Stop U.S. Labor Department’s Push for IRAP apprenticeships Bad for Workers, Bad for the Public, Bad for America
A bipartisan House of Representatives gets it. Will political operatives in the Administration?
In a huge bipartisan win, the House voted down the White House Domestic Policy Council’s desire to include the construction industry in planned pro-employer, non-union apprenticeship programs. These apprenticeships would undermine the longstanding, highly successful union-contractor apprenticeships with their own version that would cut corners and hurt workers and the public. The Department of Labor is pushing Congress and the White House right now to fund its Industry Recognized Apprenticeship Program, or IRAPs.
IRAPs are bad for workers, bad for the public and bad for America.
IRAPs won’t ever hold a candle to the high standards, quality control, pay and experience that apprentices get through the collaborative union-contractor Finishing Trade Institute apprenticeship programs, such as the ones provided by the International Union of Painters and Allied Trades.
In a fox-watching-the-hen-house scheme, the Labor Department would recognize 70 IRAP accreditors and give them authority to determine if a program meets standards that the Labor Department developed. IRAPs would lack specific enforcement mechanisms to assure quality control and crack down on accreditors or programs that have poor outcomes. IRAPs are not unlike the scam perpetuated by for-profit, worthless career and trade schools that left students jobless and broke.
Once the Administration understands the reality, we are sure they will put a stop to IRAPs before they hurt workers and the public.
