Local 49 Drives Major Policy Change at MN/DOT

Minnesota and certain cities and counties are making a concerted effort to increase diversity among contractors bidding on public sector work and the workers they employ. With that come annual increases in the number of jobs required by the Disadvantaged Business Enterprise (DBE) and On-The-Job training (OJT) programs.

In the last 2 years, Local 49 has led efforts to make sure that improved diversity is achieved in a responsible manner that does not negatively impact workers and contractors of all backgrounds already in the construction industry. We have worked with MNDOT and Summit Academy to change the On-the-Job-Training program, making it work better for apprentices interested in reaching journeymen status. Now, registered apprentices will be allowed to qualify for the OJT program as long as they are still in the apprenticeship program, no matter how many hours they have worked in the program. Also, apprentices will be allowed to move from job to job and from contractor to contractor and still maintain their OJT eligibility.

These are important changes that will help Local 49’s female and minority apprentices reach journeymen status while providing signatory contractors improved flexibility.

“These changes were long overdue,” said Gary Lindblad, director of training for Local 49. “These new rules allow us to ensure that all workers will be on a path from an apprenticeship program to a future as a journeyman in our industry, not just a temporary job. We feel that the success of anyone depends on the training they receive both on and off the job. Even more importantly, those who enter a jobsite know how to properly and safely operate their equipment and have a sufficient amount of hands-on-training.”

In addition to this change, Local 49 and Summit Academy will be responsible for designing and implementing a curriculum at Summit to train workers for highway heavy construction. These moves allow unions like Local 49 just one more avenue to attract skilled workers as older operators retire.

“Traditionally, many men and women raised on the family farm joined Local 49 and other building trade unions for a more secure future and better health care and pension benefits,” said Glen Johnson, Local 49’s business manager. “As the landscape of family farming has transformed, we have to find new resources of young workers.”

Local 49 is also making an effort to recruit and promote registered DBE contractors that are signatory to Local 49. Our contractors are going to need qualified, certified DBE subcontractors, and we need to make sure that we are signing them up to Local 49 so that members who are on the out-of-work list can get jobs with these DBE subcontractors.

All of this work has an important purpose. We need to reach out to different communities to find the next generation of operating engineers, and we also need to make sure that we continue to meet the needs of our signatory contractors. Local 49 is leading the way in finding innovative solutions to these complicated problems, and we will continue to be out front looking for responsible solutions.