JULIUS KOTHMAN, PRESIDENT HUMAN RESOURCES DEVELOPMENT INSTITUTE (HRDI) ON PROPOSED MANPOWER LEGISLATION March 14, 1972 My name is Julius Rothman. I am President of the Human Resources Development Institute (HRDI) of the AFL-CIO and I also serve as Associate Director of the AFLCIO Department of Urban Afairs. HRDI was established by the AFL-CIO in 1968 to stimulate and coordinate organized labor's efforts in manpower training. The major interest and concern of HRDI is directed at the problem of helping the disadvantaged find their way into the economic life of the nation. For the most part, HRDI does not operate manpower training programs. Our main tasks are to stimulate union interest in manpower training, to provide technical assistance of various kinds to unions seeking to become involved in federally-funded training programs and to provide such support services as may be needed to unions or to unions and management during the operational life of existing training contracts. This role has enabled HRDI to become deeply involved in a broad spectrum of manpower programs and problems. AFL-CIO affiliated unions have been directly involved in a wide variety of manpower training programs under the MDTA. The range of participation has gone from simple OJT programs to demonstration programs designed to test new and innovative approaches. Program sponsors have included local unions, local, state and regional labor councils and international unions. Much of this involvement of unions in manpower training under the MDTA, antedated HRDI. In order to provide direction, guidance and leadership to organized labor's expanding activity in the manpower field, and to expand union involvement in manpower programs, the AFL-CIO established the Human Resources Development Institute (HRDI) in 1968, as organized labor's manpower arm. Specifically, the HRDI was mandated to "mobilize and utilize the vast resources of skilled talent and experience available within the labor movement to plan, develop, coordinate and operate programs for the hard core unemployed" to prepare and train them for good jobs at decent pay. -2 HRDI, under contract with the U. S. Department of Labor, has established offices in fifty major industrial centers with full-time staff who work through the local and state central labor bodies to provide a liaison with local, state and federal manpower agencies, and technical assistance to the unions on all federally-funded manpower programs. The HRDI staff, all of whom come from the ranks of organized labor are keenly aware of the needs and problems of the disadvantaged. They have enabled the unions to increase their direct program involvement, and have encouraged union support of training programs. Their presence has added a new and significant dimension to the technical resources available in the manpower field. To provide this Subcommittee with more specific data about the role of HRDI, I would like to cite some figures covering our activity during the period from October 15, 1970, through November 30, 1971. The AFL-CIO and its affiliates are related to the JOBS program in several ways. The AFL-CIO provides a full-time liaison officer to the National Alliance of Businessmen, the promotional arm of the JOBS program. The fifty HRDI staff representatives are active in assisting in the development of JOBS contracts. They also work with both union and management in ironing out any differences that may arise during the operational period of the contract. In addition, the HRDI was also involved in developing Jobs Optional contracts and OJT contracts. During the period indicated above, HRDI staff assisted in developing contracts covering 21,496 training slots. Of these, 3,519 were for upgrading of workers already on the job. In addition, HRDI developed the Buddy Program to assist with the problems of retaining workers hired under the JOBS program. The buddy, a trained union member provides the personal support on-the-job that many disadvantaged need, especially during the initial period on the job. Essential to a successful program is active union-management cooperation. HRDI held 67 "Buddy" programs and trained 1,710 workers for their role as "Buddies." -3 JOB DEVELOPMENT AND PLACEMENT In the area of Job Development the AFL-CIO felt that many unskilled workers who were classified as disadvantaged might be placed in a variety of jobs in organized plants and shops, especially in shops and plants where good unionmanagement relationships existed. In many highly organized nonreferral industries, management has traditionally relied on the unions to recruit workers for the available jobs. With this in mind, HRDI designed a program, New York City Central Labor Council, to test the idea. The results indicated that the program concept was valid. Over 3,500 workers were placed in a wide variety of jobs during the first twenty-one months of the program's life, from April 1, 1968 through December 31, 1969, with a retention rate of over 80%. Based on the experience in New York City, HRDI has expanded the Job Placement Program to nine more cities. All of these operate through and with the cooperation of the local central labor councils and in cooperation with the local employment service. These nine programs were established on a phased basis between November 1970 and September 1971, therefore the placement figures reflect in all