(International Association of Bridge, Structural, Ornamental, and Reinforcing Iron Workers)
The following is an abridged article that appeared in BNA's Construction Labor Report:
“The Labor Department should investigate and remedy the Associated Builders and Contractors' “flawed and failing” apprentice training programs, the Building and Construction Trades Department, AFL-CIO, said in an Oct. 27 letter to Labor Secretary Elaine Chao.
Included with BCTD's request for an investigation was a preliminary report on the results of its internal six-month study that it said was based largely on DOL's Office of Apprentice Training, Employer and Labor Services data on apprenticeship registrations, cancellations, and graduations.
BCTD said its analysis of the data showed marked differences in training program outcomes between union apprentice programs and programs sponsored by ABC. “The numbers speak for themselves. Something is wrong and the ABC's failing programs clearly warrant further scrutiny and investigation,” BCTD President Edward C. Sullivan said in a department press statement.
“The strength of America's construction industry depends on skilled craftsmanship. To that end, apprenticeship programs allow sponsors to employ apprentices at lower rates of pay than fully-trained workers, but only in exchange for providing substantive training. Any misuse of the apprenticeship system undermines the industry's future, and potentially defrauds construction workers,” Sullivan said in his letter to Secretary Chao.
BCTD asked the labor secretary to:
Initiate a thorough investigation of ABC's programs to determine the cause of the high cancellation rates; Establish minimum graduation rates for all apprenticeship programs, with rates established by craft; Create a monitoring process, based both on on-site inspection and on the use of the existing ATELS database of apprenticeship registrations, cancellations, and graduations; and, Terminate the registration of programs that fail to meet these new standards. A copy of the study was sent to members of Congress “to alert them to this situation and seek their support for an investigation into failing apprenticeship programs,” BCTD said in its announcement.
Ideological battles between building trade unions and ABC have been fought for decades over a range of issues including productivity, labor standards, safety, awarding of contracts to the lowest bidder regardless of labor policy, and apprentice training.
BCTD has charged that ABC training programs do not provide thorough training and do not produce adequate numbers of craft workers to meet industry needs. ABC has asserted that building trade union domination of state apprenticeship councils has thwarted attempts by nonunion contractors to get state approval for their training programs. State apprenticeship council fights on this issue have been particularly fierce in California (49 CLR 808, 8/13/03) and Washington (47 CLR 1140, 12/5/01).
About 80 percent of all construction is performed by nonunion workers, according to various industry sources. The most recent data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics show that building trade unions represented 17.2 percent of all construction workers in 2002 (49 CLR 5, 3/5/03).
DOL had no immediate comment on the study.
Study Examines 37 Programs. Of the 37 ABC apprentice programs examined in the building trades' study, which comprise about half of all ABC training programs, BCTD said, federal data showed overall that there were twice as many cancellations as graduations over the past five years.
The largest ABC program listed was in Wisconsin with 2665 apprentices registered. Of that number, 551 graduated from the program and 769 cancelled. In Indiana, of the 2251 who were registered, 291 graduated and 935 cancelled. The association's chapter in Kentucky has 542 apprentices registered but only 70 who graduated and 218 who cancelled, according to the BCTD study.
By comparison, BCTD said it found that union-sponsored apprentice programs in the 36 states that participate in the ATELS database accounted for a majority of all U.S. construction apprentices. Of the 467,980 total registrations in construction apprentice programs for the years 1989-2001, BCTD found that 71.6 percent were union and 28.4 percent were nonunion. For the period 1997-2001, BCTD said it found that union programs graduated 45,580 apprentices, about three times the number graduated from nonunion programs.
Also found in the study, according to the building trades, was relatively low enrollment of minorities and women in ABC-sponsored programs compared with programs sponsored by BCTD-affiliated unions. Enrollment of minorities in union apprentice programs, at 51.800 between 1898 and 2001, was approximately three times the number enrolled on nonunion programs, according to BCTD. For the same period enrollment of women in union apprentice programs totaled 15,298, about four times that of nonunion programs. Graduation rates of minorities and women from union apprentice programs was about three times that of union programs for the 1997-2001 period.
By craft, union programs again made a strong showing in all 10 trades examined. The all-trades graduation rate for union apprentice programs was 82.2 percent, compared with 17.8 percent for nonunion programs for the years 1989, 1990 and 1991. Nonunion programs did relatively well in the plumbing trade with a 34.4 percent graduation rate but were notably weak in graduating operating engineers (1.3 percent) structural steel workers (1.5 percent) and painters (4 percent).
According to BCTD, an academic institution that graduated less that half its students should lose its accreditation. Apprentice programs in construction should not be allowed to continue operating unless they graduate a specified minimum percentage of students in each craft, BCTD said in the study.”
