Stop U.S. Labor Department’s Push for IRAP apprenticeships Bad for Workers, Bad for the Public, Bad for America

Sign This Petition

Cell Phone
I would like to receive periodic text message alerts on this and other issues (Msg & data rates may apply)
- You may receive email updates from GP Bulletin, the sponsor of this petition.
- Edit Subscription Preferences Close Preferences
- - Opt in to email updates from GP Bulletin

Stop U.S. Labor Department’s Push for IRAP apprenticeships Bad for Workers, Bad for the Public, Bad for America

White House Office of Management and Budget

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.

Help us educate the White House and stop IRAPs in their tracks. Sign our petition to voice your opposition to IRAPs because they’re bad for workers, bad for the public and bad for America.

Sponsored by

GP Bulletin

To: White House Office of Management and Budget
From: [Your Name]

I urge the Office of Management and Budget and the White House to oppose federal funding for the White House Domestic Policy Council’s proposed Industry Recognized Apprenticeship Program, or IRAPs. Additionally, please follow the lead of a bipartisan House of Representatives, which voted to remove the construction industry from IRAPs. These pro-employer, non-union apprenticeships would be bad for workers, bad for the public and bad for America.

Unlike the highly acclaimed, collaborative union-contractor Finishing Trade Institute apprenticeship programs, IRAPs lack enforcement mechanisms to assure quality control and to crack down on the Labor Department’s hand-picked accreditors or programs that have poor outcomes.

IRAPs are schemes perpetrated for the benefit of anti-union industry members, not for the benefit of apprentices and their desire for fulsome earn-while-you-learn training programs that will give them the skills that will lead to a good, well-paying career.

I urge you to say NO to the White House Domestic Policy Council’s plans for IRAPs. They’re bad for workers, bad for the public and bad for America.