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Black apprentice ranks grow: Construction contractors make notable progress(Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, The (KRT) Via Thomson Dialog NewsEdge) Apr. 16--Milwaukee-area contractors have made "notable progress" in employing African-American construction trade apprentices -- but there's still plenty of room for improvement, according to a report Tuesday from the Milwaukee branch of the NAACP. The agency's report card updates a study released in 2006 that pointed out disparity in the diversity of workers in construction apprenticeships, through which workers earn money while training for careers in the trades. According to the report, prepared by the local National Association for the Advancement of Colored People and the Employment & Training Institute at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee: --The number of African-American apprentices rose 80% to 219 in September 2007 from 122 in September 2005. The number of Hispanic apprentices grew 57% to 151 from 96. --The percentage of African-American trainees rose to nearly 10% of 2,239 apprentices from less than 8% of 1,648 in the same time frame. By comparison, African-Americans make up about 12% of the labor force in the four-county Milwaukee area, including 45% of its unemployed, according to the report's researchers. --For every African-American construction apprentice, the Milwaukee area has eight white apprentices, down from a 1-to-11 ratio two years earlier. --Of the 519 companies examined, 85 increased the number of African-American workers they were employing through apprenticeships. That included 75 of the 406 companies with union apprentices and 10 of the 113 with non-union apprentices. "I must say that I am so excited. We've got a long way to go, but you've got to start somewhere," Jerry Ann Hamilton, president of the Milwaukee NAACP, said in a meeting just prior to a news conference on the report. "I am proud, peacock proud, that we have come this far." NAACP leaders met Tuesday with top officials from the Wisconsin Department of Workforce Development as part of a quarterly get-together that began after the first apprenticeship report card in 2006. At the meeting, Workforce Development Secretary Roberta Gassman made assurances of Gov. Jim Doyle's commitment to continue expanding apprenticeships in the state, despite budget constraints and economic challenges. Among the state's initiatives, Gassman said, is a pilot mentoring project in Milwaukee aimed at improving apprenticeship retention, particularly for African Americans, who have about half the graduation rate of whites and Hispanics. "A huge hats off to the leaders of the NAACP, who for years have been toiling to make sure that there are opportunities for people of color -- for African Americans -- in employment in our community so that people are best able to support themselves and their families and have a future in Milwaukee and in Wisconsin," Gassman said at the news conference. In an interview, Gassman said that aside from the slow economy, employers facing mass retirements in coming years need to get involved in apprenticeships. "The apprenticeship program is one way for Wisconsin employers to develop a skilled work force," Gassman said. Skills, needs mismatch Laura Dresser, a labor economist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, agreed. As associate director of the Center on Wisconsin Strategy, Dresser issued a report Tuesday showing the growing mismatch between the skills of Wisconsin workers and the needs of Wisconsin employers. An educational and training gap threatens Wisconsin's economic future, Dresser said, and apprenticeships present one solution. "There's really no job like the construction trades, where there's such an articulated path from a high school degree to a decent living so systematically. That that pathway be open to people who can walk it, regardless of race, is critical," Dresser said. The NAACP report, based on data from the state Bureau of Apprenticeship Standards, singled out five larger companies for increasing their employment of African-American apprentices: Bechtel Corp., Olympic Wall Systems, Payne & Dolan, Marquette Constructors, and Midwestern Roofing & Construction. At the same time, 40 employers had fewer African-American apprentices than in 2005, and most -- including 103 of the 113 companies with non-union apprentices -- had no African-American apprentices. Hamilton called on private employers to follow the lead of contractors diversifying their apprentices and urged government agencies to increase employment of minority apprentices in public construction projects. "We need to substantially increase the number of African Americans in the construction trades," Hamilton said, "and to open up these job opportunities to the community." To see more of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to http://www.jsonline.com. Copyright (c) 2008, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services. For reprints, email [email protected], call 800-374-7985 or 847-635-6550, send a fax to 847-635-6968, or write to The Permissions Group Inc., 1247 Milwaukee Ave., Suite 303, Glenview, IL 60025, USA. |