Construction Apprenticeship Training in Pennsylvania (PA)

Posted by National Alliance for Fair Contracting on
Publication Date: February 22, 2019
Executive Summary 
After a deep industry decline in and after the Great Recession, the Pennsylvania construction industry has in the last several years again faced a shortage of skilled craft workers. This shortage could grow more severe in the years ahead due to an aging construction workforce, leading to high rates of retirement. Since the early 1990s, the share of the Pennsylvania construction industry workers aged 40 and over has risen from less than a third to nearly half.
In the context of emerging skills shortages, this report evaluates the role of apprenticeship training in meeting Pennsylvania’s need for skilled construction workers, relying primarily on official government data. The report highlights the distinction between apprenticeship programs governed by joint committees of labor and management, hereafter referred to as joint or union programs, and programs governed unilaterally by individual employers or employer associations (non-union programs).
  • Union programs account for nearly six out of every seven construction apprentices in Pennsylvania. Over the 2000 to 2016 period, 85 percent of construction apprentices in Pennsylvania participated in joint labor management programs and 15 percent in non-union, management-only, programs.
  • Union programs account for nine out of every 10 Pennsylvania construction apprentices who are not white and male. Union programs had 4,883 Non-White and Hispanic male construction apprentices from 2000 to 2016 and non-union ones had 568. Over this same period, 1,083 female apprentices participated in union programs, and 83 females participated in non-union programs.
  • Union apprenticeship programs graduate more than six veterans for every one veteran graduated by nonunion programs. Nearly 3,000 (2,749) veterans have participated in union construction apprenticeship programs in Pennsylvania since 2000, compared to 516 veterans who participated in non-union ones.
  • Graduation rates are higher in union apprenticeship programs, including for minorities, women, and veterans. Of those enrolled in union apprenticeship programs from 2000 to 2012, 56% had completed their apprenticeship by 2016, compared to a completion rate of 44% for non-union programs. For minority male and female apprentices, and for veterans, graduation rates were about 25% higher for union apprenticeship programs than non-union.
  • Wage rates at entry and especially at completion are higher in union apprenticeship programs. Starting wages for union apprentices are 36% higher than for non-union apprentices. Upon completion (or “exit”), the union apprentice pay premium compared to non-union apprentices climbs to 60%.
  • Higher shares of blue-collar union trades in Pennsylvania have a two- or four-year college degree than nonunion trades and the share of blue-collar union trades with a college degree has risen to one in four. The share of unionized blue-collar trades that have a two-year or four-year college degree has more than doubled since the early 1990s, to just over 25%. The share of non-union trades that have a college degree has also risen but remains 10 percentage points below the union share.

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(PDF Copy of Report)

Veterans can trade helmets for hardhats [Opinion]

Posted by National Alliance for Fair Contracting on

Helmets to Hardhats is a national nonprofit that empowers our nation’s service members to succeed once they choose to return to civilian life by connecting them to sustainable apprenticeship training programs and career opportunities in the building and construction industry.

By Leonard Aguilar | Nov. 11, 2018

Our veterans are tough – they can do anything they put their minds to. They are our nation’s bravest men and women – individuals who have dedicated their lives to service.

With that said, transitioning from military to civilian life is an understandably challenging time for many veterans. There are many unknowns: How will this work? What comes next?

In my role as executive director and secretary-treasurer of the Texas State Building and Construction Trades Council, I know what it takes to thrive in the construction industry. I have also seen firsthand how the skills and qualities developed in the military can prove invaluable on a jobsite – from diligence and resilience, to drive and integrity.

As Veterans Day is upon us, I would like to highlight one organization that gets it right: Helmets to Hardhats.

Helmets to Hardhats is a national nonprofit that empowers our nation’s service members to succeed once they choose to return to civilian life by connecting them to sustainable apprenticeship training programs and career opportunities in the building and construction industry.

Yes, returning home can be difficult. However, our focus should shift to making veterans’ homecomings less burdensome – both on themselves and on their families. If veterans are made aware of the opportunities that await them, returning home can become less stressful and more exciting.

The apprenticeship training of North America’s Building Trades Unions (NABTU) is a natural fit for transitioning service members.

