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The Working for America Institute
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| Pennsylvania Senator Arlen Specter visits a successful health care training program created by District 1199C of the National Union of Hospital and Health Care Employees (AFSCME) in Philadelphi. The union s partners include major health care employers who are placing program graduates in higher skilled jobs for which there is great demand. |
The
AFL-CIO Working for America Institute (WAI) is a union-sponsored,
nonprofit organization dedicated to creating good jobs and
building strong communities.
Created in 1998 as the successor to the AFL-CIO
Human Resources Development Institute, WAI has made significant
progress in articulating a vision of a high road economy—an
economy that competes in today’s global marketplace
on the basis of innovation, quality and skill rather than
on low wages and benefits.
The “high road” is the path the
Institute believes America must take to ensure that economic
growth benefits workers, employers and their communities—not
just the bottom line.
Working with labor leaders, employers, community
activists, government officials, educators and workforce development
professionals, the Institute has become a national leader
in helping create high road partnerships—relationships
in which workers obtain higher skills and better pay, employers
become more successful and communities become better places
in which to live and work.
What Makes Us Unique
With more than 30 years of experience in the field of job
training and workforce development--and with close ties to
unions representing more than 13 million workers—the
Institute is in a unique position to help employers become
more competitive and workers achieve greater job security
and a better quality of life.
The Institute’s team of regional coordinators
and sector field specialists work closely with program staff
in Washington, D.C. to provide technical assistance and support
to labor leaders, community activists, public officials and
workforce and economic development practicioners.
In addition to offering expert advice in content and program
development, the Institute also provides support in three
key areas: research, communications and fiscal administration.
In each area, WAI staffers are skilled in providing technical
assistance to better serve union leaders and workforce development
professionals.
“As
we discovered in Milwaukee, everyone benefits from high
road partnerships — the CEOs, the mayor, the labor
leaders, the workers, the community, everyone.” |
| Robert
Milbourne, Executive Director of Columbus Tomorrow, a
new Ohio business group modeled after the Greater Milwaukee
Committee, which Milbourne led for 17 years |
Sources of Financial Support
The Institute
receives financial support for its workforce and economic
development programs from the federal government, private
foundations and the AFL-CIO, and through sales of its products
and services.
What
We Do
Speaking
Out About Our Mission
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