Wisconsin LECET
LABORERS-EMPLOYERS COOPERATION AND EDUCATION TRUST
2801 Coho Street, Suite 202 Madison, WI 53713 (608) 274-5757
Michael R. Ryan, Chair - Wisconsin Laborers District Council
Jerry Diemer, Director

Early in 1997, 23 laborers participated in joint training exercises with operating engineers at the Wisconsin Laborers Training Center near Almond, Wisconsin and the Operating Engineers Training Center near Coloma, Wisconsin.

Two 4-day, hands-on sessions provided training in trenching and building site excavation. Both training center sites were utilized.

Michael R. Ryan (right), Chairman of Wisconsin LECET, plans joint training with Terry McGowan (left) and Dale Miller (center), Operating Engineers Local 139.

Included in the sessions were pipelaying and laser beam exercises, live trench operation with a trench box, tight sheeting demonstration and layout and offset staking for trench projects. Batterboard sets for building excavation were taught with the operators then digging the building sites. Manholes were set, extensions with pipe were laid inside the trench box, shields were pulled and the trenches were backfilled.

The training won high praise from both the laborers and the operating engineers who participated. They called it the most realistic training they had ever received. More joint training is planned where laborers and operating engineers will work as a crew on sewer and water projects.

The Wisconsin Laborers Training Center is a 24,000 square foot, state-of-the-art facility on 107 acres of land located near Stevens Point in Almond, Wisconsin. The center contains 5 classrooms, 8 welding bays and an indoor training lab that permit full scale, hands-on training in many construction skills regardless of weather conditions.

The center has grown from a single trailer that trained 88 laborers in 8 classes in 1979 to the current facility that trained 1200 laborers in almost 60 classes last year.

"There is no substitute for learning by doing," says Training Director Dean Jensen. "Both in the classroom and in the field, we focus on providing every student with the proper trechniques each will need to become a safe, knowledgeable and productive worker."

Safety is an important part of the entire Training Center curriculum. Learning safety while enhancing skills will help each laborer contribute to a productive jobsite. In today's competitive atmosphere characterized by severe shortages of skilled labor, these safety-conscious and trained workers are worth their weight in gold.

Contact the Wisconsin Laborers Training Center today for a class schedule
1-800-275-6939

Message From The Director

by Gerald J. Diemer
Director, Wisconsin LECET

According to Cockshaw's Construction Labor News+Opinion, "Construction's No. 1 Challenge'' is solving an acute skills shrinkage... a shortage of skilled labor.

What caused the manpower shortage? Apparently, a number of factors are working to create the problem. Several key reasons are the following:

• the so-called 'baby bust' from 1965 to 1976 resulted in a reduction of new workforce entrants
• construction has an image problem that makes it an unattractive career choice for young people
• competency levels of those who are attracted to construction are often too low to meet the minimum standards for skilled labor
• the retirement of thousands of long-time craftsmen is creating a need for at least 200,000 new construction workers each year.
• the inability of the industry to hold on to craft workers for their entire working careers, often losing them to other jobs in their mid-thirties

What do we have to do to deal with this problem? We have to recruit new workers, be able to train them and keep them by offering competitive wages and benefits!

Collectively bargained wages and benefits are the highest in the industry.

Our training is second to none. We talk elsewhere in this newsletter about the Wisconsin Laborers Training Center and our cooperative training efforts with the operating engineers.

So. . . we have to recruit new workers! Also in this newsletter is an article about the Wisconsin Laborers Skill Improvement Fund and Wisconsin LECET collaborating on the purchase of a trade show display booth and marketing union laborers and our signatory contractors at the Governor's Conference on Economic Development and the Governor's Statewide Employment and Training Conference.

By increasing the visibility of our state-of-the-art training facility, our commitment to skills enhancement, our commitment to safety and our unique approaches to labor-management cooperation, we hope to begin recruiting new workers and generating more work.

Let us know which trade show or meeting you think we should participate in next!

And . . . if any of you would like us to attend a meeting or conference, give us a call!

The Wisconsin Office of the Commissioner of Insurance (OCI) has finally approved a revised proposal for a Wisconsin Contractors Premium Adjustment Program. The program will begin on July 1, 1997 and will run for a three year trial period.

For contracting classifications that are eligible (more than 80 separate worker classifications are included), Wisconsin contractors can receive significant downward adjustments in workers comp premiums.

