June 11, 2008

Another Study Points To Superiority Of Union Apprenticeship Training Programs

The University of Massachusetts’s Labor Resource Center recently released a report on the efficacy and sustainability of union and non-union building trades apprentice training programs. In line with numerous other research projects that examined similar data for other states and nationally, this investigation found that union apprenticeship programs in Massachusetts are more successful at enrolling apprentices and producing journey-level workers than are non-union programs. But, that comes as no surprise to NECA and our industry partners!

Massachusetts is one of 27 states that operate their own registered apprenticeship system. The Division of Apprenticeship Training (DAT) in the state’s Department of Labor and Workforce Development has been coming under a lot of pressure to relax the minimum standards governing apprenticeship in Massachusetts, which it is responsible for establishing and enforcing. This pressure comes from two independent forces: (1) business interests and trade associations seeking greater latitude for non-union, or “open shop” contractors, to operate registered apprenticeship programs and, to a lesser extent, (2) community-based organizations and civil rights advocates critical of the weak representation of women and minorities in many traditional joint labor-management programs.

In response, the UMass researchers, using DAT data for the years 1997-2007, analyzed several outcome variables including total enrollment levels and completion rates; enrollment and completion rates for minorities, women and other non-traditional populations; and program size and sustainability of union and non-union construction apprenticeship programs. Among their key findings:

•  union programs enroll the majority of building trade apprentices (for example, last year, 66 percent of all electrical apprentices in registered programs in Massachusetts were receiving their training from the NECA-IBEW?team),

•  the apprentice completion rates from union programs is higher than from non-union programs (61 percent for NECA-IBEW?in Massachusetts, as compared to 24 percent for non-union programs in the state), and

•  union programs enroll and graduate non-traditional populations in higher numbers and at higher rates than do non-union programs.

And, here’s another very interesting observation from the researchers: “In examining the sustainability of union and non-union apprenticeship programs in Massachusetts, we found that the union programs are both larger and longer lasting than the non-union programs, and that the majority of non-union programs fail to produce even a single journey-level worker. When looked at together, these findings question the claim that non-union programs are as effective at joint labor-management programs. Indeed, we believe these findings suggest that non-union businesses may be registering apprenticeship programs that are never intended to provide the education and work experience sufficient to develop journey-level building trades workers.”

The full report on “Building Trades Apprentice Training in Massachusetts” is available at www.cpcs.umb.edu/lrc/.

Through local and national Joint Apprenticeship and Training Committees, NECA and IBEW are training more than 42,000 apprentices annually for jobs in the industrial, commercial, residential, and telecommunications sectors. More than 50,000 journeymen annually take courses to advance their skills, making sure they are prepared to install and maintain the latest equipment and products. To learn more, visit the website of our National Joint Apprenticeship and Training Committee at www.njatc.org.