Overview. Labor, business and policy experts call for bottom-up reform, substantial new funding and an emphasis on incumbent workers in workforce development system.
A Task Force on Workforce Development sponsored by The Albert Shanker Institute and The New Economy Information Service has issued a report that calls for far-reaching changes in the way our country manages its workforce skills and training efforts. The group argues that the United States needs to do far more to help those who have jobs keep them as technological change and global competition buffet our labor markets.
The report is the result of a year-long, in-depth study in the U.S. and the United Kingdom that brings labor, business and policy leaders together to support a common agenda. The group urges adding $3 billion to the funding of the Workforce Investment Act to enable incumbent workers to retrain for changing jobs and emerging industries. Better skilled employees can help employers here in America in transforming more of our enterprises, big and small, into innovative and competitive workplaces.
“Labor must now consider its traditional role in training and credentialing workers as one of the major missions of the modern labor movement,” said Morton Bahr, President of the Communication Workers of America and Co-Chair of the Task Force.
To provide workers with the improved skills that increased competition requires, the Task Force proposes establishing “bottom-up partnerships” that bring together government agencies, educators, labor leaders and employers for a national campaign on a scale similar to the historic undertakings that modernized American agriculture and built our public education system. Partnerships should be established at many levels to analyze job opportunities and workforce needs, and to develop appropriate learning services.
The report acknowledges various proposals that have been made to improve workforce skills, but argues that "political leadership on all sides has yet to give adequate attention to this challenge, or what must be done to address it." It notes that those with very different views on tax, trade and labor policy can nevertheless agree on the need for better skills and training -- but adequate strategies for providing this have not yet been developed.
The report notes that although the trend towards globalization and “off-shoring” –sending work to countries where wages are lower - presents American workers with real challenges, it should also be recognized that new job opportunities are emerging here at home for those with certain skills and professional capabilities. These opportunities may grow as the large labor force cohort from the "baby boom" generation moves into retirement. Helping workers to identify new opportunities and to acquire skills that match them not only benefits individuals, it also strengthens our economy in ways that will enable us to address our healthcare, education, retirement and national security needs.
The report calls for actively engaging workers in efforts to raise their own workforce skills. In this the Task Force proposal is modeled after the successful “learning representatives” program now being implemented in Great Britain. Learning representatives help employees act for themselves by seeking advice from someone on site who has their confidence and understands their needs, as well as those of employers. Often, current programs are not rooted in the workplace. Workers must travel to training sites, and those who design and manage programs are disconnected from trainees and their particular job needs. Programs the Task Force envisions would bring together all the essential players: the employer, the educational provider, the employee, employee
advisors and community leaders. These “learning partnerships” would build programs from the “bottom up” after diagnosing employment demands and worker needs.
The report also calls on educators - especially those in community colleges - to become more closely involved with the learning needs of the workplace. The Task Force found that adult workers are often reluctant to admit educational deficiencies, to make long commutes to training sites, or to enroll in two or four year degree programs. Government education assistance also overlooks the needs of adult learners and should be revamped if we are to produce the skilled workers who can keep our economy on the leading edge.
The report points out that our public workforce development programs, which are
focussed on those who have lost jobs or face special difficulties in the labor market, do little to help us keep people at work. Because both business and labor unions are most involved with those currently employed, they therefore have less incentive to participate and contribute in training and skills development activities.
“While Task Force members may disagree on some policy prescriptions, this study contains a refreshingly centrist and constructive set of proposals representing a consensus view on potentially divisive issues,” says Task Force member Susan Traiman of the Business Roundtable.
[For the full text of the report, go to: http://www.newecon.org/TFReport4-20-04.pdf]
The Albert Shanker Institute, one sponsor of the Task Force, is named in honor of the late president of the
American Federation of Teachers. It is a nonprofit organization dedicated to generating ideas, fostering
exchanges, and promoting constructive policy proposals in three areas—children's education, unions as
advocates for quality, and freedom of association in the public life of democracies. The New Economy
Information Service provides information and encourages dialogue on the impact that globalization and
technological change has on democracy here and abroad.
Media interviews with Task Force principals are available.
Contacts:
Marcus Snyder, Widmeyer Communications, 202.667.0901
Marie-Louise Caravatti, New Economy Information Service, 202.347.2348
Randall Garton, Albert Shanker Institute, 202.879.4401
TASK FORCE MEMBERS
Paul E. Almeida
Paul Almeida is President of the Department for Professional Employees, AFL-CIO. As former
President of the International Federation of Professional and Technical Engineers, he co-chaired the Boeing Leadership Council with then-CEO Phil Condit. An engineer by training, he has contributed to numerous studies, including the National Policy Association's report "Crossing the Digital Divide.”
Morton Bahr
Morton Bahr is President of the Communication Workers of America (CWA). Under his leadership,
CWA has become an education-driven union with a focus on worker education, training and advancement. CWA has negotiated worker education programs with its major employers, providing workers with the opportunity to upgrade and learn new skills or careers. Mr. Bahr has served on numerous commissions on workforce development and lifelong learning.
R. Thomas Buffenbarger
Tom Buffenbarger is International President of the International Association of Machinists and
Aerospace Workers (IAM), one of the largest industrial unions in the U.S. and Canada, and president of the Aerospace Department of the International Metalworkers Federation that represents 20 million workers in over 100 countries. Mr. Buffenbarger has been a machinist for more than thirty years, starting as a journeyman tool and die maker at GE's jet engine plant in Evendale, Ohio.
