State Senate passes apprenticeship ratio bill (UPDATE)

Listen to this article

The state Senate approved a bill on party lines Wednesday meant to combat the construction industry’s persistent labor shortage by preventing more than one journeyman from ever being required to oversee the work of an apprentice.

The Republican-sponsored legislation, Assembly Bill 508, was approved by the state Senate on a 18-14 vote. All Republicans in that chamber voted for it and all Democrats against. The state Assembly passed the same bill in the fall, meaning that all it needs now is the governor’s signature to become law.

The state now allows the Department of Workforce Development to set ratios determining how many journeymen should be overseeing the work of apprentices who are looking to get into the industry. The current rules vary from to trade to trade.

The mandated ratio for carpenters, for instance, starts at one-to-one when there is only one apprentice in a given class. But for every apprentice who joins after that, three more journeymen must be added.

John Mielke, president of the Associated Builders and Contractors of Wisconsin, said that setting journeymen-to-apprentices ratios at one-to-one for all trades would help the construction industry combat an ongoing shortage of skilled workers. The industry’s predicament has become even more dire now that the Tawainese manufacturing giant Foxconn plans employ as many as 10,000 construction workers in building a 20 million-square-foot manufacturing campus in Mount Pleasant, he said.

“Wisconsin is behind other states, including:  Iowa, Utah, North Dakota, Colorado and Nebraska, which all have 1-1 apprenticeship to journey-person ratios,” Mielke said. “The federal government routinely approves 1-1 ratios for its apprenticeship programs. Michigan just passed a law that allows 3 electrical apprentices to serve under 1 skilled worker. AB 508 will help get more individuals into the skilled trades without costing taxpayers any more money or endangering safety.”

Not everyone is in favor of setting the ratios at one-to-one, though. Union groups have been vocal in their criticism of AB 508, saying the proposed changes to the current system could lessen industry representatives’ influence over training policy.

When now setting the ratios, the Department of Workforce Development relies on recommendations provided by various advisory committees. Steve Kwaterski, communications director for the Wisconsin Laborers’ District Council, said the advisory committees are made up of representatives of labor, management and trade groups and of both union and non-union interests. He said proponents of setting an across-the-board training ratio “ignore the differences between the skilled trades.”

“This bill appears to be a solution in search of a problem,” he said in an email. “The purpose of the current journeyman to apprentice ratio is to ensure the quality of training on the job is superior.”

Terry Hayden, president of the Wisconsin Pipe Trades Association, said that some employers are even going beyond the current requirements and enlisting more journeymen than necessary to oversee the work of apprentices. He said he thinks restricting the ratios to one-to-one will do little to bring in new workers.

“This isn’t going to be the large windfall that it’s perceived to be,” Hayden said.

Also on Tuesday, lawmakers in the state Assembly were expected to take up two other proposals aimed at increasing interest in apprenticeship programs.

One bill, AB 745, would allow seniors in high school to participate in an apprenticeship program as long as they could still be expected to graduate within a year and as long as the training would not interfere with their regular studies. Another bill, AB 124, would allow information on apprenticeship opportunities to be sent out to people who had recently dropped out of college.