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Building
Good Jobs and Strong Communities
P
E O P L E
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Putting
Workers on the High
Road
 he
union movement's mission is to improve the quality of
life for all workers, whether organized or unorganized.
This goal reflects the movement's guiding values, as
well as the practical understanding that until all workers
have the security and clout unions give their members,
no one can be secure. In recent decades, as the union
movement has suffered from layoffs, job flight and declines
in key industries, this axiom has been proven over and
over again.
When it comes to labor market change and economic development,
workers have a singular and invaluable perspective.
They are the ones who have or don't have jobs. They
are the ones who learn or don't learn new skills. They
feel the consequences of low-road or high-road economic
development in immediate and tangible ways. Workers
must be a part of the decision-making process when it
comes to labor market and economic development decisions.
They must be involved in meaningful ways with training,
education and workplace modernization. The Institute
has distributed thousands of copies of "Economic
Development: A Union Guide to the High Road"
to union and community leaders across the country. Also,
the Institute is working with communities and researchers
to develop additional tools for regional economic assessment
and community planning.
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The Working for America Institute works vigorously to
expand sources of worker strength and influence. We are
committed to strengthening the union movement as the only
way to give workers more influence in critical work-related
decisions. We also support new worker-oriented alliances
and organizations that bring together a broader array
of interests.
Reflecting this commitment to workers regardless of their
union status, the AFL-CIO Working for America Institute
supports a full range of programs and initiatives to help
connect dislocated, disadvantaged, young and isolated
workers to good jobs.
Helping
Dislocated Workers
Economic globalization, the mobility of capital, the ability
of firms to move production facilities quickly, changes
in military spending and national trade policies all have
hastened the flight of jobs from many communities. Millions
of workers have lost their jobs, even in an expanding
economy.
The Institute's efforts are to help these workers get
back on their feet—for the long haul. WIA pioneered
many techniques now widely used to counsel and assist
displaced workers, including one-stop centers, peer support,
labor-management adjustment committees, early warning
systems, coordinated services and advanced skill training
and retraining programs. The Institute also provides informational
tools and training material like "Serving
Workers in Transition: A Guide for Peer Support"
for operating local programs. The goal is to bring workers
out of isolation—the isolation of being a single
job-seeker with limited skills in a world where the fewer
jobs available require greater skills.
Facing a continuing national wave of downsizing, layoffs,
and business closings, the Institute maintains its support
of programs to serve dislocated and displaced workers
by working with federal, state and local officials, local
unions and communities around the country. For example
the Institute has worked closely with UNITE to assure
that their members and the union in EL Paso Texas would
be involved in the process and shipyard workers and their
union in the Groton Shipyards in Connecticut to provide
real employment opportunity.
In addition to helping meet the immediate needs of dislocated
workers, Working for America emphasizes developing models
that do more than place workers in new but inferior jobs.
Instead, they provide new opportunities for skills development
and access to high-wage jobs |
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