N.C.C.I. Transfers from Initiative to Institute
CTER/LIUNA Inspired Program Lauded as Bridge Building Between
Construction Unions and Tribes
By Pat Smutz, Communications Director, NW LECET
WASHINGTON, DC - In an historic move from being a simple 3-site demonstration program funded with federal dollars into an Indian/Labor institute, the Native Construction Careers Institute (NCCI) is proving that construction unions, tribes and contractors can all work together to deliver careers in construction on tribal lands. Under the structure of a an adjunct of the Council for Tribal Employment Rights (CTER), the newly-chartered institute is preparing to carry on and improve upon this mission with the addition of the Building and Construction Trades Department of the AFL-CIO, and twelve International Unions that represent thousands of Local Construction Unions throughout the United States.
“We are fortunate to have such a distinguished group of nationally acclaimed labor leaders pledge to respect tribal sovereignty and work with us as partners to train and employ tribal members for work on and near their reservations” said Conrad Edwards, CEO of CTER after hearing that the world’s biggest construction unions signed on to the NCCI charter. “We have worked successfully with many local construction unions on a number of reservations, but to have all the parent unions giving us the extra push to help get our people out of poverty and participating in building projects on their own reservations is almost overwhelming.”
The original plan to demonstrate their improved-program idea of putting tribal members into local construction careers with family supporting wages, benefits, and a respectable retirement was conceived by Ed Hensley of the Laborers International Union of North America (LIUNA) and Edwards. They applied to the Department of Interior’s Office of Indian Energy and Economic Development for money to deliver a jointly-sponsored demonstration project. Their objective was to prove that their former experience working on tribal employment preference on reservation projects could be done anywhere if the same model were used. As a result, professional on-site training and job placement was developed using LIUNA’s experience in developing custom training modules and CTER’s reputation for fighting to secure and increase Indian employment preference. And it worked everywhere a tribe adopted it. Tribal members came to class every morning, received real hands-on training working on a tribal building in need of work, and then went home every evening knowing they were learning skills that would not only serve them but their tribe as well.
Working on a project by project basis, the NCCI program quickly sidebecame known as a program that a number of tribes wanted to “keep rolling” on their individual reservations after their first government funded experience with the program. The Blackfeet Nation and Spirit Lake tribes have repeatedly asked for, and received, return visits of the mobile training programs after almost all of their program participants found ready employment with their new skills. Topping this is the fact that each training project resulted in increasing the value of tribal buildings and infrastructures.
“We have been invited to create an on-site construction training program for so many tribes that I honestly couldn’t tell you how many, but now that we’ve got all the other construction unions believing the NCCI approach is the way to develop a program on a reservation, we are going to really expand the operation” commented Hensley who also serves as the Laborers Union’s North American Native Liaison. “I believe we now have the horsepower to bring the best training and employment opportunities to tribes way beyond what we’ve done to date.”
The move to formalize the original program took shape in Washington, DC with the help of CTER’s General Counsel Dan Press and the Building and Construction Trades Department’s, Bob Krul. Press, also a Capitol Hill lobbyist for CTER, was instrumental in drawing up the charter and helping move the program’s concept through Congress gaining millions that the administration is supposed to utilize on the NCCI program.
“I think the Laborers Union and CTER struck on something that the other unions found merit in and we were able to bring the others to the table because it made so much sense” said Press after hearing about all the construction unions’ pledges to support the institute. “This is one of the best things I’ve seen in my long career fighting for Indian job preference. The tribes and the construction unions are demonstrating a partnership and a level of respect that heretofore never existed. We are actually making history here.”