When Helmets to Hardhats connects the armed forces community with this training, it can be a perfect match – evidenced by the fact that most individuals who experience successful transitions begin with little to no experience in their chosen field.

Even better, the apprenticeship programs are privately-funded – provided by the trade organizations and their contractors at no cost to American taxpayers.

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Veterans speak out about prevailing wages in Lansing

Posted by National Alliance for Fair Contracting on

By News 10
Posted: Tue 12:17 PM, Feb 27, 2018
Updated: Tue 7:26 PM, Feb 27, 2018

LANSING, Mich. (WILX) – A group of Veterans gathered in Lansing Tuesday to speak out about and support the prevailing wage vote.

Veterans from three skilled trade unions talked at a press conference at the Michigan Senate building on Tuesday morning.

Their message, “a vote against prevailing wage is a vote against high-quality jobs that allow veterans to support themselves and their families.”

…

“Veterans bring with them the experience, grit and sense of unity necessary to succeed in the skilled trades,” said Brad Reed, a business representative for the Michigan Council of Carpenters and Millwrights (MRCC) and Army veteran. “By protecting the prevailing wage, these high-skill, high-demand jobs are more available and accessible to our nation’s heroes.”

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For military vets, unions offer camaraderie, careers and help adapting to civilian life

Posted by National Alliance for Fair Contracting on

JANUARY 9, 2018
BY B. DAVID ZARLEY

Laura Asher may be the tallest thing for miles.

Asher had climbed multiple ladders, lightly struck her helmeted head on a protruding hose, maneuvered through a small, greased aperture, and taken a seat at the controls of a luffing tower crane, roughly 80 feet above Illinois. She was far enough south that the skyscrapers of Chicago had given way to flat former prairie which seems to run, flush and forever.

The crane and its canary compatriots tower above the landscape, rivaled only by the wind turbine trainer and the stacks of shipping containers across a large pond from the William E. Dugan Training Center, where the Local 150 of the International Union of Operating Engineers trains apprentices and journeymen.

…

Asher’s father was an operating engineer, a member of the union, and he suggested she look into joining. With help from Helmets to Hardhats, a nonprofit that connects veterans with job training in the construction sector, Asher put in her application and was accepted to Local 150’s training program. The application cost $25 in processing fees and the training is free.

Millions of post-9/11 veterans like Asher-including those who served in Afghanistan, Iraq, against ISIS, and in the myriad other actions which constitute the War on Terror-have come home and transitioned from military to civilian life. While women made up a mere 4 percent of the veterans from the World War II, Korean War and Vietnam eras, the veterans from the second Gulf War and onward are 18 percent female, according to a Bureau of Labor Statistics report released in March 2017. Both male and female veterans’ unemployment rates hover around the 5 percent mark.

The study also found that in 2016, Gulf War-era II veterans, as they’re called, were unemployed at a rate similar to their non-veteran peers with one exception: men aged 25-35, whose unemployment rate was 6.6 percent compared to 4.9 percent for non-veterans. Veterans were also far more likely to work in the public sector than non-veterans, especially for the federal government.

This massive pool of workers is especially appealing to the skilled labor unions. Currently, Asher can be seen on televisions around the region in a commercial enticing veterans to train with the Local 150. Helmets to Hardhats, the trade union-sponsored nonprofit that connects veterans and soon-to-be veterans with job programs in the construction sector, was borne out of unions’ recruitment efforts.

“The veterans are coming from all over the nation and coming home,” said Robert Schwartz, senior program manager of Helmets to Hardhats. “So how do we reach out to them and let them know about these opportunities that we have for them for their next career?”

For the unions, veterans bring valuable benefits as a labor pool, both tangible and intangible.

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Leroy Miller: Repealing prevailing wage will hurt vets (WI)

Posted by National Alliance for Fair Contracting on

Leroy Miller
7/19/17

I love my country. I’ve fought for my country. My brothers and sisters have died for this country. I want to continue to serve my country.

I am a heavy-equipment operator, happily and dutifully building new infrastructure for Wisconsin communities.

My concern is, and has been, what state legislators are proposing in a full repeal of the state’s longstanding prevailing wage law. This is the law that protects Wisconsin workers from low-wage-paying, out-of-state contractors who will be free to pay their workers substandard wages in the interest of undercutting Wisconsin contractors and effectively stealing jobs here. And guess what? It’s working.

