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Institute
Holds Three Successful Conferences
Tools for Communities
that Work
More than 500 people braved
the elements of Milwaukee in November to attend the AFL-CIO Working for America
Institute’s 2003 Annual Conference November 9-12, making it one of the
Institute’s most successful conferences.
Wisconsin Governor Jim Doyle and
the union and management recipients of the Wisconsin
Regional Training Partnership's Community Partnership Awards at the Institute's
National
Conference in Milwaukee. Governor Doyle made a special appearance at the
conference, where
in addition to praising the contributions of the WI labor movement to making
and keeping
good jobs in the state he announced his intention to reward those businesses
that demonstrate
a commitment to stay in Wisconsin (by increasing capital investment) by
underwriting the
workforce training needs associated with the utilization of those investments.
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The 2003 conference was
co-sponsored by the Building and Construction Trades Department, AFL-CIO; the
Community Transportation Center; Good Jobs First; the Industrial Union Council,
AFL-CIO; the Milwaukee County Labor Council, AFL-CIO; the Wisconsin Regional
Training Partnership; and the Wisconsin State AFL-CIO. It drew participants
from 41 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, and Canada.
Each day of the 3-day conference
focused on a particular stakeholder group with a vested interest in building
communities that work for working families: unions, employer and union partnerships,
and community organizations. Conference participants also visited the Harley-Davidson
plant in Milwaukee for both a reception and a tour, gathering insight on one
of the most successful stories of labor-management cooperation in the country.
Building Workforce
Partnerships
The Institute also conducted
two conferences in May 2004 aimed at Workforce Investment Board (WIB) labor
representatives and workforce practitioners. The first conference was held in
partnership with the California Labor Federation’s Workforce and Economic
Development Program. Over 220 WIB labor representatives, along with employment
and training practitioners from both labor-sponsored and public workforce programs,
gathered May 12-14 in San Diego, California. Among the dozens of workshops available
to participants were ones on the elements of the High Road Public Workforce
Agenda: Conducting High Road Community Audits, Setting and Using Realistic Self-Sufficiency
Standards and Promoting Subsidy Accountability.
Government officials, a childcare center director, two UAW-member childcare
apprentices, and a public interest advocate for improved childcare access
and quality were panelists at the “A Tool for Getting Credit Where
Credit is Due: Education and Training for Child Care Workers” workshop
at the Institute’s National Conference in Milwaukee. |
The second conference was
held May 19-21 in New York City in partnership with the New York State AFL-CIO
and their Workforce Development Institute. Over 140 participants joined us in
New York. A number of northeast state AFL-CIO’s that have workforce development
programs, such as Massachusetts, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and West Virginia
joined in the planning of the conference and helped lead a discussion on strategies
for connecting to the public workforce system. In addition to the workshops
on the High Road Public Workforce Agenda, the conference included popular workshops
on how WIBs actually operate and how to “Follow the Money” that
workforce boards spend at the local level.
At the time of publication
of this issue of Connections, the Employment and Training Administration of
the U.S. Department of Labor had informed the Institute that it would no longer
provide a grant to support this program of training and technical assistance
to WIB labor representatives. The Institute is exploring all available avenues
to allow this work to continue.
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