How-To Guide
Unions as Partners: Expanding the Role of Organized Labor in Workforce Development
About
Advocates that union involvement can be integral to the reemployment of the American workforce.
The report “highlighted several workforce partnerships in which organized labor has played a significant role. It demonstrated why such a role should be encouraged within, and beyond, traditionally unionized industries, and suggested how policymakers and practitioners can support an expansion of that role for unions” (p. iv). (Abstractor: Author)
Major Findings and Recommendations
The author “concluded with suggestions that can support the growth and success of partnerships [with unions]:
• Redefine Old Paradigms. When unions and employers share goals, support the means of alignment, such as the sharing of best practices, more substantial dialogues about mutual outcomes and ways to achieve them, and the inclusion of visionary leaders who can move shared agendas forward.
• Rethink Labor Markets. Rather than acting through one employer at a time, union and industry sectors should look across their industries at the larger issues of skill sets, economic mobility, and career advancement ladders.
• Expand Access to Academic Credentials. A hallmark of many workplace-sponsored or focused training programs is the drive to ensure that participants receive academic credentials. It is no longer enough for individuals to receive training—as good as it may be—if they do not also receive academic creditor some credential that has meaning in the labor market.
• Develop Career Pathways. The opportunity to learn skills and increase earnings through visible and accessible career ladders can help ensure that individuals have multiple pathways to career and economic success over their working lives, and that organizations and regional” (p.v). (Abstractor: Author)
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- Last Updated:
- Created:
- Resource Publication Date: 2010
- Author(s): Wagner, Stacey
- Organizational Author(s): Jarrett Wagner Group, LLC
- Funding Source: National Fund for Workforce Solutions, Jobs for the Future
- Resource Availability: Publicly available
- Posted by: Wesley Peterson
- Posted in: Workforce System Strategies