“
Today, the White House brought labor and business leaders together for a Labor/Management Partnership Summit to address the need for both sides to join together to ensure the country’s workforce is prepared for the jobs of the future. Among those in attendance were Labor Secretary Tom Perez and Commerce Secretary Penny Pritzker.
At the Summit, Secretary Perez urged labor and business leaders to make sure that they work together to ensure America’s workforce is competitive. Secretary Pritzker added that business leaders are eager to step up and play a greater leadership role in training partnerships that provide them with the skilled workers for the jobs they need to fill.
The Summit is one in a series of events—including a four-month “listening tour” by Secretary Pritzker—over the past several months that both Secretaries have attended to show their support for demand-driven sector-based training partnerships that bring together several local or regional employers with labor, educators and other community-based organizations to provide workers with the skills for the jobs that employers need to fill.
This past summer, Secretary Perez visited labor-management partnerships including the Culinary Institute in Las Vegas, a partnership between two local unions and 26 major properties on the Las Vegas Strip, and 1199SEIU Training and Employment facility in New York which is jointly governed by labor and health industry leaders. Both have been successful in providing workers with the skills they need for the jobs that employers they partner with need to fill.
National Skills Coalition has long advocated for demand-driven partnerships between labor and business to align the skills of workers with the needs of employers. And many of these partnerships, including 1199SEIU Training and Employment, are represented as part of the Coalition’s membership and leadership.
NSC applauds the efforts by both Secretaries Perez and Pritzker and the White House to ensure federal policies support demand-driven sector partnerships between business and labor. We will continue working with the Secretaries and the White House to align federal policy with strategies—including labor and management training partnerships—that provide workers and employers with the skills they need to compete.
“