cases results of less than one year's operation. However, the HRDI Job Placement Program placed 848 persons in jobs averaging well over $2.40 per hour. For the most part those placed were from the minority community and met the Labor Department criteria for designation as disadvantaged. It should be noted too, that in those cities where there was no formal HRDI placement program the local HRDI staff representatives placed 869 unemployed workers into jobs largely through the cooperation of local union officers and business agents. VETERANS ASSISTANCE PROGRAM HRDI developed a small Veterans Assistance Program at the request of the Department of Defense. Three HRDI staff representatives are stationed at the Separation Centers at Treasure Island (serving Navy and Marine personnel) and the Oakland Army Base in the San Francisco Bay Area. The servicemen being separated are given a general orientation about the job situation and those nterested in further job placement assistance are individually interviewed. If the veteran feels that he would like to have the AFL-CIO help him find a - 4 job when he returns home, a referral card on the veteran is sent to the HRDI office or to a local AFL-CIO labor council, whichever is closer to the veterans home. From March 1, 1971 (the date the West Coast operation started) through October 30, 1971 629 veterans were placed into jobs at an average wage of over $3.20 per hour. SUMMER YOUTH EMPLOYMENT Finally, HRDI has since its inception been concerned with finding summer jobs for in-school youth. Through a concentrated effect last spring the HRDI staff was able to place almost 8,000 young people in jobs, many of them well over the minimum wage. NEW PROGRAM ACTIVITY HRDI will continue all the program activities cited above. In addition, HRDI has committed itself in its new contract with Department of Labor to take on a number of new assignments. Among these are: (a) to work with prisoners and ex-offenders. Specifically HRDI will cooperate with correctional institutions in developing realistic training for prisoners; develop released-time job opportunities for inmates, provide job counselling for prisoners about to be released; develop job opportunities and place 500 former prisoners. (b) to work with state and local manpower planning councils. (c) intensify our work with the Apprentice Outreach Programs especially those that are sponsored and operated by local building trades councils. (d) assist 10 local central labor councils in their efforts to develop and sponsor Neighborhood Youth Corps summer programs. (e) assist unions having negotiated training and education to stimulate the use of such funds by the members for upgrading purposes. (f) to develop a series of 25 local, area or state-wide conferences for union leaders and members to inform them about the need, purpose and potential of federally-funded manpower programs. (g) to participate in the Veterans Construction Job Clearinghouse in referring veterans who are trained and experienced in the construction industry to the respective craft unions in their hometowns. 76-736 O 72 - pt. 2 - 4 - 5 Up to this point, I have enumerated the work that HRDI itself has done in support of and in cooperation with the existing Federal manpower programs. In point of fact, a number of AFL-CIO affiliates, the national unions and many state and local central labor councils, are directly involved as program sponsors. I should like to direct your attention to some of these programs. I will not comment on the Apprentice Outreach Programs since they will be dealt with separately. JOBS CORPS In the Jobs Corps, five building trades unions and one railroad union are preparing about 1,700 Job Corps enrollees either for direct employment or for indenture as apprentices. The five building trades programs are conducted in the Job Corps conservation centers with the unions providing instructional and placement services. Every youth who completes the training is assured of placement in the trade of his choice. The two larger programs are being carried out by the Carpenters and the Painters. Other building trades unions involved are the Operating Engineers, the Bricklayers and the Cement Masons. The Brotherhood of Railway and Airline Clerks program is located in residentual centers in Chicago and Los Angeles. The unions involved have a placement record of 94% of these completing from six months to a year of training. Starting pay for apprentices in the building trades is around $3.00 an hour. MDTA OJT (NATIONAL CONTRACTS) The MDTA-OJT program is particularly well-adapted to the training needs of many unions, which accounts for the substantial union involvement in the program. The list of unions, both national and local, which have conducted OJT training is long and includes both craft and industrial unions. Among the unions that have OJT national training contracts with the Department of Labor are Operating Engineers which has trained over 3,000 workers for various jobs in their trade, the United Brotherhood of Carpenters which has trained almost 11,000 over the past four years, the Bricklayers union which has trained about 1,000 during the past two years, the Laborers' International Union which has trained almost 6,000 over the past five years, the International Union of Electrical, Radio & Machine Workers which has trained 3,000 over the last three |