Strengthening Labor Representation On Workforce Investment Boards

Stewart Burkhalter, president of the Alabama AFL-CIO, and Stella Kelly, executive director of the Alabama AFL-CIO Labor Institute for Training, confer at the Atlanta WIB training.

Labor representatives from across the country are planning to attend regional training and strategy conferences this spring to strengthen union representation on hundreds of state and local Workforce Investment Boards (WIBs).

WAI conducted the first conference March 25-26 in Atlanta where about 100 union representatives participated in two days of meetings. Additional conferences are scheduled in Philadelphia (April 19-20, just before WAI’s annual conference), St. Louis (May 2-3), and Las Vegas (June 6-7.) Created by Congress in 1998 as part of the Workforce Investment Act, Workforce Investment Boards help coordinate federal and state resources to address the needs of employers and workers in their communities.

Besides conducting training sessions for WIB union representatives, WAI has created a database to improve communications among union representatives and developed a series of publications designed to update representatives on specific topics ranging from welfare reform to economic development.

See more information on WAI’s WIB activities.

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