Years of efforts by activists lead to access to
union construction jobs for Max Hayes students
by Chuck Hoven

(Plain Press, April 2008) For many years, Don and Norma Freeman have attended Cleveland Municipal School Board meetings and Bond Accountability Committee meetings pressing the school district to use the 2001 bond issue as leverage to gain access to union jobs in the construction industry for Cleveland Public School students.

Their efforts may finally be paying off for students in the construction program at Max Hayes High School, the only school in the district to offer a program in the construction trades. Ironically, the access to union jobs will not come through the large school district construction program but through another large construction program planned by University Hospitals called Vision 2010.

At the March 18th Meeting of the Cleveland Municipal School District, Margaret Hewitt, Vice President of Construction Services at University Hospitals and Loree Soggs, Executive Director of the Cleveland Building and Construction Trades Council announced that, over the next two school years, University Hospitals will provide funds so Max Hayes graduates from its construction program can enter the eight week Union Construction Industry Partnership Apprenticeship Skills Achievement Program (USIP-ASAP). University Hospital has agreed not only to pay the $6,000 tuition for each student, but also agreed to pay students $10 per hour while they attend the eight week program, said Soggs. Graduates of the program are guaranteed an apprenticeship in one of 15 construction trade unions in the partnership.

When it became clear that the Board of Education had decided students would enter the UCIP-ASAP program, Don Freeman insisted that they be paid during their pre-apprenticeship. According to a source at UCIP-ASAP, the lack of a stipend during the 8-week program has presented a hardship for many adults trying to complete the program. A Max Hayes official involved in the apprenticeship program expressed a similar concern as to whether students would complete the program without some kind financial stipend.

The University Hospital program also will give students that graduate from the program shots at jobs in the Vision 2010 construction program or in other hospital construction projects, said Hewitt. This is important because while students will graduate into apprenticeships in one of the fifteen construction unions in the partnership, it can take years for apprentices to obtain journeyman status. The number of hours on jobs is a critical determining factor as to when an apprentice can graduate to journeyman status and receive the higher pay scale that accompanies that status.

News & Articles | Archives