North America’s Building Trades Unions praised the Department of Labor for exempting the construction industry from a new Industry-Recognized Apprenticeship Program.
The Trump administration released a notice of proposed rulemaking this week under which the DOL would recognize construction apprenticeships as “contexts where registered apprenticeship opportunities are already significant.”
“Accordingly, the Department would not, at least initially, accept
applications from Standards Recognition Entities seeking to recognize apprenticeship programs in the U.S. Military or in construction.”
In response, NABTU President Sean McGarvey issued a statement commending 
the administration “for recognizing in the proposed rule on Industry-Recognized Apprenticeship Programs that these new programs have no place in the construction industry. We firmly believe this exemption should be a permanent part of the final rule.”
“Our $1.6 billion annual investment, funded jointly with our industry partners without any tax dollars, trains hundreds of thousands of men and women at 1,600 registered training facilities located in every state and almost every Congressional district,” said McGarvey. “As the proposed rule recognizes, any new parallel system of apprenticeship must not undercut this significant investment and the high standards petrochemical, nuclear, refining, pharmaceutical and power industries demand.”
For more coverage, see Trump Job Training Plan Resolves Construction Fight for Now on BloombergLaw.com.
