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Wisconsin LECET
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Wisconsin LECET
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| National Funds Win Awards Two national labor-management trust funds affiliated with the Laborers International Union of North America (LIUNA) recently were recognized for accomplishments. National LECET received an Excellence in Advertising Award from the Engineering News-Record (ENR) magazine. ENR, the construction industry's leading trade publication, recognized national LECET's "Unions Aren't What They Used To Be" advertisement that ran in the January 25, 1999 issue of the magazine. The ad highlights LIUNA's new approach to unionism, stressing the cooperation of labor-management funds, the excellence of Laborers training and the cost effectiveness of using union labor. Readers voted for their favorite ads in that issue of ENR . . . and LECET's ad was a winner. LECET is the first union-affiliated organization to win an ENR "Excellence in Advertising Award." You may obtain ad reprints by calling Wisconsin LECET. Another LIUNA labor-management fund, the Laborers Health & Safety Fund of North America (LHSFNA) was honored by the National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health for efforts to protect workers from the harmful effects of asphalt fumes in highway construction. LHSFNA was a key participant in a coalition that included the International Union of Operating Engineers, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, the Federal Highway Administration, the National Asphalt Pavement Association and asphalt paver manufacturers. The coalition reduced fume emissions from new asphalt pavers by 80% with a new ventilation system in 1997.
Wisconsin LECET and Local Laborers Promote Construction at the Wisconsin State Fair For eleven days in August, almost a million visitors from all over Wisconsin take time out from busy summer schedules to come to State Fair Park in Milwaukee to enjoy bratwurst, beer, rides, music, cattle and pig judging and the "world's best cream puffs" at the Wisconsin State Fair. There are also almost 600 exhibits at the fair and this year Wisconsin LECET and the Laborers decided to join them. For more than 12 hours a day for the entire run of the fair, volunteers from local laborers unions, the Wisconsin Laborers District Council, Wisconsin LECET and the Wisconsin Laborers Training Center staffed our trade show booth as thousands of people visited the exhibit halls. We talked to people about becoming a construction craft laborer. We explained the commitment that our signatory contractors and our laborers have to training, working safely and working productively. We handed out literature about our training programs. We also handed out flyers to those who were interested in working in union construction. We gave away 2000 pencils advertising the Wisconsin Laborers Training Center. We even had a number of union members and signatory contractors stop by the exhibit to thank us for being there. The experience was very rewarding for the volunteers and we enhanced the visibility of union construction. We are already looking forward to next year.
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Message From The Director by Gerald J. Diemer |
| Importance of Labor-Management Cooperation in the FutureA group of key business leaders and labor
leaders recently renewed their commitment to the collective bargaining process and
labor-management cooperation as the cornerstones for ensuring that the United States will
remain the leader in the global economy well into the next millennium. The declaration was
echoed by members of the Clinton Administration such as Vice-President Al Gore, Secretary
of Labor Alexis Herman and Secretary of Commerce William M. Daley.
Members of the Collective Bargaining Forum, a group of influential business leaders and labor leaders that has been meeting regularly for more than a decade, recently released a report entitled "Principles for New Employment Relationships" during a White House ceremony. The forum members set out principles that should serve as the context for healthy labor-management relationships in the future . . . a future that promises global competition for America. Those principles are: - Employees should have the free choice to form unions - Collective bargaining is the best way to level the playing field and resolve important issues in the workplace - Unions and their members should work with management to improve the performance of their companies - Both sides should work toward policies that ensure free choice and mutual respect - Discrimination should be eliminated from the workplace - The workplace must become safer - All parties to the employment relationship must be committed to providing quality and value to the customer. - All parties should support strategies to secure and maintain a competitive market position - All parties must work together to create new enterprises, compensation systems and work organization practices - All parties need to work together to reduce the costs of worker dislocation and mobility by encouraging the portability of health care and pension benefits. Labor Secretary Herman summed up by saying, "Success in the global economy today really rests on the ability of labor and management to sit together and to recognize the other's rights" and to realize that each has a huge stake in the success of the other. Labor-management partnerships like Wisconsin LECET already know this. |
 This summer, organized labor joined representatives of the Wisconsin Underground Contractors Association (WUCA) to lobby the Wisconsin Congressional Delegation to fund more clean water projects. Making the trip to Washington, DC were, from left: Richard Wanta, Executive Director, WUCA; Joe Wineke, Operating Engineers Local 139; Congressman Thomas Petri (R-WI); Russ Leaman, Laborers Local 113, Milwaukee; Jerold Mueller, Mueller Pipeliners, Inc., New Berlin; and Mike Ryan, Chairman, Wisconsin LECET Board of Trustees.
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 The MN/ND/WI Joint Training Conference, an annual event since 1996, was held this summer in Wisconsin Dells, WI. Labor-management programming was an important part of the agenda. LECET activities, training, apprenticeship and safety were all workshop topics. Pictured here is Mike Ryan (far left at the podium) introducing a session on apprenticeship. Seated at the table on the left is Al Friedl, Training Director at the Wisconsin Laborers Training Center in Almond, WI. The other three presenters discussed the Minnesota Laborers Apprenticeship Program. |
 The Wisconsin Laborers Skill Improvement Fund and Wisconsin LECET took part in
the Career Day at the Badger ChalleNGe program at Fort McCoy this summer. Badger ChalleNGe
is an intensive program for "at risk" kids run by the Wisconsin National Guard
Youth Conservation Corps. Cadets attending the Career Day were close to graduation from a
six-week residential stay at Fort McCoy. Al Friedl, Wisconsin Laborers Training Director
(second from right), is shown discussing a career in union construction with two cadets in
this photo. |
Wisconsin LECET visited many contractors during the prevailing wage survey period to promote use of our reporting software, Prevail 1.2. Shown here, from left to right are: Jerry Diemer, Wisconsin LECET Director; Peggy Crotteau, Vonasek & Schieffer Inc. in Rice Lake and Tom Grunseth, Business Manager of Laborers Local 317 in Eau Claire and a Wisconsin LECET Trustee. Preliminary prevailing wage rates for 2000 should be available shortly.
