Study says unions train more minorities

Construction union apprenticeship programs in Oregon recruit and graduate more women and minorities than their open-shop counterparts, according to a study released in May by the Labor Education and Research Center of the University of Oregon.

The study, by professors Barbara Byrd and Marc Weinstein, analyzed three areas — enrollment, completion rates and diversity — of apprenticeship programs governed by both union and open-shop committees. Data was gathered from the Apprenticeship and Training Division of the Bureau of Labor and Industries spanning from 1992 to 2004. Records were then checked for accuracy by contacting the respective training programs.

“Our findings indicated that not only do union programs graduate more apprentices overall and women and minorities in particular than open-shop programs, but they also have higher completion rates for most categories of workers,” the study’s authors concluded. “Oregon policymakers should be aware of the performance differences.”

The study couldn’t have come at a better time.

At a contentious meeting of the Portland Development Commission May 11, chair Matt Hennessee said “it will be a good day for all of us” when construction unions better involve women and people of color in their organizations. The topic of the meeting was prevailing wage laws and how they should apply to projects that are financed with private and public monies. Hennessee’s insinuation of racism within the trades infuriated union officials who were at the meeting. (See Open Forum on Pages 14 and 15)

Pete Savage, regional manager of the Pacific Northwest Regional Council of Carpenters, told the NW Labor Press that minorities make up approximately 20 percent of the City of Portland’s population, and that “21 percent of the people being trained by the Carpenters Union are minority.”

At a PDC meeting May 25, several construction union representatives who were at the May 11 PDC meeting handed Hennessee a copy of the LERC report.

Key findings outlined in the report show that union apprenticeship programs graduate almost twice as many minorities and more than twice as many women, than do open-shop programs.

In 2004, union apprenticeship programs were training 57 percent of all construction apprentices. At the end of December 2004 there were 2,571 apprentices in union programs compared to 1,915 in open-shop programs. Of that, union programs were training more than twice as many women and minorities than their open-shop counterparts.

Women’s share of union apprenticeship enrollments is approximately 7 percent, and minority enrollments in union programs is 14.2 percent. Comparatively, women comprise just 3.6 percent of open-shop enrollment and minority enrollment is 10 percent.

“On a trade-by-trade basis, women graduate at a consistently higher rate in union programs, and minorities graduate at a higher rate in most union programs,” the authors concluded.

“Some unions are doing real well, some unions could do better,” said Bob Shiprack, executive director of the Oregon State Building and Construction Trades Council. “But the way we’ve been depicted in the media lately — this information needs be out there.”

Overall, the study found that 55 percent of all construction apprenticeship graduates come from union programs.

Oregon’s apprenticeship system consists of supervised on-the-job training combined with related classroom instruction. Apprentices typically start at a approximately half of the established journey-level wage in their trade, progressing to full journey-level status upon completion of the required programs, which typically run four to five years.

Union training programs are governed by committees and do not involve public funds, other than oversight by BOLI and the State Apprenticeship and Training Council.

The first apprenticeship programs in Oregon were operated by unions starting in the 1920s.

In 1931, Oregon became the second state in the nation to recognize and formalize a statewide apprenticeship training system.

© Oregon Labor Press Publishing Co. Inc.