LIUNA and our partner employers have, for decades, met the workforce development needs of the construction industry through a self-funded training infrastructure and Registered Apprenticeship programs. 

State-of-the-art training is at no charge and accessible to participating contractors, members, apprentices and pre-apprentices across the U.S. and Canada through over 70 affiliated training centers. Continual, life-long career training opportunities allows workers to upgrade employability skills, move to leadership positions, update safety knowledge, and increase productivity all with the goal of expanding career paths, living wages, and contractor competitiveness.

LIUNA’s labor-management training programs invest millions of private-sector dollars annually into this proven workforce development system. Most recent bipartisan efforts to expand apprenticeship programs across new industries have instead followed a model based on federal and state investment and competitive grants.

Registered Apprenticeships are a benefit to employers, workers, and the public but without careful consideration, these efforts carry the risk of undercutting existing programs. Creating a system with little-to-no enforcement which is structured to reduce wages, standards, oversite, and worker protection will not produce more skilled apprentices. Worse it puts high-quality, self-funded joint employer and labor programs like LIUNA’s at a disadvantage as they are forced to compete with subsidized programs that are not required to meet the same high standards.