Members Urged to Contact Labor Dept. Immediately
The OPCMIA and our brother and sister unions in the building trades run the best apprenticeship programs in the world, providing comprehensive skills and safety training that empowers new members to learn while they earn and generates the world-class craftspeople our industry needs. They are a shining success story, as every OPCMIA member can attest.
But now, our apprenticeship programs are under threat — because the anti-union Associated Builders and Contractors (ABC) are trying to ram through a plan to allow substandard “Industry-Recognized Apprenticeship Programs” (IRAPS) in construction.
This wrongheaded scheme flouts the conclusions of the U.S. Department of Labor’s Task Force on Apprenticeship Expansion, followed by a July 27, 2018 DOL Training and Employment Notice (TEN) 3-18, which stated that IRAPs would NOT be available in construction.
We cannot allow a small, ideologically-driven special interest group that represents only 15,000 anti-union contractors undermine the integrity of the entire registered apprenticeship system in construction and jeopardize the Building Trades’ $1.5 billion annual investment in the highest quality apprenticeship training.
To save OPCMIA’s top-notch Apprenticeship Program, please submit a public comment to the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) today. This is of the utmost urgency.
Please go to http://saveopcmiaapprenticeships.org
RIGHT NOW!
