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The Honolulu Advertiser
Posted on: Saturday, November 15, 2003

Efforts aim to ready Hawai'i for job influx

By Dan Nakaso
Advertiser Staff Writer

Hawai'i has enough construction workers to meet what could be an unprecedented building boom on O'ahu but surveys under way will determine the exact needs and help guide how they will be filled, according to the organizers of a Jan. 20 construction summit.

The one-day summit at Fort Shafter represents the first effort to inventory the workforce and equipment needs of upcoming private and public construction projects, then figure out how Hawai'i's trade unions and workforce officials will meet them.

U.S. Rep. Neil Abercrombie, D-Hawai'i, helped organize the summit to ensure the success of years of efforts now resulting in $2.2 billion worth of military housing projects on O'ahu, Abercrombie told The Advertiser's editorial board yesterday.

"I did not want to watch everything crumble all around as Mainland companies come in and take all of the jobs ... and we stand around and wonder how this got away from us," Abercrombie said.

Construction summit

• What: Effort to inventory the workforce and equipment needs for private and public construction project

• When: Jan. 20, tentatively morning through 3 p.m.

• Where: Fort Shafter, Hale Ikena Ballroom

• More information: U.S. Rep. Neil Abercrombie's office, 541-2570

The summit will follow a different event next week at the Neal Blaisdell Center sponsored by city, state and private organizations to help local companies compete for sub-contracting work for the military housing projects.

The surveys under way for the Jan. 20 summit will look at the needs for specific trade workers, such as electricians and plumbers, but also inventory all kinds of construction needs, Abercrombie said.

"Do we even have enough cement trucks to meet the demand?" Abercrombie asked.

The forum was spurred by upcoming projects to build and renovate 7,700 Army, Navy, Air Force, Marine and Coast Guard housing units on O'ahu.

But the work comes as private developers continue to keep Hawai'i's 30 trade unions busy. Norwegian Cruise Lines also plans to create 3,700 jobs in Hawai'i to staff two ships in the Islands.

"The next 10 years in the construction industry will be the best 10 years in history that Hawai'i's ever seen," said Bruce Coppa, who is co-chairing the summit and is director of The Pacific Resource Partnership.

Coppa believes Hawai'i has enough workers to meet the upcoming construction demand with more than 25,000 active construction workers, training of new ones and the few thousand workers who turned to other jobs during the construction slump of the 1990s.

This year, Hawai'i is on track to generate $3 billion through construction for the first time since the Japanese investment boom of the 1980s.

At its peak during the 1980s, Coppa said, Hawai'i's construction industry generated more than $4 billion a year relying on 35,000 workers, Coppa said.

He believes that unions and sub-contractors more than likely will not have to turn to expatriates living on the Mainland — and certainly not to Mainland construction workers with no Hawai'i ties, Coppa said.

"If we have to bring the ex-pats back — because a lot of carpenters went to Las Vegas during their housing boom — we could bring them back," Coppa said.

Reach Dan Nakaso at dnakaso@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8085.