To ensure an adequate supply of skilled labor, competing automakers (Daimler-Chrysler, Ford and General Motors) in the Greater-St. Louis region recently formed an unusual cooperative training program involving the United Auto Workers (UAW), local educators and public officials. The collaborative effort seeks to satisfy the automakers’ common (and pressing) need to ensure that their skilled workers are trained in the latest technologies to install and troubleshoot advanced equipment and maintain their highly-automated production lines.

Even for large corporations, the cost of providing in-depth training for relatively small numbers of skilled employees is substantial. By training larger groups, drawn from several employers and sharing instructors, equipment and materials, the program creates economies of scale that make continual in-depth skills training (classroom and hands-on) more practical and affordable. This use of shared capacity to train incumbent workers presents unique issues but substantial rewards for participating employers and unions. And doing so in a way that gives participating workers industry-recognized credentials better prepares them to succeed in the highly competitive automotive manufacturing sector.

Though the Consortium is in its infancy (training began in June 2005), experience gained through this program could have great value to other manufacturers, in and out of the automotive industry.

Workforce Challenge

Increasing firm/facility competitiveness and employee employment security through incumbent workers’ skills upgrading: The nature of work in the manufacturing sector is changing. Increasing use of both advanced technology and new work processes has added to the skill requirements of most manufacturing occupations. Consequently, employers seek affordable ways to finance training for incumbent workers, and workers need specialized training to help them retain the better paying jobs within their firms and industries.

While the training undertaken by the Greater St. Louis Automotive Consortium is in the area of specialty skills, it is not directed at the pipeline of new apprentices, but rather is designed to ensure that the incumbent skilled craft workers at these plants have the state-of-the-art skills they need for today’s production methods.

Understanding Demand and Meeting It

Automotive manufacturing helped stabilize the St. Louis economy despite heavy job losses during the past five years, according to the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis. Collectively, St. Louis manufacturers eliminated more than 25,000 jobs, or roughly 15% of their payrolls, between March 2001 and July 2005, according to bank economists. Still, bank economists point out that the region was buoyed by the fact that, compared to rest of the country, it has a larger share of jobs in motor vehicles and motor vehicle parts, both of which saw relatively modest job losses.

The St. Louis Workforce Investment Board (WIB) and the St. Louis Community College (STLCC) have long recognized the important role of the auto industry in the region. Their enthusiastic support for this project was based on compelling facts about the importance of the automotive industry to the regional economy:

More than 18,000 people – fully 11% of Missouri’s total manufacturing workforce – produce cars, trucks, vans and auto parts in the Greater St. Louis region.
Wages paid to automotive manufacturing employees average $75,000 per year. Auto manufacturing is the single largest source of manufacturing jobs in the state, and the source of many of the regions best-paid jobs.
10.7% of the nation’s total automobile production occurs in the Greater St. Louis region, which is home to four major assembly plants: Ford (producing the Explorer SUV), General Motors (producing conversion vans) and two Daimler-Chrysler facilities (one producing minivans and another manufacturing Ram pickup trucks).
The four large plants directly support a network of some 34 small and medium-sized businesses in Missouri that employ another 8,000 people who provide the automakers with an array of services and supplies.

Maintaining Skill Levels in a Capital-Intensive/Hyper-Competitive Industry

Since the 1970s U.S. automakers have faced intense competition from foreign manufacturers using modern plants and equipment to produce low-priced, high-quality cars, trucks and vans.

Success in this industry, or even survival, requires having products ready for market that meet the highest standards of customer satisfaction in terms of cost, reliability, safety, style, fit and finish. It requires companies to invest continually in the latest technologies on the production lines and in the vehicles themselves. This, in turn, requires an adequate pool of workers, armed with up-to-date skills and training, to install, maintain, and operate the new, advanced systems.

Collaborative training made great sense because the region has such a high concentration of auto manufacturing companies that tend to employ similar or identical technologies, and because one union (the UAW) represents employees at the four competing plants. In fact, the UAW Labor and Employment and Training Corporation (LETC), a labor-management program headquartered in Long Beach, California, initiated the program. The LETC contacted UAW Region 5 to convene teams of UAW and management training coordinators from St. Louis’ four large automotive manufacturing facilities (Ford, General Motors and two Daimler-Chrysler plants) to develop this regional approach to the skills upgrading of incumbent workers.

The companies recognized that simultaneously training pools of skilled workers drawn from several employers and sharing instructors, equipment and materials makes that training far more practical and affordable.