Anthony P. Carnevale
Anthony P. Carnevale is vice president for Public Leadership at Educational Testing Service. He
began his career as a high school teacher in his home state of Maine. In 1993, Mr. Carnevale was appointed chair of the National Commission for Employment Policy. Mr. Carnevale has written numerous books and articles on competitiveness and human resources.
William M. Daley
William Daley is president of SBC Communications, one of the nation's largest telecommunications
firms and the parent company of SBC/Ameritech Wisconsin. SBC/Ameritech and the SBC Foundation have supported pre-college initiatives for disadvantage youth. Mr. Daley is a former Secretary of the U.S. Department of Commerce.
John D. Donahue
John D. Donahue is the Raymond Vernon Lecturer in Public Policy at Harvard University's John F.
Kennedy School of Government. He has served as Assistant Secretary and Counselor at the U.S. Department of Labor. His teaching, research and writing deal with public sector reform and the distribution of public responsibilities across levels of government and sectors of the economy.
John J. Flynn
John J. Flynn is President of the International Union of Bricklayers and Allied Craftworkers. He
became an apprentice bricklayer in 1952 and worked for the next twenty years in the trade as a journeyman, foreman, and superintendent. Mr. Flynn is the Labor Co-Chair of the International Masonry Institute, a labor-management trust established to strengthen labor relations, apprenticeship, training, research and market development in the masonry industry.
Sandra Feldman
Sandra Feldman is president of the million-member American Federation of Teachers and member
of the Executive Council of the AFL-CIO. From 1986 through 1997, Ms. Feldman was president of the United Federation of Teachers in New York City, the largest union local in the United States. A former teacher, Ms. Feldman has served on numerous commissions and task forces that deal with educational, economic, child-welfare, labor and other social issues.
Ernest Green
Ernest Green is Managing Director of Public Finance for Lehman Brothers in Washington, D.C.
Mr. Green has served as Assistant Secretary of Labor for Employment and Training and as Chairman of the Historically Black Colleges and Universities Capital Financing Advisory Board. Mr. Green earned his high school diploma from Central High School in Little Rock and was one of the "Little Rock Nine” in Little Rock's school integration movement.
Stephen A. Herzenberg
Stephen A. Herzenberg, is Executive Director of the Keystone Research Center, a Pennsylvania
public policy think tank. He has taught at Rutgers University and held positions at the U.S. Congressional Office of Technology Assessment and the U.S. Department of Labor, where he worked on the labor side agreement of the North American Free Trade Agreement. He has published extensively on the organization of work, the auto industry, international labor standards, and the new economy.
Edwin Hill
Edwin Hill is International President of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW)
and a member of the Executive Council of the AFL-CIO. The IBEW represents workers in the United States and Canada in the utility, telecommunications, construction, government, manufacturing and railroad industries. Mr. Hill has over forty-seven years of experience in serving the IBEW in many areas of the union's efforts.
Gregory J. Junemann
Gregory J. Junemann is president of the International Federation of Professional and Technical
Engineers that represents more than 80,000 scientists, engineers and other technical workers in the United States and Canada. Mr. Junemann also chairs the Committee for Engineers, Scientists and Technicians in the AFL-CIO's Department of Professional and Technical Employees.
Penn Kemble
Penn Kemble is a Senior Scholar at Freedom House, and Director of The Project on Democracy and
the Global Economy. He served at the sub-Cabinet level under President Clinton at the United States Information Agency and the Department of State, and as a member of the Board of International Broadcasting under President George H. W. Bush.
Nancy Mills
Nancy Mills is Executive Director of the AFL-CIO's Working for America Institute. The Institute's
mandate is to help individuals and employers succeed by working with unions, employers and community organizations on workforce and economic development programs. Ms. Mills has held several positions with the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) in Massachusetts, serving as a trustee of its joint union/employer Education and Training Fund.
Eric Parker
Eric Parker is Executive Director of the Wisconsin Regional Training Partnership, an association of
employers and unions that sponsors programs to expand employment and advancement opportunities, and upgrade workforce skills. Mr. Parker is also a research associate of the Center on Wisconsin Strategy at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Stephanie Powers
Stephanie Powers is the Chief Executive Officer for the National Association of Workforce Boards,
the national membership organization for local and State workforce investment boards that provide the leadership and governance for the publicly-funded workforce development system under the Workforce Investment Act of 1998. Ms. Powers was Director of the National School-to-Work Program.
Saul Rubinstein
Saul Rubinstein is an Assistant Professor in the School of Management and Labor Relations at
Rutgers University and a member of the Industrial Relations Research Association. Mr. Rubinstein's research is focussed on industrial relations. He has followed the Saturn experiment and its concept of labor-management relations, management, and organizational governance, since its inception in 1983 and is widely published in the field.
Andrew Sum
Andrew M. Sum is Professor of Economics and Director of the Center for Labor Market Studies at
Northeastern University in Boston. He has written extensively on regional, national, and state labor markets, on the labor market behavior and problems of young adults and the role of education, literacy, and training in influencing the labor market experiences of adults.
Susan Traiman
Susan Traiman is Director of Education and Workforce Policy at the Business Roundtable, where
she oversees activities to improve education performance and workforce competitiveness in the United States. A former teacher, Ms. Traiman has an extensive background in educational issues from previous positions with the National Governors Association, and the U.S. Department of Education. She contributed to the development of the landmark 1983 report, A Nation at Risk.
Task Force Director:
Marie-Louise Caravatti
Marie-Louise Caravatti serves as Task Force Director with the New Economy Information Service.
As an economist, she has specialized in technology and workforce issues. She served in the Technology Administration at the U.S. Department of Commerce, and has written on the development and diffusion of new technologies, education and training.