Unions in school-to-careers: friend or foe?

Maxwell, Bruce

Successful work-based learning opportunities rely on the commitment of school leaders, employers--and an often overlooked, but crucial, third party: labor representatives.

If you're developing and running a school-to-careers program, trade unions can (choose one):

* Create lots of obstacles.

* Be of enormous help.

Actually both answers are right--and often simultaneously in the same program.

In a unionized workplace, the detailed work rules and other contractual requirements can pose obstacles to implementing an STC effort.

On the other hand, the union can be a powerful force uniting workers behind the program and can contribute much to students' workplace experiences.

Today, many unions--following the lead of the national AFL-CIO--are embracing STC in a big way. In most cases, the days are gone when union workers viewed students on the job site as a threat. Instead, many workers now see STC programs as a help in preserving their unions and their wages amid a wave of downsizing and other economic difficulties.

That's not to say things always go smoothly when working with unions. But experts involved in creating STC programs say that with open communication and lots of planning, obstacles can be overcome so that everyone wins--students, employers and workers alike.

Many of the issues involved in designing a work-based program are the same regardless of whether the workplace is unionized. What lands of work will students perform? Will they be paid and, if so, how much? Who will supervise them? How can their workplace experiences be de*Vied to aid diem in their future pursuit of a career?

Nonetheless, working with a unionized business can provide certain challenges--and opportunities, A key element in a union setting, STC experts agree is including labor from the very beginning of program development. Too often, schools develop programs and then try to recruit labor partners without having received their input in the design, says JD Hoye, director of the National School-to-Work Office.

That helps keep any feathers from getting ruffled. But more important, workers can provide valuable input into a program's design. "Some of the best ideas of how to involve unions in a meaningful way have come from unions themselves,says Cynthia Eisenhauer, director of the Iowa Workforce Development agency.

The top barrier to creating a successful program "is getting everybody to the table and getting them to learn to talk with each other," says Anne M. Freeman, state apprenticeship coordinator for the New Jersey Department of Education. Michael Merrill director of education and training for the New Jersey AFL-CIO, agrees. "You have to spend time developing relationships that haven't existed in the past."

Creating these new relationships takes time--sometimes lots of it. New Jersey started with a two-year timeline for grant-funded STC programs but found in some cases that wasn't long enough to work out all the issues. Now it uses a five-year timeline for grants.

One easy way to identify potential union partners is to call the state AFL-00 office which can provide contact information for central labor councils in each area. These councils, which are umbrella groups for many unions, often can help reach out to local unions.

Collective bargaining

Usually, irs easy to convince unions of the value of STC programs.

The labor movement prides itself on strong advocacy of public education, but there's some self-interest involved, too"We've seen a state of decline in our applicant pool," acknowledges John Nesta, training coordinator for Sheet Metal Workers Local 33 in Cleveland. "We need some of the best and the brightest We hope [STC] is one of the ways to pique the interest."

Many unions, faced with a graying membership, are anxious to recruit high-quality students Into flier professions and see STC as an effective tool. If high-quality job entrants aren't available, standards--and wages--must be lowered, which unions are loath to do.

Once unions are on board, the hard bargaining begins The key issue, and the one that shapes the focus of all the others, is the programs exact goal. Is it to provide students with a broad understanding of the working world, teach them a broad range of basic skills and motivate them to stay in school? Or is it more narrowly focused, aimed at providing them with training in a specific occupation?

Jack Gravener favors the broad view. He helped design a model STC program with Southern California Edison when he worked for the Utility Workers Union Local 246. "We don't want to train them how to do our jobs," he explains. The idea is to show them that no matter what occupation you're going into, you need some good math, science and English skills."

The program targets at risk students. Each participant tries between five and seven occupations for sax weeks each--everything from payroll clerk to power plant operator.

The California students pay union dues from $9 to $36 a month, which is deducted from their paychecks. (The interns earn $6.18 per hour.) Interns in Edison's Arizona and Nevada plants don't have to pay union dues in those right-to-work states. In California, however, all temporary employees of Edison must join the union.

For their dues, the interns have hill union privileges. They benefit if wages are increased, for example, and they may vote on contract issues and in union elections. Gravener says that company-sponsored internships can arouse suspicions among union members who have seen such programs used to weaken organized labor. But requiring interns to join the union "negates that fear completely," he says.

Edison managers suggested the intern ship program, but the union runs its day-to-day operation. All mentors are union members. Gravener, who retired from the company last year but still has a contract to oversee the program, helps debrief students and mentors at the end of each rotation. School counselors keep Gravener apprised of the students' school progress. "If we find out that one of the students is about to fail algebra, I can get a machinist or someone else on site to show hun how math is used on the job," he says.

In the programs first seven years, nearly 200 students participated.

Kentucky fosters a similar approach in its STC system, which emphasizes teach mg the work ethic and basic academic skills. "One of the complaints from labor is that students are not apprenticeship-ready out of the high schools," says Dan Gahafer, staff assistant/labor liaison for the Kentucky Office of School-to-Work. Besides academics, the STC program stresses career exploration, shadowing and mentoring.

Another pioneering program at a General Motors metal fabricating plant in Flint, Michigan, doesn't have students hit the plant floor until their second year on site. During the first year, the students spend most of their time in classrooms with union mentors. The full-time mentors, whose salaries are paid by the union and the company, teach them about math, teamwork spatial relations, safety, tool use and other employability skills.

