DBE Contractors

The Community Benefits Agreement (CBA) connects disadvantaged business enterprises to contracting, mentoring and technical assistance opportunities. Minority and women owned construction businesses support the CBA because they see it as a way to do things differently and create opportunities:

• Strengthen your business, build capacity and access project bid opportunities.
• Education on CBA projects (i.e. bidding, certifications, requirements and bonding capacity).
• Follow through – the CBA Oversight Committee oversees Contractor Technical Assistance funds and mentoring activities, and builds partnerships to help contractors grow their businesses.
• Learn more about working with unions and accessing a flexible, trained workforce and qualified apprentices as you build your business. You can begin to take the training burden off of your existing workforce, enforce good wages, reduce turnover, and build a stable field crew and office support.

Too often, minority contractors have been pitted against unions. Unions have always played a critical role in raising the bar for salaries, benefits and working conditions for all workers. Unions have a vast “earn while you learn” training system and have been organizing to diversify the construction industry.

For more information, please contact:

• Maurice Rahming, O’Neill Electric
phone: 503-493-6045    email:maurice@oneillelectricinc.com