As a society, we have traditionally pushed responsibility upwards. We elect individuals to run the country, together with all the various departments that supposedly keep the nation moving. Those politicians carry out that task with varying degrees of success.
We elect people at local level to run our schools, to maintain our roads, to collect and process our waste. They too repay our faith with varying degrees of success.
We long ago relinquished responsibility for upholding the rule of law, for caring for our sick, for fighting fires and for responding to emergencies and disasters. Depending who you ask, those first responders take care of us pretty well; but there are lapses.
As an industry, we have associations, federations and councils that, once again, are there to lead the way and to represent us. By now, you will have seen the pattern emerging - They too do so with varying degrees of success.
But, when push really comes to shove, it is often we the people that stand up to be counted.
Politicians declare war but they themselves stay at home, as far removed from the heat and danger of battle as is humanly possible. A local council runs out of money so it is down to squadrons of local people to remove litter from the highways and byways. We buy National Lottery tickets partly in the vain hope of becoming an overnight millionaire but also to prop up the parts of the state that the Government is no longer willing to fund and finance.
From Live Aid to Go Fund Me pages; from church fundraisers to waste collection and recycling drives. It is the people - good old Joe Public - that does that which the Government can’t or won’t.
Think about that from a demolition and construction training perspective. Many companies pay a levy to fund the Construction Industry Training Board which then produces a report telling the industry that which it already knows: We have a skills shortage and it’s getting worse. They offer no solutions, no fixes, quick or otherwise. And while they might take a stand at a national skills fair, they are largely absent without leave the rest of the time. And so, if outreach to schools, colleges and universities is the only way to attract sufficient young people into the sector, it falls upon individual demolition and construction companies - you know, the ones paying the CITB levy - to do that outreach.
I listened back to my first official LiveStream yesterday because it was the fifth anniversary of my becoming a full-time LiveStreamer. During that show, I shared a message from European Demolition Association president Stefano Panseri whose native Italy was in the grip of the COVID-19 pandemic this time five years ago. He called me on 23 March 2020 specifically so that I could tell our readers, subscribers, listeners and viewers to stay at home and to avoid sites at all costs.
This was his message at the time:
“…In the space of 72 hours, we have gone from trying to calculate the likely economic impact of COVID-19 to just trying to survive. It is war. That is no exaggeration. The demolition and construction market has to shut down immediately. Demolition and construction employees travel together, they work together, they have lunch together. These employees are the perfect vector to spread the virus contamination everywhere. The sector has to understand that business comes after employee health and safety. Help the sector to take the right decision to shut down before it’s too late…”
At the time of that message, Italy was one of the countries worst hit by the pandemic. I vividly remember the emotion and even fear in Stefano’s voice.
Meanwhile, here in the UK, the Government was granting demolition and construction employees “key worker status” and urging them back to work while the Construction Leadership Council was issuing guidance on social distancing on site, even as the rest of the country hid indoors for fear of infection and death.
When the UK Government threatened to remove the subsidy on red diesel, the majority of trade associations sat on their hands until it was too late. Despite the noble efforts of one or two bodies, that costly decision went ahead largely unchallenged.
Those same associations sat idly by when grandfather rights were removed from many veteran CSCS card holders, a decision that has exacerbated an already perilous skills shortage. In fact, it was left to a very small number of online industry influencers to actually raise the issue in the first place.
Similarly, when I forecasted the existential threat from the embodied carbon lobby, those in the demolition corridors of power tried to dismiss me as a scaremonger; at least they did until their members’ demolition projects started to be cancelled.
Time and time again, those elected, appointed, and entrusted to lead fail us. They promise representation but deliver inaction. They conduct studies, issue reports, and draft guidance; none of which stop the industry from lurching deeper into crisis.
And so, the weight falls back on us. On the individual companies that train workers because the system won’t. On the employees who work through pandemics while decision-makers sit safely at home. On the small voices that sound the alarm while the so-called leaders dismiss them as scaremongers, until it’s too late.
If history has taught us anything, it’s this: help is not coming. Not from the Government, not from the federations, not from the councils or associations. The cavalry isn't on its way. It never was. These are battles they have no interest in fighting.
And if we want our industry to survive, we need to accept that responsibility isn’t pushed upwards anymore. It’s ours, whether we like it or not.
This topic was the subject of an in-depth discussion on today's after show chat. You can listen to the resulting podcast here.