Max Hayes construction students.JPG
Building and construction trades students at Cleveland's Max Hayes High School will sometimes learn directly from union tradesmen under a pre-apprenticeship program the district, city and unions reached this week.
(Patrick O'Donnell/The Plain Dealer)
CLEVELAND, Ohio - Justin Parrish and his classmates at Max Hayes vocational high school haven't yet learned the full benefit of the new job-training deal the city, school district and local trades unions signed this week.
But the junior in the building and construction program already knows the bottom line: The new pre-apprenticeship program will give Max Hayes students a real opportunity for jobs in the building trades once it starts next year.
"The students will like the opportunity," Parrish said. "If they're really into construction, they can get a job."
It's a deal that was close to happening a year ago, but hit a snag because of a dispute between the unions and the city over wages.
But now that it's signed, here's what
offers students:
- The unions themselves providing a curriculum to best teach the skills needed in trades like carpentry, masonry, plumbing and electrical work.
- Expert workers from the unions coming to the school to guide instruction and teach classes so that students can meet union work standards.
- A state-recognized pre-apprenticeship program that will ideally let graduates apply directly for apprenticeships right out of school.
- A commitment from unions to work with and track students after graduation until they are hired.
- An agreement that more construction jobs in the city will truly hire city residents, women and minorities so that these students have a realistic shot at well-paying jobs.
"It's a more clear path for the work they (students) want to do," said Principal Phillip Schwenk. "It takes down a lot of barriers."
It also lets teachers show students a real payoff for hard work on skills in their classes.
"It allows us to put some meat behind the promise," he said.
Dave Wondolowski, executive secretary of the Cleveland Building and Construction Trades Council, said the program will be similar to one at Cuyahoga Community College. He said unions will "take ownership" of the program and give students an introduction to all of the building trades.
"They can see what it's like to be an ironworker, see what it's like to be a sheet metal worker, see what it's like to be a plumber," Wondolowski said. "They can make a knowledgeable decision where they want to end up."
And he pledged to help students that complete the program find work.
"It would be irresponsible to get kids to graduation and never work with them again," he said.
The program will start next year as the school moves from its Detroit Road home at the western edge of Ohio City to a new school off of Interstate 90.
Already agreeing to participate are these unions or local training centers: Building Laborers Local 310, Pipefitters Local 120, Plumbers Local 55, Northeast Ohio Carpenters, Painters and Allied Trades District Council 6, Sheet Metal Workers Local 33, Electrical Workers Local 38, Northern Ohio Bricklayers.
The deal is a very political one. It comes as an amendment to the "Community Benefits Agreement" that the city, unions and several other organizations signed last February as a way to encourage construction projects to hire minorities, women and city residents to keep dollars invested in the city.
As we reported last year, those new standards are built into the specifications of all city construction projects. The architects of the agreement hope that those commissioning projects in the private sector will sign on, too, and that eventually, hiring locally trained workers will become the industry norm for the region.
The new amendment announced this week won't be a favorite of free market advocates: It requires participants to pay prevailing wages wherever possible.
The Max Hayes deal was near completion a year ago until Wondolowski and Mayor Frank Jackson had a dispute over the non-prevailing wages in two large projects: the "Upper Chester" redevelopment project around E. 100th Street and Chester Avenue and the "Breakwater" apartment project in the Detroit-Shoreway neighborhood.
The sides had a stalemate for a year until Jackson agreed to include paying prevailing wages as part of any Community Benefit Agreement project.
"We wanted some assurances that we were going to see more of the work go to union contracts," Wondolowski said this week.
He said the CBA now increases the demand for union work and allows contractors that use the unions to compete for jobs against those that use lower-paid labor.
There was also an issue with state rules barring any school construction project that receives state money from requiring prevailing wages to be paid. The district just passed a $200 million bond issue in November to renovate and rebuild aging schools - most of which would have been excluded from requiring bidders to pay prevailing wages.
Wondolowski and school district CEO Eric Gordon said the use of federal bonds to pay for part of the construction might have allowed the district to override that rule. But Wondolowski said he understands if the district cannot legally pay the wages.
"We all understand the limit, but our good faith is to use it (prevailing wage) whenever it's allowable," Gordon said. "We will continue to advocate that the state relax that rule. We think that rule is too proscriptive."
The district is also sending a letter to Gov. John Kasich asking him to relax those rules here and Wondolowski is trying to meet with the governor to discuss them. Though some Republican legislators want Kasich to seek Right-to-Work legislation, Kasich's administration has been sympathetic to efforts to improve minority job opportunities.
Last year the Ohio Department of Transportation increased efforts to use minority contractors more on Inner Belt projects.
During the delay, retired teacher Don Freeman regularly berated the school board and Gordon for not resolving the dispute. He complained several times that the delay was preventing another graduating class of students from having the program. And he recently called for the district to block any of the local unions from participating in school projects until they agreed to start the pre-apprenticeship program.
"It is deplorable that this could not have been done and competed much earlier so the first to benefit could have been the class of 2015," Freeman said. "Wondolowski dragged his feet on it, rather than signing it a year earlier."
Freeman said the agreement puts in place the program he has sought for several years. But he is still cautious.
"This is the closest that the unions and the district have come to what needs to happen," he said. "It remains to be seen and observed what happens."
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