Posts tagged apprenticeship
More Cannabis Workers Push For Unionization To Break Industry Barriers
November 29, 2022 // With cannabis workers in their ranks that range from processors, budtenders, chefs, and lab workers to cultivators and delivery personnel, the UFCW International sees their "Cannabis Organizing" campaign as a multi-pronged effort to increase the power of workers' voices, break the stigma around cannabis that exists in communities of color, increase the number of minority cannabis dispensary license holders and level the equity playing field in a rapidly growing industry.
Foxx Op-Ed: For apprenticeship programs to thrive—get employers back to the table
November 21, 2022 // With more than 10 million unfilled jobs in the U.S. and more than six million unemployed individuals, it’s obvious that our current systems need a lot of work. To make matters worse, an enormous skills gap is hampering our country’s economic growth, and America’s federal workforce development systems are doing little to address the problem effectively. These systems are not meeting the needs of workers because of Democrats’ misguided approach towards apprenticeships. Workforce development programs, including apprenticeships, must have employer input. Yet at every turn, Democrats are working to limit the voices of job creators and amplify those of Big Labor.
Biden touts union-backed apprenticeships as he dissolves Trump-era apprentice program
November 8, 2022 // "President Biden and Vice President Harris recognized that IRAPs were a threat to union workers," the Laborers' International Union of North America posted on its website. President Biden on Wednesday touted an expansion of apprenticeship programs that are often run by his union allies, even as he prepares to dissolve a Trump-era apprentice program that unions have openly declared as a threat. Biden delivered a speech at the White House on how his legislative victories expanded apprenticeship programs through his administration’s "Talent Pipeline Challenge." That initiative aims to "support equitable workforce development" in three employment sectors: broadband, construction and electrification, which are predominately unionized fields.
Will offshore wind bring “good-paying, union jobs”? Texas workers aren’t so sure
October 25, 2022 // The Biden administration is gearing up to turn the Gulf of Mexico, long a hub for offshore oil and gas drilling, into a new city of skyscraping offshore wind turbines. Opening up the Gulf to wind development is part of President Joe Biden's goal to employ "tens of thousands of workers" to establish 30 gigawatts of offshore wind by 2030. But in Texas, workers are worried that the new industry will continue the low-wage, unsafe, exploitative conditions that pervade the construction and offshore oil industries there. For the past year, a coalition of Texas labor unions, along with their allies in Congress and in the environmental movement, have been lobbying the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, or BOEM, to make sure that doesn't happen.
Department of Labor spikes Trump apprenticeship program detested by unions
October 14, 2022 // Apprenticeship programs allow workers to receive training at their place of employment to develop necessary skills and achieve higher wages. Prior to IRAP, this was all done at the federal level through the DOL Registered Apprenticeship Program, which has nearly 600,000 active apprentices and which continues to exist. The majority of workers who participate in this federal apprenticeship program do so through joint labor management, which is a partnership between employers and labor unions. This is in part due to the prevalence of apprenticeship programs in construction-related industries, which have high rates of unionization. These industries are also largely white and male, which goes against the Biden administration's policy of promoting equity through federal action.
Congress thwarted Biden on unions. Or did it?
June 24, 2022 // “One of the biggest problems with this DOL is its obvious union favoritism,” the top Republican on the House Education and Labor Committee, Virginia Foxx (R-N.C.), said at a hearing this month. “This department has bowed low enough before union bosses to taste dirt. How many times has the Biden administration’s DOL kowtowed before union bosses instead of standing up for workers?” From installing former union official Marty Walsh as Labor secretary, to outfitting the National Labor Relations Board with union alums, to issuing a spate of union-friendly executive orders, the White House has taken significant steps toward expanding union membership despite the challenges presented by a narrowly divided Congress. Steve Rosenthal, Rep. Donald Norcross, Shane Larson, Communication Workers of America, Kate Bronfenbrenner, Doug Parker, Alice Stock, Lauren McFerran, Bobby Scott, Nick Niedzwiadek