Name:             Industrial Retention and Expansion Network (WIRE-NET)

Location:             Cleveland, Ohio

Sector/

Industry:            Manufacturing (machining)

Description:    Industrial Retention and Expansion Network (WIRE-NET) works with Cleveland manufacturers to provide workforce development and training, manufacturing improvement, community investment and redevelopment, and expansion and relocation services.  Founded in 1988, the organization serves more than 150 members and stands as a model for employer-led associations around the country.

WIRE-Net provides its members with numerous services including sales and marketing forums, technology roundtables, finance development assistance, industrial real estate services, and a workforce development and job placement program.

WIRE-Net’s WorkSource program matches employer needs with local training programs, and has helped revitalize Cleveland’s west side.  WIRE-NET also used its deep knowledge of precision machining to coordinate a training program for low-income people with the nearby NASA Glenn Research Center.  The creation of a qualified workforce has significantly contributed to the retention and growth of many west-side manufacturers.

Name:             Pimavera WORKS

Location:             Tucson, Arizona

Sector/

Industry:            Construction, services, others

Description:    Primavera WORKS provides the training and support that helps homeless and low-income individuals become reliable, entry-level workers for Tucson-area employers.  In addition to assisting with permanent placements, Primavera also functions as a day-labor service for Tucson-area businesses in need of daily workers, short-term crew work, or temp-to-hire positions.  Primavera specializes in placements in construction, janitorial, light manufacturing, data entry, landscaping and groundskeeping.

                        By providing motivated and trained workers for short-term projects, Primavera eliminates business costs for interviewing, payroll activities, workers compensation, and unemployment insurance.  Primavera also provides transportation, lunch, and safety gear for its workers – ensuring better performance and improved working conditions for the often exploited day-labor workers.  Primavera serves an average of 900 people each year – 350 through its day-labor program.

                        By following a dual-strategy approach, Primavera is able to provide training and support for workers in their target population of homeless and low-income, as well as serving as a model employer supplying contingent workers for a range of occupations.  Workers in those occupations benefit from improved working conditions and benefits, and Primavera’s approach seeks to improve conditions for all of the contingent workers in the area. 

Name:             Cooperative Home Care Associates

Location:             New York City, New York

Sector/

Industry:            Health care

Description:    The Cooperative Home Care Associates (CHCA) is a worker-owned cooperative and employer-based training program that provides home health aide services in New York City's South Bronx and Northern Manhattan. The cooperative was launched in 1985 as part of a strategy to improve the low-wage occupation of the home health aide.   As CHCA developed, the organization's strategy became focused on establishing a business entity to demonstrate how the home health care job could be improved, with a goal of spreading those practices by becoming a “yardstick” corporation against which other firms would measure themselves. 

                        The home health aide workforce is overwhelmingly female and typically low income.  It often includes former welfare clients, and is disproportionately made up of immigrants.  Most of the jobs involve contingent work (i.e., workers are dependent on having a patient to care for, and when a patient is hospitalized or dies, the aide is temporarily out of work), pay relatively little, provide less than full-time hours, and offer limited or no benefits.  Funds to pay for home health care come in part from governmental programs, which add an overlay of regulation not found in most other industries. 

CHCA took several steps toward achieving success relatively early in its existence.  Dissatisfied with the training its aides were receiving from the local community college, CHCA developed its own training program for home health care aides.  Workers received five paid personal leave days per year, as well as a life insurance benefit.  The percentage of CHCA workers employed full-time reached 70 percent. 

This approach to sectoral activities is noteworthy in that the partnership entity becomes one of the employers within the industry, and seeks to become an industry leader by following quality practices and advocating for reform of policies and industry practices that adversely affect workers and industry products.  As part of the home health industry, CHCA has improved the quality of jobs, developed career ladders, influenced industry practice and effected policy change.

Name:             Project QUEST (Quality Employment through Skills Training)

Location:             San Antonio, Texas

Sector/

Industry:            Health care, services

Description:    Founded in 1992, Project QUEST has training tracks for numerous occupations within multiple industries.  Services are focused on low-income, primarily Latino residents of the San Antonio area.

                        QUEST targets three industry sectors:  health services, business systems/information technology, and maintenance, repair and overhaul.  Occupations are targeted based on demand by local firms, and selection criteria also include wage rate, availability of benefits, and career-mobility potential.  Training is structured to address the financial and social needs of the working poor as they participate in occupational training, and QUEST supports training only for career tracks that can lead to economic self-sufficiency.

                        System change has occurred through the creation of stronger links between area employers and community colleges.  QUEST has changed the way the community college system approaches remedial skill development, facilitating easier access to degree-granting programs for those who first need basic skills education.  In some instances, QUEST’s occupational analysis has helped employers restructure positions to make them more attractive to local workers.

                        The multi-sector strategy is different from most sectoral initiatives, which tend to concentrate on improving employment opportunities and the quality of jobs within a single industry or occupation.  One benefit of this approach is the availability of a wide range of occupational choices to low-income participants, which enable QUEST to assist a larger and more diverse pool of individuals.  The approach does raise the question of how deeply embedded QUEST can become within each industry to be effective.