Training to Upgrade Even the Highest-Skilled Workers

The production methods used in the automotive industry are becoming ever more sophisticated. While the apprenticeship programs in the industry are constantly adapting to these changes, many of the most experienced workers in the industry went through their apprenticeship training decades ago, and do not have the same access to the newer skills and methods of the industry. While the industry has upgrade training available at national centers, release time for workers to attend national training often interferes with production and companies often send only one worker, hoping that he or she will return to share new knowledge with other workers. But in many cases, the more senior workers may find themselves falling behind the younger workers in specialty skills.

The companies in the partnership all faced the challenge of providing affordable, high-quality job-specific training, particularly training in new skills and technology, to workers who were already among the most highly skilled at their facilities. Doing so in a way that also allowed workers to earn academic credits towards portable, industry-recognized certificates and degrees, meant not only focusing on the immediate needs of the participating employers, but also designing the training for workers who wish to build and advance their careers overall.

The four technical skill areas addressed by the program are among the most critical in today’s auto industry. For example, there is a great demand for the newest methods in electrical trade skills. Production is reliant on more sophisticated set-up using techniques and equipment that were probably not part of the landscape when many of the plants’ skilled workers received their training years ago.

Program Partners

The program partners are:

St. Louis Workforce Investment Board (WIB)
St. Louis Community College (STLCC)
United Autoworkers International Union - Region 5
Daimler-Chrysler North and South Assembly Plants
Ford Motor St. Louis Assembly Plant
General Motors Truck Group Wentzville Assembly Plant
UAW LETC

The Grant Recipient is the St. Louis WIB and the Fiscal Agent is the St. Louis Agency on Training and Employment (SLATE). The Automotive Training Consortium Board, consisting of the labor and management training coordinators of each plant, meets regularly to review and select curriculum, schedule classes, select instructors, and provide inter-plant oversight of the entire project.

The UAW Region 5 Director conceived the joint effort in St. Louis. The UAW LETC, a national labor-management program affiliated with the UAW, assisted the Director to convene teams of union and management training coordinators from the region’s four large automotive manufacturing facilities to develop this approach to the skills upgrading of incumbent workers.

The Project Implementation Team meets at least twice a month and implements the training as directed by the consortium. The team is comprised of the UAW LETC Labor-Management Coordinator, the Project Coordinator for STLCC’s Center for Business Industry and Labor (CBIL), the Dean of the STLCC School of Engineering and the labor and management training coordinators representing the four auto plants. The team reviews the status of the program, considers changes, prepares for upcoming events and conducts on-site visits and evaluations.

The Education Provider, STLCC School of Engineering, designs and provides courses, training material and instructors. STLCC also counsels participants seeking Associates and Bachelors Degrees, helps plan their studies and, when possible, identifies credits earned through previous studies and applies them toward achievement of their degrees.

Program Activities and Methods

Training Focused on High-Skilled Workers

The program provides advanced technology training to incumbent workers who are graduates of certified four-year registered apprenticeship programs with at least seven years work experience in their trade (“Journey-people”) and to high-skill production workers enrolled in related programs leading to attainment of “skilled trade” status. The courses of study provide critical information on the newest techniques and equipment used in the automotive industry.

The program does not provide general “shop skills” or entry-level training. By specifically targeting the most highly skilled workers in the industry, the program aims to allow domestic automakers to efficiently adopt the latest technologies needed to compete successfully in world markets.

Participants are selected for training through consultation between management and labor training coordinators at the individual manufacturing plants. Criteria include: technical challenges or needs for particular skills in the plants, course schedules, and the interest, availability and skill levels of individual employees. Employees view their selection as an honor, with the company paying for their release time for course work and facilitating not only their skills upgrade, but also the opportunity to earn an associates degree, or credit toward an engineering degree.

Focus on Four Areas of Advanced Manufacturing Technology

Employees are paid at their normal hourly rate to attend classes at STLCC School of Engineering (and occasionally in-plant training at one of the four facilities). Classes are small and intensive. All are accredited courses and are focused on four areas of advanced technologies selected by the stakeholders based on the needs of the industry:

