MEMBER UPDATE: TAUC agreement with Bureau of Indian Affairs

September 23 2010

Earlier this year, TAUC signed a cooperative agreement with the Bureau of Indian Affairs’ Office of Indian Energy and Economic Development (IEED) to help provide crucial new careers for Native Americans in the construction industry and, at the same time, expand work opportunities for union contractors (you can learn all about the agreement by clicking here).

As part of this new effort, TAUC wants to make our members aware of the various Native American training programs being offered at locations throughout the country by our partners in the building trades international unions. These comprehensive programs are aimed at providing hard-working residents of tribal lands with the opportunity to begin full-time careers in union construction. Since many of the large-scale energy projects being proposed on tribal lands are located in remote locations, standard pools of labor won’t be sufficient to provide all of the necessary manpower.

We hope that by alerting TAUC members to the existence of these programs, contractors will reach out to the unions and either offer their assistance for future training programs or inquire about the possibility of using graduates of the training programs on upcoming jobs on tribal lands.

The International Union of Painters and Allied Trades (IUPAT) recently completed just such a program. IUPAT District Council 5 in Seattle, Wash., in association with IEED, held a five-week, 200-hour class on basic skills training, including painting, sandblasting steel and floor covering. The 10 participants from Washington, Nevada and Montana also received their OSHA 10-hour card and training in First Aid and CPR.

IEED handled all of the recruiting and screening of the applicants. One of the requirements for the course, which ran from July 26 through August 27, was that all applicants had to be willing to travel for the training and possible work opportunities. IUPAT’s goal is to place as many of these students as possible with either commercial or industrial painting contractors.

If you are interested in working with these new graduates or just want to learn more about the program, please contact Greg Renne, the recruitment manager for IUPAT’s Finishing Trades Institute, at 410-564-5850 or grenne@iupat.org.