Communications Hiring Halls

Nationwide, the CWA, which historically has represented workers in the telecommunications and some other high tech industries, has a number of innovative programs at work that are opening doors for union members, employers and those interested in high tech careers.

These include efforts to set up union employment centers or hiring halls. In Southern California, enough employers under contract agreed with the need to have a mechanism to provide workers when and where they were needed that the union was able to set up a formal employment center.

In Cleveland, the employers weren't willing to directly contract with CWA local 4340, but they did agree to enter into agreements with a third party agency that had a contract with the union. The employers call the temporary agency, which provides the union workers.

CWA has learned a lot through the process and has had to refine how the centers work. They quickly found, for example, that there needed to be an ongoing evaluation process to assess exactly which skills a worker had to make sure they matched those needed. They could not just send out any worker when specialized skills were required.

It was clear that training had be built into the function of the employment centers if they were to fulfill their purpose and retain the support of employers. Therefore, when U.S. West came to CWA local 7777 to ask for help in recruiting workers in several western cities, the union pushed for the equivalent of an apprenticeship program. Only in this way, they knew, could they ensure that they had sufficiently trained workers to meet company needs, especially with the rapid pace of technological change.

There was resistance from the company, especially from human resources and legal professionals worried about erosion in corporate power. Nevertheless, in the end a program was set up that is expected to train 250 apprentices in seven states over the next three years.

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