Repost: $100m US purse for apprentice programs: Labor Secretary cites Boston unit as a model

Recently the US Secretary of Labor Thomas Perez toured the Local 17 Sheet Metal Worker’s headquarters and “announced a $100 million program of competitive grants to help fund apprentice programs like Boston’s Building Pathways organization”. Thomas Perez praised the success of the Boston’s Building Pathways which has helped minorities and women enter trades that have been previously closed off to them. Perez believes that the success that Boston achieved can be done throughout the country leading to good jobs for those looking for them.

Visit http://www.dotnews.com/2014/100m-us-purse-apprentice-programs-labor-secretary-cites-boston-unit-mo to read the full article.

 

Labor secretary talks wages in Boston

Perez also wanted to raise support for the Obama administration’s proposals of increasing the national minimum wage and granting workers paid sick leave. He says that Massachusetts has “been a model for the rest of the nation” in which voters recently passed a referendum that requires businesses with 11 or more employees to earn up to 40 hours of paid sick time a year. Perez praised the apprenticeship model and the success found in Boston, he says that the model can be used for numerous job sectors.

Visit http://www.bostonglobe.com/business/2014/11/17/labor-secretary-talks-wages-and-apprenticeships-boston/cZuGY4n16k2KQvcQB5RMgM/story.html to read the full article.

Visit http://www.dol.gov/_sec/newsletter/2014/20141120-2.htm#Boston to read the Department of Labor Newsletter.

Repost: Borger Earthworks Closes the Gender Gap in the Construction Industry

President Bill Borger Jr. of the Borger Group of Companies knows that to form the best construction crew you need to pull from 100% of the labor pool. "Borger's Earthworks division defies the norm and 50% of their workforce is women. In fact, one entire crew is female” (PR Newswire 2014). Clients and stakeholders have praised the team’s performance. The Borger Group adopted the Respect in the WorkplaceTM to make sure that women felt empowered and that there was a healthy workplace for all. This lead to the success of the company

Visit http://www.sys-con.com/node/3233766 to read the full article.​

Repost: UPS Hits the Brakes on Pregnancy Discrimination

There is much for women working at UPS to celebrate in the upcoming new year. The Supreme Court had agreed to hear a suit against UPS about the discrimination that pregnancy employees faced. UPS relented and "In a brief to the Supreme Court, UPS has announced that 'On a going-forward basis, UPS has voluntarily decided to provide additional accommodations for pregnancy-related physical limitations.’” The policy will go into effect on January 1,2015.

For more information visit: http://tdu.org/news/ups-hits-brakes-pregnancy-discrimination

Repost: Cory Booker, Tim Scott team up for the first time

Great article in The Washington Post about bi-partisan support for registered apprenticeship programs! Here's a preview:

"On Wednesday Booker and Scott teamed up to unveil their first significant piece of legislation designed to help create hundreds of thousands of paid apprenticeships in highly skilled trades, including construction, manufacturing, health care, energy and telecommunications. The hope is that the program will help create jobs for younger Americans, especially minorities struggling to find work. 

Booker and Scott’s LEAP Act (Leveraging and Energizing America’s Apprenticeship Programs) would provide tax credits to employers who offer apprenticeships to younger job applicants. Companies that offer apprenticeships to people under age 25 would receive a $1,500 tax credit and a $1,000 credit for apprentices above age 25."

Check out the whole article, written by Ed O'Keefe, at http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/post-politics/wp/2014/04/09/cory-booker-tim-scott-team-up-for-the-first-time/.

Repost: An iron worker from the Dudley Square project shares her thoughts on Roxbury and rebuilding the historic square

An iron worker from the Dudley Square project shares her thoughts on Roxbury and rebuilding the historic square.
Music: Derek Britain "Second Class Citizen" Creative Commons Attribution/Non-Commercial

View I am Not Afraid of Heights from City of Boston on Vimeo.

Yesterday Cleveland Signed Community Benefits Agreement

Community benefits agreement aims to keep construction work local

By JAY MILLER
1:46 pm, September 16, 2013

A group of Cleveland’s leading institutions, some of the city’s largest contractors and the building trades unions today formally endorsed an agreement designed to provide what Cleveland Mayor Frank Jackson described as “a self-help approach to economic development.”

Called a community benefits agreement, or CBA, the memorandum — signed by 10 organizations that expect to spend billions of dollars on construction projects in the next several years — sets standards designed to encourage the use of local labor and local contracting firms, in particular minority and female workers and firms.

It also would expand apprenticeship and pre-apprenticeship programs and study best practices for improving diversity and inclusion in the construction industry, which Mayor Jackson said is critical for training Cleveland residents for jobs in the building trades.

“Never before have you seen the private sector step forward and voluntarily say they would participate in a program that would result in community benefits,” Mayor Jackson told Crain’s Cleveland Business. “We need to keep those dollars local and spend them in a way that creates jobs and support businesses. Not only will this construction activity support local construction firms, but they have to buy their goods and materials” locally as well.

University Hospitals Health System, in its Vision 2010 construction program, laid the foundation for this community benefits agreement when it made a concerted effort to ensure that as much as possible of the $1.2 billion it spent on construction between 2005 and 2010 benefited local businesses and workers.

“This is really about culture change,” said Steven Standley, chief administrative officer of UH, who was among the signers of the CBA this morning in the Red Room at Cleveland City Hall. Mr. Standley said the hospital system believes it needs to play a role in developing the next generation of local construction workers, construction firms and even health care workers.

“It’s really about pipeline,” he said. “Everybody is starting to figure out that we don’t have the next generation of people ready to take over and everyone is starting to realize” they must help support that next generation locally.

In addition to UH, endorsers of the seven-page CBA memorandum of understanding were William Peacock, chief of operations for The Cleveland Clinic Foundation; Scott Miller, vice president of Dominion East Ohio; Fred Geis, president of Geis Cos.; Michael Heise, president of The Medical Center Co.; Julius Ciaccia Jr., executive director of the Northeast Ohio Regional Sewer District; Stephen Campbell, vice president of campus planning and facilities management at Case Western Reserve University; and Eric Gordon, CEO of the Cleveland Municipal School District.

The CBA has been in the works for several years and the memorandum of understanding that was endorsed last February by the city of Cleveland, the Greater Cleveland Partnership, the Construction Employers Association, the Hispanic Roundtable, Hard Hatted Women, the Urban League of Greater Cleveland, Cuyahoga Community College, and the Cleveland Building and Construction Trades Council.

To view the original article, visit http://www.crainscleveland.com/.