PHILADELPHIA HOSPITAL AND HEALTH CARE
DISTRICT 1199C TRAINING AND UPGRADING FUND

The Training and Upgrading Fund is a sector-focused, single-union, multi-firm labor-management partnership that covers more than 17,000 unionized health care workers in the Philadelphia area.

History

The Training and Upgrading Fund was established in 1974 through collective bargaining by the Hospital and Health Care Workers Union 1199C as a Taft-Hartley jointly managed trust. The union recognized that its members needed the opportunity to acquire new skills and better jobs. In establishing the fund, the union brought together labor and management partners across the local industry to establish training and education programs that met the needs of workers and employers in a changing industry. As the fund grew in experience and programs, use by employers and workers increased dramatically. Since the mid 1990s, public funding for programs has taken on a larger role. The fund uses displaced worker funds to ease the transition forced by structural changes in the industry. It also has been active in welfare-to-work programs because the staff understands both the workers and workplace requirements for employment.

Goals

• To provide union members the opportunity to acquire new skills and better jobs;
• To improve wages, benefits and the work environment;
• To identify changing employment and work requirements in the industry;
• To establish career paths in the industry for workers, leading to higher wage employment;
• To establish training and education as an integral part of the union's agenda.

Activities

The fund offers three categories of benefits: a tuition reimbursement program of $5,000 per year; two year, $10,000.00 per year scholarships including a leave of absence, health care, pension and living stipends; and courses at the Breslin Learning Center in City Center Philadelphia. The center offers up to 40 different education and training programs. Approximately 40 percent of the participants come from outside the union. With 20 classrooms and technology centers, participants select services in two categories: career development services, including counseling, assessment and job placement, or education and training from Adult Basic Education to associate degrees and specific health care certifications. Additional services include:

• An employment center/hiring hall where workers are referred to employers who call the hall regarding job openings;
• Programs for dislocated workers with career counseling and placement and occupational training services for members and nonmembers;
• Competency-based occupational entry and upgrading training linked to credentials;
• Adult basic education including GED test preparation, a high school diploma from the City of Philadelphia School District, basic computer literacy and advanced computer training.

Results

• Approximately 18 percent of 1199C members use these training and education services. In 1996-1997, some of the nearly 18,000 participants who were served received multiple services.
• The fund's educational programs have been approved by the State Board of Education. The Breslin Center gives state certification exams in some fields.
• The Hiring Hall provides services to nonunion and union workers, strengthens community linkages and institutionalizes a role for the union in the industry labor market.
• By 1999, the success of the 1199C programs had fostered a multi union exploration of the formation of a new consortium.
• The fund's network and base of negotiated funds has attracted significant resources from a variety of public training funds.
• Over the past two decades, tens of thousands of participants became skilled graduates--from registered nurses and medical technicians to dentists and medical doctors working in the Philadelphia health care industry.