Labor and management: working together for a stable future.

• Author: Colby, Nicole A. Bonham
• Position: MANAGEMENT

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As baby boomers enter retirement age and attrition out of the commercial trades and labor work force, Alaska unions and employers are working together to ensure a steady stream of skilled Alaska workers. Training academies and apprenticeships are tangible evidence of how management and labor--sometimes traditionally at opposite ends of the bargaining table--have joined forces to cultivate collaborative relations and streamline the worker's path from training and education to stable and lucrative employment.

"It's been a great thing for our industry," says Steve Boyd, manager of the Alaska Chapter of the National Electrical Contractors Association (NECA). "We've had several years of high-level cooperation on a lot of different issues. We've come to the conclusion that we're in the same industry; we should try to get along and work together. We enjoy our partnership with the (International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers) IBEW."

The unions and contractors representing the other trades and construction sectors mirror Boyd's sentiment, which is also reflected in the numerous education-oriented and public awareness efforts co-sponsored by the various groups. Such initiatives have proven important enough to workers and contractors alike that each group is putting their money behind the efforts to further their own employment sectors.

"We realize that if the contractor is not successful, our members will be not be successful," says Joey Merrick, who serves as business manager for Laborers' Local 341 based in Anchorage and first joined the union after moving to Alaska in 1989.

APPRENTICESHIPS

The apprentice concept is one example where unions and management have collaborated to benefit the industry. According to a summer report issued by the Alaska Department of Labor and Workforce Development, some 11,000 Alaskans will enter the state's work-age demographic this year, joining 29,000 unemployed Alaskans in vying for available jobs. Research Analyst Jack Cannon and Economist Yuancie Lee reported in a July Economic Trends article, "Alaska's Registered Apprenticeships," that many will enter a registered apprenticeship program to ensure they come to the table with applicable, high-quality training and skills.

"Workers who have successfully completed an apprenticeship are likely to find stable, living-wage jobs--and employers who sponsor apprentices invest in their industry, employees, and the future of their company by fostering a loyal local work force," the authors wrote. "More than 60 percent of registered apprenticeships in Alaska between 1998 and 2009 were sponsored in 'joint' apprenticeship programs: partnerships between employers, unions and/or employee associations."

As one example of such partnership programs, NECA and the IBEW in the late 1990s jointly funded their Labor Management Cooperation Committee. The groups brought in a Cornell University consultant, gathered their respective members at the...