To qualify for the program, employers must have employees in the eligible contracting classifications that constitute more than 50% of total payroll.

There are no experience rating modification requirements.

If you meet these qualifications, you can apply for credits to decrease your workers compensation premiums for any workers in eligible classifications that you pay more than $16.50/hour.

The Wisconsin Contractors Premium Adjustment Program should help high wage employers be more competitive in the workers compensation area.

Last year, when Wisconsin LECET approached the Workers Compensation Advisory Council on the issue of negotiated workers comp plans, part of the discussion was on wage disparity and the unfairness to high-wage union employers. This discussion served to refocus attention on the wage disparity issue, and the Wisconsin Contractors Premium Adjustment Program is the result.

If you would like more information about the Premium Adjustment Program, please give Wisconsin LECET a call at:
1-800-782-4634

This spring, for the fifth year in a row, Wisconsin LECET participated in the annual Fly-In to Washington, D.C. of the Transportation Development Association (TDA) of Wisconsin.

More than 50 participants from all over Wisconsin converged on Washington to attend more than six hours of briefings and visit with our U. S. Senators and Congressmen. The message that was conveyed was that economic development and job creation depend on good transportation infrastructure. The federal government has to commit more funding to improve our airports, bridges, roads, and ports.

William Kennedy, a Wisconsin LECET Trustee and President of the Rock Road Companies, Inc. moderated the briefings as the President of TDA.

Wisconsin LECET is also involved in the State of Wisconsin's transportation budget process. The Wisconsin Department of Transportation (WisDOT) needs to spend more money on improving our state transportation infrastructure as well. We are requesting increases in the gas tax and vehicle registration fees to fund WisDOT budget improvements.

If you want to know more about these transportation issues or would like sample letters to send to your national or state legislators, please contact Wisconsin LECET. Your involvement will be appreciated!

Wisconsin LECET's Market Recovery Program for the asbestos abatement industry has had some recent success.

So far this year, two projects have been won by signatory asbestos abatement contractors who participated in our Market Recovery Program. If market recovery funds had not been available, both projects would have gone to non-union contractors. The projects were for the Neillsville School District and the Appleton School District and resulted in almost 3000 hours of work for union laborers.

Participation in our Market Recovery Program for the asbestos abatement industry has increased since the beginning of 1997. Wisconsin LECET began supplying our signatory asbestos abatement contractors with a list of upcoming projects in January along with an explanation of our Market Recovery Program. Since then, we have been getting regular requests for Market Recovery funds.

Minnesota LECET received our Asbestos Abatement Project Update and liked the idea so much, that they also provide this service to their signatories now.

Wisconsin LECET's advertising campaign is moving right along!

Thus far, we have appeared in the directories of the Wisconsin Road Builders Association and the Associated General Contractors, Wisconsin Chapter. In addition, our ad has been in the Manitowoc Building Trades Directory and Buyers Guide and the Union Labor News, a regional newspaper published in Madison. Ads are in the process of being placed in building trades publications in Eau Claire, Green Bay, Janesville and Sheboygan.

Wisconsin LECET is still looking for appropriate publications in which to run our ad that highlights the benefits of labor-management cooperation, the productivity of union labor and the competitiveness of our signatory contractors.

If you would like us to run our ad in a publication, please give us a call or send us the appropriate information!

Wisconsin LECET did the research and the legwork and the Wisconsin Laborers Skill Improvement Fund provided the funding. The result of this collaborative effort is a brand new trade show display booth that is available for marketing our signatory contractors and their well trained and productive workforce.

The Skill Improvement Fund and Wisconsin LECET have already participated in two conferences that showcased the Wisconsin Laborers District Council's unique approach to labor-management cooperation, worker health and safety and apprenticeship and training.

At the Governor's Conference on Economic Development, we were the only union-affiliated organization promoting the benefits of labor-management cooperation and training to 400 CEO's, legislators, the media and opinion-makers.

At the Governor's Statewide Employment and Training Conference, we were very well received by more than 1200 registrants involved in employment, training and government. We were able to give away more than 250 copies of our video tape called "Wisconsin's Best Kept Secret." The 12-minute tape describes the programs and the facility at the Wisconsin Laborers Training Center. The tape was produced by Wisconsin LECET in 1996.

Please let us know which trade show or meeting you think we should participate in next!