Sean McGarvey column: Don’t leave construction workers in regulatory limbo

Posted by National Alliance for Fair Contracting on

Bloomberg Law
Nov. 12, 2019

The union construction industry plays a critical role in the American economy, representing not only viable middle-class career opportunities with labor protections, benefits and economic security for American workers and their families. It also provides debt-free registered apprenticeship education for the highest-skilled trade workforce to build and maintain the country’s infrastructure.

North America’s Building Trades Unions (NABTU) bring these pieces together and are thriving. In 2018 alone, our unions gained more than 70,000 active new members, with a net gain of 375,000 active members since the last recession.

Today, large energy infrastructure projects are vital to sustainable job growth for our members and, by extension, our industry partners. These relationships help promote economic development and public safety in communities across the United States. But what happens when these opportunities are threatened by politics and outside special interests? That’s exactly the situation our nation’s critical energy infrastructure, and particularly pipelines, are in.

A prime example is the Atlantic Coast Pipeline (ACP) – a 600-mile natural gas pipeline that was bringing jobs, local tax income and, above all, economic opportunity for rural communities surrounding the project that otherwise have few job creation options.

Earlier this year, NABTU and other unions involved in the project swiftly lost around 4,500 jobs after construction on the ACP came to a halt due to a decision by the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals questioning the pipeline’s crossing of the Appalachian Trail. The court vacated a decision from the U.S. Forest Service that would allow the pipeline to safely cross hundreds of feet beneath the Appalachian Trail. This decision came after the project already passed through an extensive, four-year environmental review dating back to the Obama Administration. In fact, the ACP already granted necessary rights-of-way by the Department of Interior and the Department of Agriculture. Additionally, more than 50 pipelines are built and operating across the Appalachian Trail for decades now.

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McGarvey of North American Building Trades Unions addresses MBTC convention (MA)

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April 19, 2019 – Construction Design & Engineering

Plymouth, MA The Massachusetts Building Trades Council (MBTC) unveiled its 2019 agenda to elevate the interests of construction workers and union contractors across the Commonwealth. The three-day convention was held at HOTEL 1620.

Sean McGarvey, president of North America’s Building Trades Unions (NABTC), served as keynote. McGarvey represents millions of workers from 14 national and international unions in the U.S. and Canada. He addressed hundreds of local labor leaders and delegates who made the trip to the town for the convention. The delegates at the convention came from 74 member locals, who together represent 75,000 men and women from across the Commonwealth.

The 2019 agenda discussion included policies around Apprenticeship & Training, providing career paths for more women & people of color, workplace safety, building more affordable housing, state and federal legislative priorities, and veteran employment.

Cracking down on the state’s wage theft epidemic remained a top concern, with MassBTC president Frank Callahan calling on the state legislature to provide additional funding for investigators within the Attorney General’s office. “Funds spent on wage enforcement more than pay for themselves in the form of taxes from recovered wages, and fines and penalties paid by the violators,” said Callahan. “Expanding wage enforcement personnel isn’t just the right thing to do, it’s an economically wise investment for taxpayers too.

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NABTU STATEMENT ON ADMINISTRATION’S EFFORTS TO EXPAND APPRENTICESHIP TRAINING

Posted by National Alliance for Fair Contracting on
NABTU Statement on Administration’s Efforts to Expand Apprenticeship Training

Published: Monday, 21 May 2018 15:32
May 10, 2018

WASHINGTON, DC – North America’s Building Trades Unions (NABTU) today issued the following statement in response to the Administration’s efforts to expand apprenticeship into new industries:

“NABTU supports the Administration’s efforts to expand apprenticeship into industries that currently lack this important form of workforce training. As an industry with over 100 years of experience in establishing a world-class apprenticeship and training infrastructure, we know first-hand that high quality, registered apprenticeship programs provide reliable pathways to middle class careers and long-term economic security. The hundreds of thousands of hardworking American men and women in the building and construction industry can attest to this.

“NABTU appreciates and welcomes the continued opportunity to impart our experience and expertise on successful apprenticeship models. We will remain fully engaged in the establishment of “Industry Regulated Apprenticeship Programs” to ensure rigor and quality while mitigating any potential negative impacts to the apprenticeship brand – especially to NABTU and our contractor partners’ $1 billion collectively bargained investment in construction apprenticeship training.

“In 2017, the U.S. Department of Labor reported that there were 190,000 new apprentices nationwide – across all sectors of the economy. Of that total, NABTU is proud that one-third of these new apprentices began their training in our joint labor-management training programs in the construction industry – a longstanding partnership between our unions and our contractor partners.”

ABOUT NORTH AMERICA’S BUILDING TRADES UNIONS

North America’s Building Trades Unions is an alliance of 14 national and international unions in the building and construction industry that collectively represent over 3 million skilled craft professionals in the United States and Canada. Each year, our unions and our signatory contractor partners invest over $1 billion in private sector money to fund and operate over 1,900 apprenticeship training and education facilities across North America that produce the safest, most highly trained, and productive skilled craft workers found anywhere in the world.

