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Building
Good Jobs and Strong Communities
S T R A T E G I E S
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High
Road Regional Partnerships
Labor participation in new regional and sectoral partnerships
for high road economic development provides exciting models
for other new initiatives around the country. Innovative
programs in Wisconsin, New York, California, Nevada, Washington,
Pennsylvania and other cities and states across the country
(see boxes on some of these initiatives) are helping frame
out the new high-road approach to skill and labor market
development. They feature:
- Strong union leadership
- A positive vision for the future
- Joint action with employers across company and industry
lines
- Connection with community organizations and leaders
and with regional education and training institutions.
- A commitment to enhancing community and industry
stability and competitiveness, and
- The development of ongoing mechanisms for planning
and continuing skill enhancement.
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| These high-road initiatives offer real
hope for a long-term, comprehensive strategy to reverse
the receding economic tide and create an environment conducive
to retaining and expanding good jobs in communities, regions
and industries. |
Iman
Mujahid Ramadan, Las Vegas
Interfaith Council for Worker Justice, opens the 1999
Working for America National Conference
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| The Institute
is working actively with existing high road regional partnerships
to draw lessons about how these programs arose, how they
overcome obstacles, how they operate and how they implement
projects that transform companies, industries, local economies
and labor markets. This information is enormously helpful
to others tackling problems in their own areas. Working
for America is actively sharing these insights and lessons
learned through technical assistance and networking opportunities—both
for starting new high road partnerships and for broadening
and deepening those that have already gotten started.
The lessons learned from these High Road Regional Partnerships
has been reported in issues of the Working for America
Journal and a full report will be available as an Institute
publication.
It's important to see how these new high road regional
and sectoral partnerships draw on the rich experience
of union training, education and workforce development
programs in recent years. The record of these program
innovators, pulled together in conferences and meetings
by the Institute, is a great resource for states and
communities as they reorganize programs and activities
to create a coordinated labor market system that sustains
good jobs. Many of these programs are useful models
of the right kind of training and skill development
services. The Working for America Institute also directly
provides technical assistance and support to these worker-centered
training programs and offers a forum for exchanging
ideas, information and experience.
Thousands of people across the country—in private
and public agencies, unions, nonprofit organizations,
social service agencies, schools, colleges and community
groups—are working to steer their communities to
the economic high road. The AFL-CIO Working for America
Institute brings these diverse groups together for joint
learning and joint action.
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