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The conference brings together 1200-1500 job search and job development professionals from all over the state each spring for three days of workshops, meetings and networking. We have participated in the conference as an exhibitor for the last three years. Contacts made at the conference have resulted in two other meetings that we have also participated in. Job fair appearances and opportunities to market the Laborers training program are activities that we anticipate in the near future. |
| Many contacts have been made at the Employment and Training meetings. Here, Al Friedl (left) was able to grab a few minutes with Lt. Governor Scott McCallum (right) to discuss the Laborers training program and give him a copy of the Trainer. The Lt. Governor was a speaker and award presenter at the conference. |
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Wisconsin LECET and the Wisconsin Laborers Skill Improvement Fund exhibit at the Governor's Statewide Employment and Training Conference has been a popular stop for attendees the last three years. Here, Al Friedl, Wisconsin Laborers Training Director, chats with job search professionals. |
| New Tri-Fund Coordinator NamedThe Great Lakes Regional Office of the
Laborers International Union of North America has announced the hiring of Jim Santeramo as
Tri-Fund Coordinator.
Santeramo will be responsible for assisting LECET, Training and Health & Safety Funds in Chicago, Michigan, Minnesota, North Dakota and Wisconsin with their programs, missions and goals. Before his appointment, Santeramo worked as a Construction Market Representative with National LECET and as an International Auditor working out of the Regional Office in Chicago. Santeramo has over 25 years of union and construction experience and will bring a strong knowledge of building trades issues to his new responsibilities.
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| Youth Leadership Training Center, Laborers Cooperate on
Training and Job Placement The Youth Leadership Training Center (YLTC) is an innovative incarceration program created by the State of Wisconsin, Department of Corrections, Division of Juvenile Corrections. The goal of the program, through the use of a military model, is to develop productive life skills, self-confidence and self-esteem. The concept is very similar to the Badger ChalleNGe program run by the Wisconsin National Guard Youth Conservation Corps mentioned elsewhere in this newsletter. However, youth in the YLTC program have been incarcerated. The YLTC program consists of two phases: Residential and Post Residential. The Residential Phase is four months long and is headquartered in a secure facility in central Wisconsin. The Residential Phase focuses on:
After the Residential Phase is completed, the cadet will participate in a five-month Post-Residential Phase in their hometown area. Cadets are recruited from Lincoln Hills or Ethan Allen schools. They learn about the program from institutional staff, parents and/or friends. They are medically approved for the physical and psychological demands of the program, stable in behavior and free of AODA. They are all evaluated for the need for public protection and safety, risk of physical aggressiveness, risk of runaway or escape, overall behavior and attitude and demonstrated potential for successful family and community reintegration. Once the cadets have completed their YLTC programing, individual cadets are selected to participate in a special program created by cooperation between the Department of Corrections and the Wisconsin Laborers Training Center (WLTC). These cadets, selected for their interest in a career in union construction, participate in a two week course in General Construction offered at Camp Douglas and at the WLTC. After completion of the course, signatory contractors and local laborers unions work together to place these individuals with contractors working in the field. The training will be offered to seven groups of selected cadets a year . . . as many as seventy individuals. AND we need contractors who are interested in participating in providing jobs for these youths. In addition, the Department of Corrections already wants to expand the program. PLEASE CALL US TODAY AT (800)782-4634 TO OFFER EMPLOYMENT FOR THESE YOUTHS.
OSHA Forklift Requirements Must be Verified by Contractors Signatory contractors are required to verify that Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) Skill Standards for Rough Terrain Fork Lift, Part 1 and Part 2, have been met by your employees. You must administer a Skill Standards Test for all your employees who use fork lifts to comply with OSHA requirements for verification. If you have questions about OSHA regulations governing Fork Lift Skill Standards or Rough Terrain Fork Lift Training, Parts 1 and 2, please call the Wisconsin Laborers Training Center at (800) 275-6939.
New Satellite Training Facility to Open in Milwaukee this Winter After years of discussion and planning, a lease for a new satellite training facility in southeastern Wisconsin was signed this summer.The building is currently undergoing remodeling and the Wisconsin Laborers Skill Improvement Fund hopes to begin offering training classes there this winter. The 11,000 square foot building is located at 2750 South 14th Street in Milwaukee. Its proximity to many laborers working and living in southern and eastern Wisconsin will increase the convenience of attending our training programs. Distances and travel times will be shorter for many laborers who wish to take advantage of the training offered by the Wisconsin Laborers Skill Improvement Fund. This added convenience should encourage many more of our members to participate. Many contractors in southern and eastern Wisconsin will now have an attractive alternative option when they look for solutions for their special training needs. Some classes will be scheduled at the satellite training facility during the traditional winter training season. In addition, other courses will be offered on a pre-registration basis. If there is enough interest in a particular class based on the number of workers who pre-register, then the class will be added to the schedule. The satellite training facility in Milwaukee should be remodeled and ready to hold classes by December. Additional instructors will be hired to handle the increased training. Call the WI Laborers Training Center (800) 275-6939 for more information.
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Visit the Wisconsin LECET website Send email to wilecet@solidarity.com |
