Coronavirus Crisis: Building Trades Council Wants Construction Projects Suspended
BOSTON (CBS) - A group that represents Massachusetts trade workers wants the governor to suspend all construction projects that are not an emergency.
"I just see a train wreck coming," said Frank Callahan, president of the Massachusetts Building Trades Council.
The association represents more than 75,000 working men and women. They're asking Governor Charlie Baker to suspend all non-essential construction work through the month of April. And to issue the directive before the end of the week.
"Let's do this now while it's a decision. Because in a week or two it's not going to be a decision. And these projects are not going to be able to be shut down safely and securely," Callahan told WBZ-TV.
The concern lies in the transmission of the coronavirus and people going to work while the pandemic reaches its peak. One worker told WBZ-TV most job sites don't have hand-washing stations. And following social distancing guidelines is impossible when shared spaces can become crowded.
"Most projects in the construction trade take up to two men, [what's called] composite crews. We're constantly working next to each other," said the career electrician, who's now home in self-quarantine after developing a cough.
"That's the boat I'm in right now. I'm at home in self-quarantine. I have three children at home and a wife. It's not easy, am I exposed?"
At the site of a field hospital in Worcester, a project that would be considered an emergency operation, Governor Baker said state safety guidelines are set and closing non-essential projects is up to communities.
"If you don't deem projects in your community, to be ones that you believe you can actually enforce, and oversee successfully, around the guidelines that we've put together with respect to what a safe site should look like, then you have the ability to prohibit that project from going forward," Baker said.
