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About Northwest labor press. (Portland , Ore.) 1987-current | View Entire Issue (Feb. 2, 2007)
...Schools focus on college prep, not blue-collar careers • Helping to create industry consor- tiums (clusters of businesses in the same overall market that require work- ers with similar skills) that could fore- cast their collective workforce needs instead of waiting and then raiding each other’s workers; • Identifying high-skill, high-de- mand occupations, and then giving training grants to individuals willing to work in those jobs, with those currently on public assistance getting priority; • Making it easier to get information about the necessary pathways to high- (From Page 1) tem too often overlooks union appren- ticeship programs, and invests in re- dundant programs at community col- leges. And sometimes, the shortage is quite plainly due to a lack of employer commitment to train the workers they’ll later need. At some local electric utilities, heavy overtime — in some cases over 600 hours a year — is an early symp- tom of a labor shortage among jour- neyman linemen. Travis Eri, business manager of IBEW Local 125, says over 40 percent of UA Local 290 got no response to its his membership invitation to Wilsonville, Tigard-Tualatin and — mostly utility workers — will be Sherwood school districts offering them the eligible to retire in use of their state-of-the-art training center the next five years. to help students understand how the math It takes three and a and science and grammar they study could half years of ap- prenticeship to be- help them win entry into careers in the pipe come a journey- trades. man lineman, but journeymen aver- age $33 an hour, so for many apprentice openings, over wage careers; and a hundred people apply. • Better linking K-12 education to In the past, utilities didn’t skimp on workforce needs. training, but Eri thinks this has changed That last idea is something unions at large investor-owned utilities, where have been asking for for years. understaffing may be a strategy to “There is a lack of vocational edu- boost short-term profits. The worst of- cation in high schools today,” Shiprack fender is currently PacifiCorp, which said. “I had shop class in grade school, cut its apprentice training program af- and four years of it in Marshall [High ter it was bought by Warren Buffett’s School].” Mid-American Energy Holdings Com- “There was a real tie between blue- pany. Previously-hired apprentices will collar jobs and education when I was in continue in their training, but Pacifi- school,” Chamberlain, a firefighter, Corp said it will hire no new appren- adds. “Now, we know that there’s an tices in 2007. attitude in our K-12 system that pushes But Witt said he hears from many kids toward college, whether they end good employers who are planning for up there or not.” the future and are willing to commit And the problem is, union officials their own resources, and still want gov- say, an exclusive focus on college prep ernment to help, at least by maximiz- doesn’t well serve the three-quarters of ing the use of resources already being high school graduates who don’t go on spent. to college. Witt expects his committee will Witt calls it the lost decade: “Union support a set of ideas being proposed apprentice programs say the average by the governor. age of their applicants is late 20s. Those include: These young people banged around in • Making an Oregon high school low-skilled jobs for 10 years before diploma a thing of value to employers, finding their way to a career track.” by ensuring that it means competence Last October, one local union made in core skills like reading, math and its own attempt to expose young peo- science, as well as problem solving, ple to the skilled trades “pipeline.” communication ability and teamwork; Tualatin-based Plumbers and Steamfitters Local 290, foreseeing ris- ing demand for their trade as new en- ergy facilities break ground in coming years, wrote to the superintendents of the Wilsonville, Tigard-Tualatin and Sherwood school districts and offered them the use of their multimillion-dol- lar state-of-the-art training center, to help students understand how the math and science and grammar they study could help them win entry into lucra- tive and worthwhile careers. There would be no charge to the district, and the union would even pay for the “con- sumables” — acetylene oxygen, etc. “Our journeymen make over $30 an hour on the check, and have a total wage and benefit package of $50 an hour,” said Local 290 Business Man- ager John Endicott. “That’s not a bad living. And our apprenticeship program means they earn while they learn.” Local 290 got no response to its in- vitation. The union followed up with letters to the board members of the dis- tricts, with the same offer. Still no re- sponse. The union is pretty steamed about the brush-off, but union officials are trying to stay positive and plan to attend board meetings in the near fu- ture to continue the outreach. “Skilled labor has sort of fallen out of fashion in school,” said Norm Eder, executive director of Manufacturing 21, a workforce training advocacy group made up of manufacturers, com- munity colleges and the Oregon AFL- CIO. “Teachers and high school coun- selors are themselves doing a different BOB BAUGH kind of labor, and don’t necessarily tell students that there are fabulous careers in the skilled trades.” Eder’s group hopes to change that, and last year kicked off a pilot project in Clackamas County called “Manu- facturing Road Trip.” Teachers and counselors were given tours of local manufacturing operations, and heard from human resources people about the growing skills shortage. Eder acknowledges there’s another side to the culture shift: Manufacturing has a serious image problem. Young people don’t think manufacturing is a stable and rewarding career direction, and mass layoffs like the 800 an- nounced by Freightliner Jan. 26 only add to the perception it’s a doomed, shrinking sector. That’s one of the themes Witt heard from Bob Baugh, head of the national AFL-CIO’s Industrial Union Council, who came to testify at a Jan. 19 hearing of Witt’s Workforce Committee. “Neoconservative economists want to tell you, ‘Don’t worry about job loss, don’t worry about what’s happening in manufacturing,’ ” said Baugh, a former secretary-treasurer of the Oregon AFL- CIO. “It’s really the fault of the worker. They just need to get smarter. They just need more training and education.’” “I support training and education,” Baugh continued. “I want our work- force to have the greatest skills in the world. But it’s like giving your kid swimming lessons, getting their swim- suit on and saying ‘Now go jump in the pool,’ but nobody’s paying attention to see that the drains are unplugged and the water’s going down.” Oregon may be an exception, Eder says, with a stronger, more competitive manufacturing sector than many states. But either way, if there’s one thing all sides can agree on, it’s that relentless hype about the “information economy” has drowned out voices arguing for the continued importance of building and making things. Makers and builders hope to regain their voice this legislative session, and may work with organized labor to pro- duce the needed cultural shift. “There’s this impression that if it’s not college track, it’s second class,” Witt said. “But we need to have the highest level of skills for tradespeople as well.” Gradine Storms Real Estate Broker Member of CWA Local 7901 E-Mail: gstorms@equitygroup.com www.equitygroup.com/gstorms FEBRUARY 2, 2007 7886 SE 13th Ave. Portland, Oregon 97202 Direct: 503-495-4932 Branch: 503-233-8883 Each Office Independently Owned and Operated NORTHWEST LABOR PRESS PAGE 7