Integration of Advanced Automated Systems: Training to install, operate, maintain, troubleshoot, diagnose and repair automated systems. Electrical Skilled Trades workers and highly skilled production specialists will study Electrical Repair and Diagnostics, Diagnostic Tools and Electrical Schematics - Design & Application. (120-200 hours per employee)
Predictive Maintenance for Advanced Manufacturing Systems and Technology: Training to set-up, operate, maintain, troubleshoot, diagnose and repair advanced manufacturing systems. Electrical Skilled Trades workers and highly-skilled production specialists will study: Planning and Scheduling Techniques for Advanced Manufacturing Design and Diagnostic Tools, including infrared, vibration analysis, ultra-sound and laser equipment. (120 – 200 hours per employee)
Enhanced Mechanical Technology: Training to setup, operate, maintain, troubleshoot, diagnose and repair advanced mechanical systems. Skilled Trades workers, including Toolmakers, Pipefitters and Millwrights, will study: HVAC; Fluid Fills and Pressure Technology (radiators, brakes, power steering, gas, air conditioning, back flow and sealers); Robotics Maintenance and Repair; Metal Applications (including welding); Conveyor Systems; Hoist Operations (techniques for equipment movements) and Mechanical and Electrical Maintenance, including air logics, pneumatics and hydraulics. (200-336 hours per employee)
Advanced Electrical Technology: Training to install, program, operate, maintain, troubleshoot, diagnose and repair advanced electrical systems. Electrical Skilled Trades workers will study: AutoCad, Programmable Logic Controllers, or PLCs (including PLC-5, SLC 500, Panel View, RS Logic/ICOM/AB 6200, Device Netcode and Control); Robotics, including programming maintenance and repair; Communications and Networking, including equipment integration, barcode reading and printing, fiber optics, CAT 5, servers and advanced systems, SCC display, Ethernet networking, topology and systems. (200-336 hours per employee)

Connections to Public Workforce and Economic Development Systems

Public sector involvement was key to the creation of the Consortium and plays a central role in its regular administration and operations.

The State of Missouri Division of Workforce Development assisted UAW LETC in writing the grant application and endorsed the program.

Tom Jones, Executive Director of the St. Louis WIB and SLATE, serves on the Consortium Board* and helped found and secure grant money for the Consortium. The St. Louis WIB is the recipient of the federal grant that supports the program.

The local community college, STLCC School of Engineering also serves on the Consortium Board* and the Training Team. STLCC organizes and provides all instruction for the program, and plays a central role in the day-to-day administration and oversight of the program.

Finally, principal funding for the Consortium comes from a 2004 grant from U.S. Department of Labor’s Employment and Training Administration (DOL/ETA), through the President’s High Growth Training Initiative (HGJTI).

Program Funding Sources

The only specific government support for the program is the $1.5 million grant from the Department of Labor, which pays for instructional costs and program coordination. While the WIB and STLCC receive state and federal funds (and the four automotive companies receive some combination of state and federal funds for training) the funds were not specifically earmarked for the Consortium.

In-kind contributions of the stakeholders support significant program activity, including:
equipment, training space, release time pay for participants (provided by the employers), and STLCC’s work designing courses and counseling students. Over $2.4 million from the business partners was leveraged by the federal investment.

Barriers Overcome

Scheduling training for multiple employers must take their needs into account. While the program focuses on advanced technologies common to the automakers, the needs and resources of the participating employers do not always mesh. At any given time, there are differences in the numbers of employees participating companies need to train or are willing to “take off the line” and assign to training. Scheduling is done in unison, and all parties must agree and adapt to the schedule. Fortunately, many of the target workers, because of their seniority, are on the first shift at each of the plants, and this makes it easier for the college to plan courses.
Employer technological needs differ as well. The need to have workers trained on different technology has caused some difficulty in taking full advantage of the economies of scale provided by joint training. A relatively straightforward example involves one company’s use of control hardware manufactured by Allen Bradley and another’s use of ABB company controls for a particular production process. In this case, the relevant training group split after three days at STLCC and continued their studies in the respective factories.
Tension between job-specific training and academic credit. There are built-in tensions between training to meet the job-specific needs of the employers and training to provide employees with academic credits and a path to earn college and university degrees. The academic partner is particularly sensitive to both meeting the needs of the plants to upgrade the skills of workers to handle new equipment, and the grant requirement for academic credit. The balance between the immediate needs of the production process and the theoretical course work had to be struck.

While partners recognize that the maximum number of academic credits and the portability they bring are a great advantage to the workers, the tension between training for the immediate needs of the employer and the grant requirement for college credits and degrees remains an issue. While the tensions are not severe enough to threaten the program, they do affect the way courses are planned and presented, and even the manner in which people are selected for training.

Program Results and Returns to Stakeholders/Partners

This program marks the first time each of the four automotive plants and their local unions have planned training on an area-wide basis.

It was established in response to a serious problem facing many companies, large and small, in the service and goods-producing sectors today: How to provide affordable, high-quality job-specific training, particularly training in new skills and technology needed by already highly skilled workers?
It was also designed so participating workers could earn academic credits towards portable, industry-recognized certificates and degrees. Instead of simply meeting the immediate needs of particular employers, the training would allow workers to build and advance their careers with their current employer, or elsewhere.

