Wisconsin contractors adopting program to address workplace harassment

Wisconsin contractors working on major projects in and outside Milwaukee are adopting a new program to address sexual harassment in the workplace.

The program, “Be More Than a Bystander,” takes participants through a four-hour training with strategies to help prevent workplace bullying, harassment and violence. Provided by the Northern Midwest Regional Council of Carpenters, objectives include understanding the effects of harassment in the workplace and having participants go through group discussions and scenarios. The NMRCC includes locals in Wisconsin, Minnesota, North Dakota and South Dakota.

Construction has been traditionally male-dominated, and the industry is trying to shift its culture as new populations begin to pick up the tools of retiring trades workers. While employers often have zero tolerance policies for sexual harassment and bullying, new employees can still experience hazing in the field. In rare cases, situations can boil over into violent incidents on the job site.

In Wisconsin, the training program was a response to requests from a handful of contractors who have dealt with situations such as sexual harassment, bullying and in some cases violence, said Raúl Hernández, a business representative for the Carpenters in Wisconsin.

“A lot of times, they don’t have anything in place on how to deal with this,” Hernández said. “One of those ways is to incorporate this training to be proactive.”

Neenah-based Miron Construction incorporated the training in their annual staff conference for its leadership, Hernández said. That training is being extended to foremen, superintendents and trades workers in the field, and Miron asked the Carpenters to facilitate additional training, he added.

“You learn different intervention tools and methods and learn to be more than a bystander, Hernández said. “We have a discussion on what those tools can be. You can do something as simple as speak up. If you see something, say something.”

Workplace harassment becomes a bigger issue as construction’s culture changes and more young women explore careers in construction, Hernández noted.

In 2011, the Ending Violence Association of British Columbia and BC Lions Football Club partnered to educate high school students on how to speak up about gender-based violence, creating the earliest iteration of Be More Than a Bystander. The program migrated to the Carpenters’ central location in Minnesota, where it is distributed to different branches across the Midwest.

Contractors such as Miron Construction and Mortenson have adopted customized versions of the program with help from the Carpenters. The union has facilitated training on several job sites, including Froedtert Hospital in Wauwatosa and the Nature & Culture Museum of Wisconsin in Milwaukee.

“I asked our executives, field operations directors and general superintendents to go through it, and they were the biggest proponents of it.” Said Dave Walsh, the executive vice president of human resources at Miron Construction. “They went through it and were like, ‘This is great, we need to bring it to the field.’ Here are the tools they need when they see bullying or harassment happen.”

Both members of the office and field went through training and those in the field left with a skillset they didn’t have previously, Walsh said. Workers out in the field skew male heavily with female workers in the single digits.

“At any job you have, you have teasing of the new person,” Walsh said. “Teasing of a new person is natural and we get that, but it’s when it reaches that point where it’s not teasing anymore, it’s inappropriate or sexual, when that happens, they have some tools to head it off the path. This is walking down a bad path, so I can say this or distract them here.”

Cases of harassment were rare on construction sites, “But when it happens, we don’t want people floundering or wondering what to do,” Walsh added.

The company wants to introduce the program to up to 50 interns in the summer, which Walsh said will give them tools on what to do if they see harassment in the office or field.

Contractor praises program for being open to all

For Mortenson, the Be More Than a Bystander program reinforces its initiative to build a safe workplace culture but also makes sure that bystander training is accessible to the rest of the industry, said Jessica Rabbach, field operations manager at Mortenson’s Milwaukee office.

“This program, for Mortenson, is supplemental to a lot of what we already do. We have an active focus on our culture on our job sites with the intention of recruiting and retaining in diversity including women and construction,” Rabbach said. “What was really nice about this program was it was something coming from the union, another voice spreading why it’s important.”

While the Carpenters facilitate trainings, they have allowed other trades to be included, Rabbach said. For example, Mortenson has in-house foremen who are laborers and carpenters. Trades outside of Mortenson’s self-performing team are on site as well.

Initially the company launched the program with its leadership and craft workers, but training can be accessed by anyone with a relationship with the Carpenters, she added.

Trainings are as large as a job site can support, as one site had up to 50 workers and another had up to 30, Rabbach said. In a two-day, back-to-back training, Mortenson trained 25 of its Wisconsin foremen.

The large projects have conference rooms that trainers can use, Rabbach said. The job site needs to have enough space to have a gathering with closed doors so participants can be vulnerable and open, she added.