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Setting the Record Straight on the Davis-Bacon Act

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Sean McGarvey, Contributor
President – North America’s Building Trades Unions (NABTU)
06/21/2017 09:01 am ET

Once upon a time, conservative columnists like George Will could have been counted upon to offer thoughtful, reasoned and, most importantly, well-researched analysis on public policy issues.

Sadly, that academic approach to public policy debate has seemingly been forsaken, and Mr. Will’s recent column lambasting the federal Davis-Bacon Act as an inherently racist law is a case in point.

Furthermore, his unconscionable choice to elevate Rep. Steve King (R-IA) as an arbiter of intelligence on this issue, when the combative and isolated Congressman has proven himself over and over to be stunningly offensive, morally repugnant, disingenuous and completely fact-free when it comes to the issue of prevailing wage laws, is disappointing.

As a matter of historical record, Sen. James J. Davis (R-PA), Rep. Robert L. Bacon (R-NY) and countless others supported the enactment of the Davis-Bacon Act precisely because it would give protection to all workers, regardless of race or ethnicity.

The overwhelming legislative intent of the Act was clear: all construction workers, including minorities, are to be protected from abusive industry practices. Mandating the payment of local, “prevailing” wages on federally-funded construction projects not only stabilized local wage rates and labor standards for local wage earners and local contractors, but also prevented migratory contracting practices which treated African-American workers as exploitable indentured servants.

But rather than taking the time to understand the actual workings and characteristics of the U.S. construction industry as it exists today, along with the original intent of the Davis-Bacon Act which has evolved over the years to occupy an important role in preventing the erosion of community wage and benefit standards for minority workers, Mr. Will embraced an indolent approach that simply mimicked the talking points provided to him by the special interest groups who are leading the charge to repeal this important law.

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NABTU Apprenticeship Programs Seen as Model for Expansion

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North America’s Building Trades Unions
14 Jun, 2017, 09:16 ET

WASHINGTON, June 14, 2017 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ — The following statement was released today in response to the Trump Administration’s announcement of planned initiatives designed to increase apprenticeship education and training across the US economy:

“We commend the Administration for elevating and promoting the power of apprenticeship programs for workers and whole industries. As the preeminent organization involved in apprenticeship readiness and apprenticeship education and training today, North America’s Building Trades Unions (NABTU), its affiliated unions, and its contractor partners appreciate efforts by the Federal Government to increase utilization of apprenticeship education.

“Among construction apprentices in the US today, 75 percent are trained in the joint apprentice training committee (JATC) system, which the Building Trades operate in cooperation with their contractor partners. We know from over 100 years of experience that robust, labor-management commitment to and investment in craft training ensures the necessary and portable skills for workers to meet specific demands of employers and entire industries, while also providing the means for individuals and communities to gain a foothold on the ladder to the middle class. Coupled with increased investments in infrastructure, apprenticeship can unleash broad, sustainable growth throughout the country while also allowing for career pathways for long underserved communities and those looking to embark on safe, highly skilled, productive and rewarding careers in the construction industry.

“In the Building Trades, these apprenticeship career pathways have been fully developed through articulation agreements and other relationships with US colleges and universities. All Building Trades apprenticeship programs, for example, have been assessed for higher education credit. In fact, NABTU considers apprenticeship training ‘the other four-year degree.’ If the Building Trades training system, which includes both apprentice-level and journeyman-level training, was a degree granting college or university, it would be the largest degree granting college or university in the United States – over 5 times larger than Arizona State University. In fact, NABTU’s training infrastructure is rivaled only by the US military in terms of the quality and depth of skills training.

“US Labor Secretary Alexander Acosta framed it correctly when he observed, ‘if you look into the Building Trades, there’s almost a billion [dollars] that’s spent every year, and that’s all private sector money. The Building Trades have put together labor management organizations that jointly invest in these apprenticeship programs because they know both on the labor side and the management side that a skilled workforce is critical to the Building Trades. And that’s how it’s worked for a number of years.’

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U.S. Economy, contractors, and American workers benefit from PLAs

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BY SEAN MCGARVEY, OPINION CONTRIBUTOR
04/24/17 04:30 PM EDT

 

Chuck Goodrich, the Chair of Associated Builders and Contractors (ABC), recently slammed Project Labor Agreements (PLAs) for not, as he proclaimed, creating “equal opportunity for the entire construction industry.”

Oh, the irony.

Because at the heart of all PLAs is the concept of “opportunity” – for workers, contractors, businesses, whole communities and, yes, taxpayers.
This theme of “opportunity” was central when nearly 3,000 members of North America’s Building Trades Unions (NABTU) just convened in our nation’s capital to discuss topline policy priorities, including – and especially – the rebuilding of America’s crumbling infrastructure and the need to ensure strong community wage and benefit standards for hard-working Americans

…

Today, NABTU and its signatory contractors invest more than $1.2 billion annually to fund and operate over 1,600 joint labor-management training centers across the U.S. which, in turn, produce the safest, most highly-skilled, and productive craft workers found anywhere in the world.

Further, NABTU leads the construction industry in innovative workforce development by providing increased opportunities to underserved communities and diversifying the construction workforce through the use of apprenticeship readiness programs and formal apprenticeship training and education.

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