The “St. Louis response” – labor, government and competing employers cooperatively providing common, tailored, accredited training to pools of skilled workers – is a ground-breaking approach that warrants careful observation.

Benefits to Employers:

Enhanced high-technology capabilities on shop floor

Barely one-half year after inception, the program is creating a cadre of valuable skilled labor for the regional automakers and the effects are already visible on the production lines. A Training Coordinator at the Ford factory reported that the program has been successful in upgrading skilled trades people to handle AutoCad. These workers can go straight to the floor with diagrams, layouts and a planned approach to an assigned task. He cited people skilled in RSLogix who can use programming skills to troubleshoot equipment, and others who have acquired the predictive maintenance skills necessary to create schedules and procedures to identify problems before they can occur.
Training that is affordable and practical

The Consortium’s multi-employer collaborative approach creates economies of scale, permitting companies to assemble groups for training that would have been cost-prohibitive for a single company. A Management Training Coordinator at Daimler-Chrysler’s North Plant reported the value of having workers participate in shared training on variable frequency drives, used for precision positioning and holding body assemblies. Before this program, he needed to wait until he had enough workers at Daimler-Chrysler alone before scheduling this training.
Innovation through cross-fertilization

Training alongside workers from other companies provides skilled workers with a depth of experience they would not otherwise have had. One of the plant training coordinators praised the fresh approaches that their people were learning as a result of exposure to workers from other shops.

Benefits to the Employees:

Autoworkers who receive accredited skills training enhance their economic security by becoming more proficient at their current jobs and by becoming more attractive to other employers. Accredited certificates in various skills and technologies and academic degrees are portable and industry-recognized – a major benefit in an increasingly mobile and knowledge-based economy.

While it is early in the program, there are some quantifiable outcomes to report:

As of the end of June 2006, 161participants had completed courses in Enhanced Electrical Technology subjects.
In addition, 35 participants have completed courses in Predictive Maintenance for Advanced Manufacturing Technology, and 17 have completed courses in Enhanced Mechanical Technology.
207 of the 213 students have earned certificates by demonstrating mastery of course competencies. Fifty-three have received two certificates, and 15 have received three or more certificates.
College credit earned to date: 19 participants earned five to 12 credits, 41 participants earned four credits; and 73 participants earned one to two credits towards an Associates degree or higher.

The educational profile of the 213 participants is as follows: 49 entered the program with no previous college credits; 98 had some college credits; 38 entered holding an Associates degree; 23 had already earned their Bachelors and five entered holding a Masters degree.

Benefits to the Union:

Stronger union presence and capabilities

The St. Louis Consortium, which was initiated by the UAW, represents a major innovative step in worker training. By launching and supporting this new initiative, the UAW has demonstrated to its membership its determination to explore new ways to keep its members and the automakers at the leading edge of technological change.

The program has also strengthened the UAW’s working relationships with regional education providers, public workforce and economic development agencies, and the “Big Three”’ management.

Members feel that the program is a good one, providing them with training options that were unavailable prior to its inception, and that reflects well on the union.

Benefits to Economic and Workforce Development Partners:

The Consortium fulfills, in major ways, the vision statement of the City of St. Louis Investment Board: “To provide ongoing opportunities and resources to develop and improve skills to be competitive and productive in today's job market.”

Auto manufacturing is a highly competitive industry and a crucial component of the regional economy. Through the Consortium, the St. Louis WIB and SLATE are able to explore innovative approaches to preserving and creating high-wage, high-skilled jobs by maintaining the competitiveness of these large regional manufacturers. Experiences gained by the WIB and SLATE through this program may serve as models for other regional (and national) initiatives.

Next Steps for the Program and/or for the Partnership

With the program in its first year, the stakeholders are focused on continuing to roll out the planned first courses and on working out bugs in the program. No expansions of the program to encompass other companies or work sites are contemplated at this time and, with the announced closure of the Ford plant in early 2006, attention is mainly fixed on maintaining current programs.

However, the December 2005 announcement by Daimler-Chrysler to make a $1 billion investment in retooling their two St. Louis area plants is a great boost to the program and the region. In the case of the South Plant, the investment will transform the facility into one of the country’s most modern and flexible plants, allowing workers to assemble as many as four different models at that site. The investment is seen as a positive reflection on the skills and productivity of the workforce.

The stakeholders are universally enthusiastic about what has been achieved by the program to date and are even more excited about the potential gains they can realize through this innovative approach.

For more information, contact Tom Burress at tburess@workingforamerica.org or info@workingforamerica.org.

* non-voting members