a hospital that was built and constructed, we go back to a home or an apartment that was built and constructed,” Wallace said. “To not be [able] to be part of that is criminal.” 
This series was made possible by a grant from the Solutions Journalism Network. Brian Palmer and Report for America corps member Tandy Lau contributed research and reporting to this article.

The post Building the pathway to the middle class appeared first on New York Amsterdam News.

* This article was originally published here