March 18, 2009

Construction industry fails to insure workers, even in boom times

Creating jobs is central to the federal economic stimulus plan -- but not just any jobs.  The strength of the recovery will depend on working families having good middle-class jobs with health insurance.

The construction industry, which stands to gain the largest share of new jobs generated by the stimulus package -- 670,000 jobs nationally -- has a dismal record of insuring its workers, even in the best of times.

A new CPI study, Construction: Working Without a Healthcare Net, found that in California construction workers are more likely than workers in any other industry to be chronically uninsured, mostly because they aren't offered job-based coverage.

"The lack of health insurance is part of the whole picture of how the stimulus money will move California forward," said Murtaza Baxamusa, study author and CPI research and policy director. "Without changes in this picture, the stimulus will fall short of its potential to boost the economy."

Read Murtaza's blog about the report today on voiceofSanDiego.org, and please add your comments. 

Some key facts in the report:

• Even at the peak of the last housing boom in 2005, more than one in four construction workers had been uninsured for at least a year.

• Only 35% of construction workers had health insurance provided by their employers -- compared to 49% across all industries.  Many of the rest were uninsured or had to rely on publicly funded programs like Medi-Cal.
  
  
• Construction work has more than its share of injuries and deaths, with 4.6 times the average on-the-job fatality rate.
  

Along with the analysis of data from a statewide survey, the report also includes the stories of a 55-year-old concrete carpenter who is diabetic but often can't afford his prescriptions and an electrician whose young family went without dental checkups until he became unemployed and qualified for Medi-Cal.

As President Obama said in creating the Middle Class Task Force:
"We know we need to create jobs, but not just any jobs. We need to create jobs that sustain families … because the strength of our economy can be measured directly by the strength of our middle class."

Full copies of the report and links to news coverage are available online. (Watch and listen for more coverage Thursday in the Los AngelesTimes and on KPBS radio.)  CPI members will receive a printed copy in the mail.  To become a member now, click here.

Join new local coalition in push for smart stimulus spending

The San Diego Coalition for a Strong Middle Class is holding a press conference Friday to highlight the need for smart spending of the federal stimulus money locally.

The coalition, which includes San Diego area community organizations, is calling for public agencies to apply standards to the stimulus spending for:

• quality jobs with health care
• local hiring
  
• career ladders for hard-to-employ workers
  
• green building standards
  

Please join us to show your support at the press conference, at 10 a.m. Friday, March 20.  We will be on the campus of Hoover High School, 4474 El Cajon Blvd.