In Wisconsin, the number of overhaul in Wisconsin grew, but a new report indicates that growth with some changes to the Wisconsin Act may have been stronger.
One change would be to restore the prevailing wage law of the state for state construction projects. The other would be to remove wisconsin “right to work”-a measure that prevents unions from demanding all employees to pay union contributions.
The report was created by the Midwest Economic Policy InstituteSent in La Grange, Illinois, and carried out together with the Project to renew the middle class At the University of Illinois in Urbana Champaign.
“While increased public investments in the construction sector have a positive effect on the apprenticeship training system, it is clear that state political interventions that undermine the unit institutions, prioritized the training, had the opposite effect,” said U of I, Professor Robert Bruno, director of the project for the renewal of the middle class.
Bruno said that the states can increase their investments in preliminary approval programs in addition to re -hiring Wisconsin 'prevailing wage law and the abolition of the right to work in order to increase basic skills for qualified craftsmen. He also proposed tax credits in order to give more employers an incentive to “invest in our long -term domestic labor offering”.
In the study of data from 2022, the authors of the study found that organized construction companies make up 22% of the hardware store in Wisconsin. Nevertheless, apprenticeship training programs, which are jointly operated by employers and unions, will enroll 77% of the building training courses and 96% of the money issued in Wisconsin for training programs.
During the training “The union -organized segment of the construction industry is of great importance to its weight,” said the Mepi economist Frank Manzo IV to the Wisconsin tester.
Financing advantage
Wisconsin has also certified construction programs for building balances that were operated solely by employers, but Mepi found that they only enrolled 23% of the trainees.
The investment in training programs was as one -sided as the report stated. The expenditure for joint trade union management programs was $ 64.3 million in 2022 compared to $ 2.9 million, which were only spent on the programs for employers.
One reason for this gap is financing, said Manzo. The work agreements of the building union include a provision to cover the costs for apprenticeship training programs as part of the hourly wages and the services of the individual employees.
“You will be financed by employees per hour by employers who are used to form the next generation of experts,” said Manzo. “So there is always money for registered apprentice training programs.”
In contrast, only programs for employers “only rely on voluntary contributions from these employers,” he said.
The study comes when the administration of Tony Evers from Wisconsin suggests a suggestions of one Administrative rule Request of this contractor Employ apprentices as 10% of their workforce for state projects.
“At the moment, these are all areas in which we are examining how we can offer high -quality jobs in the middle class,” said Kent Miller, President of the district council of the workers of the worker in Wisconsin. The union represents a wide cross -section of construction workers.
“I heard many times from members how an apprenticeship helped them get their first home,” said Miller. “As much as we can invest in Wisconsin workers, it pays dividends in the street. That is why the construction industry of the private sector union makes these investments in programs for employee training.”
Requirements for qualified workers
Mepi's study emerged from the review of the non -profit institute, such as states react to an increasing need for qualified workers.
“The construction industry is faced with a high demand for qualified traders to modernize infrastructure, energy systems and domestic manufacturing systems, and that really happens in the middle west – over the rust girdle,” said Manzo.
The research team awaited Wisconsin in the rapidly growing countries in the enrollment of training. Although the figures for the training from 2016 to 2024 have risen by almost 50%, “we have found that this growth has actually delayed the neighboring countries in which guidelines were maintained that promote the investments and guidelines for workers who promote the rights of employees,” said Manzo.
The clearest correlation that the researchers found was whether the states requested that the contractors pay the prevailing local wages for state -funded construction projects.
Just like a federal law known as Davis Bacon Act, for construction projects in federal institutions in order to pay the prevailing wages, a number of states have similar laws for state and local government projects.
Treaty for government projects are funded that are usually based on the lowest offer. The prevailing wage laws require that bidders meet the local wage standards and prevent them from reducing wages to win the contract.
The requirements “are increasing to competitive conditions,” said Miller, President of the Workers' Union. “It prevents foreign contractors from coming to Wisconsin, tax-financed projects with low bidding, the sloppy work and the taxpayer dollars we would like to see here in Wisconsin.”
However, Wisconsin raised his state -prevailing wage law in 2017.
Promotion of training investments
The MEPI researchers found that in four nearby states – Illinois, Michigan, Minnesota and Ohio – the number of construction apprentices rose by a little more than 63% from 2016 to 2024. All four states have retained their prevailing wages during this period.
The prevailing wage laws “ensure that all corporate status of the trade union, on the other hand, would oblige these contributions per hour to registered apprenticeship training programs while performing work on projects for public work,” said Manzo.
Wisconsin's “Right to Work”, which was issued in 2015, could also affect the growth of the training, according to the authors of the study. Such laws prohibit employers and unions to negotiate contracts in which all employees in the union either pay union fees or have to pay a fee for the costs of working for union work for employees.
The law is “a government regulation that forces unions to represent non -members for free negotiation power by reducing the resources that unions otherwise organize and provide resources and have to work for investments in training, security and work quality in the construction site,” said Manzo.
As he has in every budget proposed by him, EVER contains in his provisions of the 2025-27 budget plan to restore the state-prevailing wages and end the right to work. Both were part of more than 600 points, which the Republican majority of the legislator's Joint Financial Committee removed on Thursday on their first day of household consultations.
The restoration of Wisconsin, which creates the prevailing wage law and the abolition of the right to work, creates an economic environment in which qualified craftsmen know that they are supported, said Jacob Heger, a member analyst and co-author of the report.
“You can go into these apprenticeship programs, you can get the high -quality training you need [in state law]And that people have their backs in their state captols, ”said Heger.
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