Last legislative session our elected leaders in Madison partially repealed prevailing wage for municipal-funded projects, which went into effect this January. Since then, a state review of projects to-date found there has been a more than 53 percent increase in out-of-state contractors securing Wisconsin work. Those are Wisconsin jobs being lost, Wisconsin tax dollars leaving the state and hard-working Wisconsin families being hurt. You don’t have to be a political wonk to understand how and who this hurts – Wisconsin workers.

Why as a proud veteran am I involved? Many of us veterans are drawn especially to two lines of work after our service – law enforcement and construction. I’ve chosen construction because I want to continue to serve my country in a meaningful way but lacked the necessary skills to make the transition. Thanks to many of the construction trades in Wisconsin they have specifically designed apprenticeship programs for veterans to provide them the necessary training and skills to transition into the construction industry.

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Democrats, Veterans Continue Battling Possible Prevailing Wage Repeal

Posted by National Alliance for Fair Contracting on

GOP Proposal Would Eliminate Prevailing Wage On State-Funded Construction

Tuesday, June 20, 2017, 3:55pm
By Laurel White

Democrats and veterans groups are continuing to fight a repeal of Wisconsin’s prevailing wage laws.

The laws set minimum salary requirements for workers on government-funded construction projects. In 2015, GOP lawmakers repealed those requirements on local projects. This session, they’ve introduced a bill that would extend that to state-funded projects.

At a state Capitol press conference Tuesday, Democratic lawmakers argued the change would lower wages in a field that employs a proportion of veterans.

Matt Bell, an Army veteran and owner of a contracting business in McFarland, said the repeal of prevailing wage would hurt his business.

“If you create a work environment that suppresses wages, drives people from a meaningful career in construction and encourages out of state construction companies to take Wisconsin jobs, you will drive people of out their jobs that they love and deny them the ability to provide for their families,” Bell said.

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Stand up for vets by rejecting prevailing wage repeal

Posted by National Alliance for Fair Contracting on

Josh Wallis
Published 7:23 p.m. CT April 15, 2017

Despite all the election year rhetoric about lifting wages and taking care of veterans, Missouri legislators are considering doing just the opposite by repealing our prevailing wage law.

A repeal of prevailing wage will hurt Missouri veterans, our economy and the construction industry. It won’t save money, either.

This is not hyperbole. It is literally what the research tells us.

Prevailing wage is a minimum wage for publicly funded skilled construction work. In fact, it is the local market rate, based on surveys that reflect what workers in different skilled trades actually earn in the community. Prevailing wage laws were enacted by Republicans more than 80 years ago to promote local hiring and quality workmanship. When it comes to tax dollars and our critical infrastructure, both of these virtues are important.

Construction skills are also vital to the work our military does in places like Iraq and Afghanistan. Our service men and women are trained for project leadership, maximizing productivity, and as members of teams that depend on efficiency. In addition to fighting, we also help rebuild schools, roads and bridges.

In fact, the military provides more than one in five registered apprenticeships in the U.S. today. So, not surprisingly, veterans are far more likely to pursue careers in the skilled construction trades than non-veterans. Prevailing wage standards actually increase these trends by making these occupations more than jobs – but genuine middle-class career pathways.

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The impact of repealing prevailing wage laws on military veterans

Posted by National Alliance for Fair Contracting on

Abdur Chowdhury, Professor, Department of Economics, Marquette University
February 1, 2017

Prevailing wage laws have been the focus of public policy debate in the United States for some time now. …

The prevailing wage concept arises from the concern that unbridled competition among employers to pay low wages in construction would lead to a less-skilled and less-productive workforce and to shoddy construction practices and unsafe public buildings and infrastructure.

