The
AFL-CIO Working for America Institute was officially launched
by President John J. Sweeney and the Institute's Board in October
1998. The Institute was given a new mission, a new name, and
a new leadership team.
Underscoring the importance of the new Institute, the President
of the AFL-CIO has stepped forward to serve as President of
our expanded Board of Directors.
In addition to supporting its traditional work which provides
education and training services to disadvantaged and dislocated
workers, the Institute is developing strategies and programs
to help unions and employers create new high-skill, high-wage
jobs to benefit workers, communities and companies through coordinated
economic development at the regional and sectoral levels. |
Welcome
to the New Working for America Institute 
| by
Bruce Herman, Executive Director |
Goals
In coordination with the AFL-CIO, the new Institute is aiming
to achieve three primary goals:
|
1.
|
Serve as an effective voice
for working people regarding education and training at
work, as well as in communities, for the organized and
the yet-to-be organized. |
|
2.
|
Build labor's capacity to represent
workers' interests in the arena of workforce development.
While the Institute will continue to provide direct delivery
of services (including giving assistance after mass layoffs),
we will work to identify opportunities for unions to play
active leadership roles within their regions and communities. |
|
3.
|
Support the union movement
in creating community-oriented, high-road regional economic
development strategies. The union movement needs to go
beyond "value-added" by adding our values; in
particular, by developing partnerships across the labor
movement and with natural allies in the broader community.
The focus is on creating and expanding good jobs with
skill upgrade opportunities on a wide basis. The Institute
will expand support for labor-community coalitions around
the country that are creating these "high-road regional
partnerships" to foster high-skill, high-wage outcomes
that are winners for labor and the broader community as
a whole. |
|
|
Organizational
Structure
To help launch
the new Institute, a new management team was hired. They are
Tony Sarmiento, Director of Worker-Centered Learning
Brian J. Turner, Director of Research and Communications
Weezy Waldstein, Director of Labor Market Participation.
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