South
Bay Labor Council/Worker Partnerships USA
Located 35 miles south of San Francisco, the
South Bay Labor Council has developed a comprehensive labor-community
strategy for upgrading skills and living standards throughout
their region. Utilizing their nonprofit arm--Working Partnerships
USA--the Council has built active labor-community alliances,
notably through the interfaith council for worker justice and,
in partnership with San Jose State University, a labor-community
leadership education institute. The South Bay Council has worked
with a number of member unions on: workplace modernization and
development of high-participation, high-skill work systems;
development of computer graphics training for high school students
and union members, and introducing new non-traditional female
members into the Plumbers and Pipefitters union. Working with
their community allies, they have helped raise minimum wages
for suppliers to the city of San Jose and required accountability
for corporate recipients of economic development assistance
in Santa Clara County. Currently, they are developing a union-based
membership organization for temporary office workers, which
will provide training and minimum pay standards while working
toward development of health and retirement benefits for this
important and growing group of contingent workers. |
How
can union leaders come together with community allies to develop
better jobs and stronger industries in our communities? Answering
this question is the goal of an ongoing project of the Working
for America Institute.
As shown in the examples in this story, unions in a dozen or
more locations around the country have helped lead high road
regional partnerships that use skill development and other tools
to expand the number of good jobs, upgrade skills and strengthen
area industries for more secure and better jobs. Often working
in alliance with other community organizations, union leaders
in these initiatives work to mobilize resources from public
training and economic development programs to move their local
economy away from low-skill, low-wage jobs, and onto a high
road track that continually upgrades job quality, skill, and
earning capacity.
Good Public Policy
High Road Partnership Initiatives are attractive to public
policy makers because they effectively extend the range of
limited public dollars. Bargained training monies and supporting
activities by unions and organized employers can make public
funding for training or economic development go much farther.
High-road initiatives also effectively target their activities
toward real job opportunities and real skill needs. The old
dilemma of training for non-existent jobs is not a problem
where unions and union-represented employers are directly
involved.
Community partners appreciate the benefits of skill upgrading
and good union jobs--jobs that provide a foundation for good
earnings and ongoing skill development. In addition, community
leaders value the stronger connections between school and
work for young people, who often do not see a direct link
between their schooling and skill development with good jobs
and careers that offer ongoing development and income advancement.
Wide Range of Activities
High-road regional partnerships can address a range of goals.
Some examples include:
- Developing new skill development systems for workers within
a given region or industry
- Providing new training opportunities for workers just
entering the labor force or coming into a new industry
- Building support for union-initiated approaches for high-participation,
high-skill work systems
- Involving workers and their unions in workplace modernization
efforts that are sponsored by regional manufacturing extension
partnerships
- Building labor-community alliances and supporting institutions,
such as interfaith councils for worker justice and labor-community
leadership education programs, that broaden support for
good jobs and the public programs that help develop them
- Mobilizing support from public programs or private foundations
to help achieve high road community objectives.
Moving From a Few High
Road Cases to Many
The Institute is working with union and community leaders
to develop technical assistance strategies and tools that
can help grow high road initiatives in new communities, as
well as strengthen existing high road partnerships. The U.S.
Department of Labor is supporting the early stages of this
work, endorsing the idea that good jobs with good skills and
wages provide better answer for workers and communities.
The Working for America Institute will be making high road
regional partnerships a major priority. We look forward to
working with labor and community leaders to help create more
high road communities, and to make it easier for many others
to follow the lead of the regional partnerships that exist
today.
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San
Francisco Hotels Partnership Project
Under
its 1994 collective bargaining agreement with the principal
major hotels in San Francisco, HERE local 2 has developed
a comprehensive program for developing skills in the
local hospitality industry. The negotiated partnership
program aims to provide better jobs and upgrade possibilities,
along with high-quality, cost-effective services for
member hotels. Using bargained contributions to the
joint training funds and grants from the Federal Mediation
and Conciliation Service and the California State Program
for Incumbent Worker Training, the partnership has developed
training in skills for problem-solving in hotel operations,
English for speakers of other languages, occupational
skills for a variety of bargained jobs, and re-entry
programs for workers newly returning to the workforce.
A hallmark of the San Francisco Hotel Partnership Program
is training conducted simultaneously in three languages--
English, Spanish and Chinese.
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Garment
Industry Development Corporation (GIDC)
Founded in the early 1980s, GIDC provides a growing range
of services to New York garment workers and employers.
A joint creation by UNITE (the Union of Needletrades,
Industrial and Textile Employees) and the clothing manufacturers
in New York City, GIDC has leveraged significant state,
federal and local resources to provide services to garment
manufacturers and worker--from workplace modernization
to training for management and workers in UNITE-represented
firms. It has also created a collective presence for small
New York garment producers in export markets that small
firms alone are unable to reach. This has resulted in
some $60 million in expanded sales opportunities. |
SEATTLE
WORKERS' CENTER
What started in the 1980s as the Seattle labor movement's
dislocated worker counseling and training program has
grown along a number of dimensions to serve the education,
training and employment needs of the Seattle/King County
community. The King County AFL-CIO's Workers' Center and
the Central Labor Council receive funding to support a
labor specialist for the Washington Manufacturing Extension
Partnership, liaisons to the area's community colleges
and the state transportation program, School-to-Work programs,
industry development for the ship-building industry, and
recruitment and training of new labor force entrants for
construction and other union jobs. Because of its wide
range of activities and services, the Workers' Center
enjoys strong support from the local community and elected
officials. |
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Las
Vegas HERE 226
Culinary Workers Training Institute
Since its new training center
opened for business in 1993, the Las Vegas Hotel & Restaurant
Employees Union has provided training for over 13,000 new
workers in the rapidly expanding Las Vegas hotel and casino
industry. The ability of the union's training Institute to
supply workers with the skills demanded by world-class hotels
has not only helped strengthen the local industry, but also
made it possible for the union to provide qualified applicants
for their rapidly growing industry. The program has also provided
thousands of jobs to new immigrants and other workers who
would never have had a chance to develop the skills for good
jobs with good pay and benefits and skill upgrading opportunities
for career advancement.
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