Attempts to repeal the prevailing wage laws in a number of states are based upon the claim that repeal will save dollars on total construction costs and will bolster state and local budgets. However, there seems to be a disconnect between what the critics of these laws are saying and the reality on the ground. For example, take the case of military veterans. Missing entirely from the debate is the fact that military veterans pursue jobs in the construction trades at substantially higher rates than non-veterans. An estimated half a million veterans are currently employed as construction workers. And this means that any effort to weaken or eliminate these laws would have an outsized impact on veterans. …

Two recent studies, Manzo et al (2016a, 2016b), have analyzed the impact of prevailing wage laws on military veterans. They have found that the economic conditions of veterans would be profoundly affected if states with strong-to-moderate prevailing wage laws were to weaken their standards. The authors showed that prevailing wage laws are vital to all construction worker wages, but are especially crucial for veterans whose post-military service work skews blue collar at a higher rate than other demographics. …

More than 75 percent of recent, peer-reviewed academic studies on this issue have concluded that prevailing wage laws do not increase the total cost of construction. Prevailing wage laws result in higher productivity and taxpayer savings on materials, fuel, and equipment costs. …

These findings in Manzo et al (2016a, 2016b) are consistent with the overwhelming majority of research indicating that the costs of building public structures, such as schools, highways, and street and sewer projects, etc., are unaffected by the presence of municipal, state, or federal prevailing wage laws.

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PDF of Study – The Impact of Prevailing Wage Laws on Military Veterans: An Economic and Labor Market Analysis

PDF of Study – The Economic, Fiscal, and Social Impacts of State Prevailing Wage Laws: Choosing Between the High Road and the Low Road in the Construction Industry

Repealing prevailing wage laws hurt veterans (WI)

Posted by National Alliance for Fair Contracting on

Paul Gehl, Community columnist
8:12 a.m. CT Jan. 21, 2017

We have to do a better job of supporting our returning military veterans in Wisconsin – whether it is improving their health care, job opportunities, pay scale or all of the above.

I read recently with great irony that the Wisconsin executive director of Americans For Prosperity (Eric Bott) believes that wage protections – specifically Wisconsin’s prevailing wage laws – should be repealed so veterans can actually enjoy more job opportunities and better wages. That is not a misprint. A guy from a group promoting “prosperity” is suggesting less is more for our honorable veterans. No sir, more is more for our veterans.

I am a veteran, a longtime American Legion member and the former president of Lunda Construction. While president of Lunda I was proud to employ many veterans who were extremely interested in continuing their service to country building critical infrastructure like highways, schools and bridges that helped keep our communities safe for our families.

A 2016 study by the Midwest Economic Policy Institute found recent changes to Wisconsin’s prevailing wage laws implemented by the Wisconsin legislature “will have a disproportionate impact on veteran(s)” because veterans are more likely to work in the construction trades than non-veterans and these law changes will result in lower wages for construction workers. Specifically, the study estimates that the changes going into effect this month will result in the loss of more than 2,000 jobs and $13 million in lost wages for veterans. Mr. Bott throws out various red herrings to misdirect and obfuscate but in the end he cannot refute the study’s core findings – veterans work in construction at higher rates than non-veterans so by definition a repeal of prevailing wage disproportionately hurts veterans.

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Opinion: How prevailing-wage laws help veterans

Posted by National Alliance for Fair Contracting on

12/08/2016, 06:51pm
Mike Pounovich and Marc Poulos

A federal judge on Tuesday blocked an Obama administration rule to extend mandatory overtime pay to more than 4 million salaried workers from taking effect, imperiling one of the outgoing president’s signature achievements for boosting wages.

Veterans work in construction at higher rates than non-veterans. And the military invests heavily in training for these types of jobs – providing 22 percent of all skilled trade apprenticeships in the country today.

Research and our own experience inside the industry shows that the key policy driving many veterans and others into these middle-class construction careers is prevailing wage laws – the minimum wage for skilled construction work. Prevailing wage laws not only make veterans more likely to pursue a career in the trades, they also reduce the likelihood of a veteran in construction living in poverty by as much as 30 percent. They promote higher workmanship, safety, and efficiency standards on public construction projects. And by virtue of providing more working families with money to spend in their communities, they are proven to boost job creation across all sectors of the economy.

While these laws were created by Republicans and have long enjoyed broad bipartisan support, many in President-elect Trump’s party are calling for their repeal. Vice President-elect Mike Pence repealed Indiana’s prevailing wage in 2015, and Illinois Gov. Bruce Rauner has gone so far as to hold the entire state budget hostage over a similar demand.

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