"No purpose of God's can be thwarted"  Job 42:2








Workforce Dev.








 
Our Challenges:

A need for skilled labor: This is a national crisis - the U. S. Bureau of Labor Statistics estimates that an additional one million construction workers will be needed nationally by 2012. Without an investment in job training and placement for local workers now, our state could lose jobs – and the income and economic development they generate -- to out-of-state workers.

Rising poverty and unemployment: 14% of children in Wisconsin live in poverty. According to Kids Count, a study by the Annie E. Casey Foundation, 30% of Wisconsin children are living in families where no parent has full-time, year round employment. The solution to poverty is a living wage job.

Two Critical Ways To Overcome Them:
          #1: Build our skilled workforce by devoting federal highway funds to apprenticeship and job training programs.

Wisconsin will receive between $535 and $622 million per year in federal highway and transportation funds between 2004 - 2009.

Under federal law, up to ½ of 1% of those funds -- $2.68 million and $3.11 million per year -- can be devoted to pre-apprenticeship, apprenticeship and job training programs to ensure that our residents have the skills to compete for local jobs.

Dedicating these funds to training would enable congregations and community groups to identify and recruit potential workers from disadvantaged communities, teach essential life skills, and/or provide valuable job training.

Training low and unskilled workers helps to ensure that they are prepared to succeed, creates a path to long-term, living wage employment that helps families move out of poverty.

#2: Combat unemployment by establishing workforce development targets on public works projects.

When Congress passed the $286 billion highway bill (SAFETEA-LU - Safe, Accountable, Flexible, Efficient Transportation Equity Act: A Legacy for Users, Pub. Law 109-59), it recognized that public works projects, like highways and mass transit, could provide much-needed employment for low income residents, including young people, in the areas where projects are planned.

Accordingly, Congress explicitly encouraged state and local governments to work with community-based institutions and organizations "to help ensure local participation in the building of transportation projects." §1920(b).

“(We) strongly encourage(s) the States to take advantage of the continuing option for States to draw down or [sic] up to 1/2 of 1% of funds apportioned to them for the Surface Transportation Program (STP) under 23 USC §104(b)(3) for the training and services that support and enhance the effectiveness of on-the-job training programs.”

Implementation Guidance SAFETEA-LU Section 1920

Civil Rights Office
US Dept of Transportation
December 22, 2005

 

States and cities around the country have used this authority to adopt local hiring goals that bring more  low-income residents, women and minorities into the construction industry.  For example:

o        In California, on a $2.4 billion rapid rail project, the Alameda Corridor Jobs Coalition won an agreement that guaranteed 1,000 job-training slots for low-income people and hired low-income residents for 30% of the work hours. 

o        In Missouri, on a $500 million dollar highway project, Metropolitan Congregations United won an agreement with the Missouri Department of Transportation that reserved 30% of all apprentice slots for low-income people, women and minorities and will invest ½ of 1% of the project budget ($2.5 million) in incentives, support services and training.

For more information:

Tom Boswell, Community Organizer
Justice Overcoming Borders (JOB)
608- 882-0758 or 608- 201- 5326