Project Labor Agreements Work for Workers and Communities
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For more than 70 years, project labor agreements (PLAs) benefited communities, employers and workers by ensuring fair wages and benefits and on-time completion of local, state and federal construction projects. PLAs, also known as Community Workforce Agreements, generally set wages and establish work rules and methods of settling grievances on large multi-contractor construction projects
But in one of his first acts as president, George W. Bush issued an executive order in 2001 banning the use of PLAs on federal projects.
This past February, President Barack Obama reversed the Bush order and restored the use of PLAs. His action sent anti-worker construction groups and companies into a tizzy, with the latest battle centering on a $30 million Job Corps Center in Manchester, N.H.
Helmets to Hardhats Launches ‘Good to Go’ Site for Returning Troops
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Making the transition from military life to a civilian life is not easy. Many veterans and their families are unprepared when that day comes. Now Helmets to Hardhats, a nonprofit program of the AFL-CIO’s Building and Construction Trades Department (BCTD), has launched a new website to help veterans better prepare for re-entry into civilian life.
Good to Go (G2G) provides service members with customizable checklists that cover everything from employment and housing to setting goals for the future.
Says Darrell Roberts, executive director of Helmets to Hardhats:
The best welcome home for a returning service member is a seamless transition into a quality civilian career.
AFL-CIO Building and Construction Trades Partners with American Indian Councils
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.
Economy Must Be Restructured to Rebuild the Middle Class
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The corporate agenda that has shaped our economic policy for three decades has nearly destroyed the country. The legacy of the Bush administration is one of lost jobs, unaffordable health care, bankrupt state and local governments and almost nonexistent retirement security.
The new president and Congress, who were elected in great part through the work of union members, have taken some important steps to jump start the economy. The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act has saved or created 1.2 million jobs so far.
The AFL-CIO Convention today examined how to continue turning around America and rebuild the economy. The delegates approved resolutions on a national strategy for moving forward our economic recovery and creating and sustaining good green jobs.
U.S. Army Reserve and National Guard Join Helmets to Hardhats Program
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The U.S. Army Reserve and the National Guard have joined the Helmets to Hardhats program, founded in 2003 by AFL-CIO Building and Construction Trades Department (BCTD) unions, together with employers with union workforces. The Army Reserve and National Guard now join the current partners of the Helmets to Hardhats program: the Army, Air Force, Navy, Marines and Coast Guard.
Helmets to Hardhats has helped more than 5,000 military vets find new careers as electricians, plumbers, roofers and other skilled trades. BCTD President Mark Ayers told Workers Independent News (WIN) that the new agreement presents
an extraordinary opportunities for all the military folks. And it’s an opportunity for us because these are the kind of people that we are seeking. They’re the best of the best in America as far as we’re concerned.
Helmets to Hardhats helps match vets and soon-to-be vets with apprenticeship and training programs offered by the BCTD’s 15 unions. Veterans can use their G.I. Bill education benefits as they complete the certified apprentice programs. Darrel Roberts, executive director of Helmets to Hardhats, says the program
is unique in that it was created with the singular intent of helping National Guard, Reservists and transitioning active-duty military members connect to career opportunities in the construction industry, one of the last bastions of solid middle-class wages for working Americans. Helmets to Hardhats recognizes this and is committed to placing veterans in careers that provide family-supporting wages, good benefits and a decent chance at realizing the American dream.
Ayers on Green Jobs: An Opportunity to Restore American Dream
Investing in our national physical infrastructure and moving to a greener economy present tremendous opportunities for the government and business, union and community groups to develop a new economic strategy that could restore the American Dream to millions of workers, the president of the AFL-CIO Building and Construction Trades Department (BCTD) said.
With as many as 100 million people living in families that earn less in real terms than their parents did at the same age, the American Dream is in trouble, BCTD President Mark Ayers told the America’s Future Now conference earlier this week.
If the situation persists where the vast majority of economic gains go to those at the very top and where most people are removed from upward mobility, then we are at risk of destabilizing our economic and social structures.
So, it is clear that this is a watershed moment in American history.
Project Labor Agreements Benefit Communities, Contractors and Workers
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A new study finds that project labor agreements (PLAs) “make sense for public works projects” and debunks attacks by anti-union groups and contractors on such agreements, which set wages, benefits and working conditions on large multicontractor and multi-union public construction projects.
The study by the Cornell University’s School of Industrial and Labor Relations, “Project Labor Agreements in New York State: In the Public Interest,” details what PLAs do, how they have been used and the benefits they offer—benefits that extend to workforce and economic development.
PLAs have been demonstrated to be a very useful construction management tool for cost savings, for on-time, on-budget, and quality construction. PLAs make sense for public works projects because they promote a planned approach to labor relations, allow contractors to more accurately predict labor costs and schedule production timetables, reduce the risks of shoddy work and costly disruptions, and encourage greater efficiency and productivity.
Biden: ‘We Can’t Achieve a Middle Class Without a Strong Labor Movement’
Unions and their members will be a “gigantic part of the solution” to rebuilding the middle class, Vice President Joe Biden told the 3,000 delegates to the AFL-CIO Building and Construction Trades Department’s (BCTD) legislative conference.
Biden, speaking via videotape yesterday, told representatives of the 13 BCTD unions:
Welcome back to the table, it’s about time after eight years….We now have people on the Hill, we now have people in the White House who care a lot about you and respect you….For too many years we had a leadership in this country that dealt the middle class out of the American dream. We’re going to change that. We’re going to deal the middle class back in and you’re a big, big reason why….We can’t achieve a strong middle class without a strong labor movement. In this administration we know you are not the problem. You are a gigantic part of the solution.
Pelosi: Congress Committed to Passing Employee Free Choice
Congress is “committed to passing the Employee Free Choice Act” and President Obama is “ready to sign it into law,” House Speaker Nancy Pelosi today told more than 3,000 union members and leaders from 13 unions at the AFL-CIO Building and Construction Trades Department (BCTD) in Washington, D.C.
According to The Hill blog, Pelosi told delegates to the BCTD’s 2009 Legislative Conference:
Our work in Congress is based on two truths: America’s economy is only as strong as America’s middle class; America’s middle class is only as strong as America’s unions.
Earth Day 2009: Green Jobs Can Be Good Jobs
On Earth Day 2009, there is a growing recognition that green jobs will play a key role in fighting global warming, creating energy self-sufficiency, helping the nation recover from the current recession and moving workers into stable middle-class jobs.
During a House Committee on Energy and Commerce hearing this morning, David Foster, executive director of the Blue Green Alliance, a partnership of four unions and two environmental organizations, said in this economic crisis, creating jobs is a priority, and by passing climate change legislation this year, we can start putting America’s workers back to work building the clean energy economy.
To protect the environment and increase our energy independence, climate change legislation must focus on creating and retaining good, family-sustaining green jobs across the United States.