During the second year students shadow skilled tradespeople on the shop floor to learn blueprint reading, mechanical comprehension and other skills they'll need to pass entry-level employment or apprenticeship tests. "In the two-year period, we try to produce a well-rounded student," says Eddie Kennedy, the UAW joint training coordinator at the plant. The students receive $6.25 per hour, a wage designed to keep them from having to work a second job.

Robert Morrish, who helped the union design the Flint program, says the students receive no hours toward registered apprenticeships and the company gets no direct benefits from their labor. "There was some concern [among] organized labor about youth apprenticeship," Morrish says, because the union has a "very structured, negotiated" registered apprenticeship program open only to adult employees. "They didn't want the students to be taking work away from other folks," he explains.

Once union members were assured that the students wouldn't be "cheap labor" for the company, they were fully on board as mentors. Under their direction, students learn to hone their skills on welding torches and lathes.

"We don't look at this as being a job for these students," he says."'We look at it as being an opportunity to learn."

Easing into apprenticeships

A new, small program in Ohio takes a different tack. The Cuyahoga Valley Career Center program seeks to directly bridge the gap between vocational schools and the three-to-five-year registered apprenticeship programs that are required in many trades. In the summer after their junior year, high school students start working as pre-apprentices at companies that sponsor registered apprenticeship programs.

Two students who currently work at sheet metal fabrication shops are paid $6.75 per hour, well below the $8.76 wage paid to full apprentices. If they wish, this spring the students can apply to become registered apprentices.

The only problem Ken Gordon, school-to-apprenticeship coordinator at Cuyahoga Valley, has is finding enough students to fill the available slots. He had six to eight positions available this year, but only two students who were interested and qualified. One of Gordon's goals is to recruit more students by raising awareness of opportunities the program offers. He also hopes to expand it into other industries.

The path for Gordon's sheet metal program was smoothed by the joint Apprenticeship and Training Committee. As the name implies, it's an apprenticeship committee jointly operated by employers and the Sheet Metal Workers union. Dealing with everyone at once--both management and labor--is ideal, Gordon believes.

Exactly how to integrate STC with traditional registered apprenticeship programs is another major issue. Unions and management have operated apprenticeship programs for years, so they can balk if a school district proposes a new program that appears to conflict with what already exists.

"It's very important for the different partners to understand their overall function in the system," says Merrill of the New Jersey AFL-CIO. "The schools sometimes operate in ways that usurp what the unions do better." And Merrill believes unions are better at running apprenticeship programs.

He favors a three-rung model. The first rung is secondary schools, which Merrill believes should create pre-apprentice programs where students learn a broad base of skills and capacities that can be applied to numerous fields. The second rung is postsecondary education, through either an apprenticeship or vocational program, where the job focus narrows. The final rung is the teaching of actual production skills on the job.

Merrill calls registered apprenticeship programs "an invisible technical college" that exists outside the traditional education system. They can provide models for STC and become more visible if schools make students aware of the option, he says.

Another potential source of conflict arises over the status of students who have successfully completed pre-apprentice programs. The next logical step is entering a registered apprenticeship program, but entry is a competitive process. If there are more applicants than slots, which happens in tight labor markets, should the students get preference?

This problem arose last year in New York City. The Iron Workers International local had 1,100 applicants for its apprenticeship program and only 70 or 80 openings, according to Raymond J. Robertson, executive director of apprenticeship and training for the national union. Some of the adult applicants had advanced degrees. This made the competition tough.

Robertson says it may be necessary to create some sort of slot system that would guarantee students an apprenticeship after graduation, and the New York STC coordinators are discussing this with the union.

Union, school and management partners acknowledge that such issues take time and commitment to resolve. Freeman says that in New Jersey it took three or four years for everyone involved to get comfortable with STC and to become real partners.

"That's all part of the learning process," she says. "If you don't give unions and employers and school districts an opportunity to work these issues out, they'll never develop a deep understanding about these initiatives that a successful system can be built on."

RELATED ARTICLE: WHAT UNIONS BRING TO THE TABLE

Unions can contribute much to the development and implementation of school-to-careers programs. They can:

* Help identify occupations with strong employment opportunities for inclusion in STC programs.

* Recruit unionized employers to participate in STC.

* Help design meaningful work-based learning experiences.

* Help create programs that effectively integrate academic and vocational education.

* Educate union members so they don't feel threatened by having students on the job site.

* Provide union members for mentoring and shadowing experiences.

* Provide union members to make presentations in classrooms.

* Provide union members who will take students to crew, safety and union meetings so the students can learn about all aspects of an occupation.

* Monitor students in the workplace to ensure that child labor laws are followed, the students are not exploited, and health and safety rules are enforced.

RELATED ARTICLE: More Resources

Human Resources Development Institute of the AFL-CIO, 1101 14th St., NW, Suite 320, Washington, DC 20005; (202) 638-3912 or (800) 842-4734.

Taking the Worry out of Work-Based Learning: The Law, Labor and School-to-Careers: A new book from the American Vocational Association explores all the ins and outs of working with labor unions in setting up work-based learning programs. $24.95 for AVA members; $27.95 for others. Call (800) 826-9972 and ask for the products department.

Ken Gordon, school-to-apprenticeship coordinator, Cuyahoga Valley and Polaris Career Centers, (440) 891-7678.

National School-to-Work Learning and Information Center, (800) 251-7236. Internet: http://www.stw.ed.gov.

Anne M. Freeman, state apprenticeship coordinator, New Jersey Department of Education, (609) 984-7016.

Michael Merrill, director of education and training, New Jersey AFL-CIO, (609) 989-8730.