AFL-CIO Building and Construction Trades Partners with American Indian Councils

by Mike Hall, Sep 23, 2009

American Indians have new opportunities to learn the skills needed for long-term careers in the construction industry with a new training partnership announced today by labor and American Indian leaders.

The AFL-CIO Building and Construction Trades Department (BCTD) and a coalition of Native American Indian Tribal Councils have created the Native Construction Careers Institute (NCCI). Mark Ayers, BCTD president and  NCCI co-chairman, says the BCTD’s unions are

immensely proud to be a part of the NCCI and to work with tribal leaders to provide the much-needed training and expertise that will enable thousands of young Native Americans to secure careers as skilled craft professionals. We are confident that this project will foster a deeper level of understanding, respect and admiration among and between the organizations and people involved in this important endeavor.

The NCCI’s other co-chair, Conrad Edwards, is a member of the Colville Tribe and president of the Council for Tribal Employment Rights (CTER). That group represents the 300 tribes and Alaska Native Villages that have established Tribal Employment Rights offices. He says the unions will bring

training onto the reservations, recognize tribal sovereignty and accept any training graduate who wants to become a union apprentice. Without question, they provide the world’s best skilled craft training, and they are now bringing that expertise to us.

BCTD’s Bob Krul says the NCCI grew out of a successful three-year pilot program by the Laborers (LIUNA) and CTER in which 95 percent of participants completed training. He says Building and Construction Trades Councils will work with the Tribal Employment Rights offices to help design and operate training programs on the reservations, where unemployment can run as high as 70 percent. The skills and safety and health training will include work on projects on or near the reservations.

Says Edwards:

We have worked successfully with many local construction unions on a number of reservations, but to have all the parent unions giving us the extra push to help get our people out of poverty and participating in building projects on their own reservations is almost overwhelming.

The NCCI Board of Advisors includes the president of the 12 BCTD unions that have signed the NCCI charter and 12 tribal leaders, including the chairs of the Shoshone Paiute Tribe (Idaho and Nevada), the Crow Nation (Montana), the Spirit Lake Sioux Tribe (North Dakota) and the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe (South Dakota).

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