The Working
for America Institute has developed an innovative approach to
job creation and workforce development—the high road approach.
WAI’s
efforts emphasize the power of partnerships and the wisdom of
unions working together with businesses, foundations, government
agencies, and community groups to build a high road economy.
The goal is
to lead both workers and employers to a new economy in which workers
obtain higher skills and better pay and employers become more
productive. Under executive director Nancy Mills, the Institute
is focusing activities in three key areas:
Helping
individual workers succeed through effective lifelong learning,
skills development, and access to good jobs.
Example:
When Washington, D.C. General Hospital closed last summer,
more than 1,500 workers were laid off, with 90 percent belonging
to unions including AFSCME, AFGE, and the D.C. Nurses Association.
The Institute worked with the Metropolitan Washington Council
AFL-CIO to create the CareerPath Project, a project that serves
multiple unions by assessing, counseling, training, and placing
workers at unionized employers in the same and other industries.
Helping
unions and employers succeed by creating innovative sectorbased
partnerships through which employers, unions, government agencies,
and community organizations join together to create good jobs
and stronger communities.
Example:
In Queens, New York, Local 3 of the Baking, Confectionery,
Tobacco Workers and Grain Millers International Union has partnered
with 12 local bakeries and the Consortium for Worker Education
to create the Artisan Baking Center Training Program. With funding
from the Department of Labor, and continued support from WAI,
the center offers master bakers the opportunity to improve their
craft while also providing training to workers at other skill
levels, including welfare-to-work participants. More than 300
workers are expected to receive training during the center’s
first full year of operation.
Helping
strengthen America’s economy by ensuring that unions fully
participate in—and understand the impact of—public workforce
and economic development strategies.
Example:
A number of union organizations are benefiting from public grants
awarded after receiving advice and assistance from the Institute.
The Massachusetts AFL-CIO, with support from the Communications
Workers of America Local 1365 and their industry’s joint
labor-management partnership, The Alliance For Employee Growth
and Development, received $2.37 million for high-tech career training.
