Florida apprenticeship ordinances are easy to pass, hard to enforce

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America's Work Force Union Podcast AWF

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Shawn McDonnell

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West Central Florida Labor Council President and Assistant Business Manager/Organizer and President of IBEW Local 915 Shawn McDonnell joined the America’s Work Force Union Podcast and discussed the struggle to get apprenticeship ordinances enforced once they are passed.

The West Central Florida Labor Council has had success getting union-friendly politicians elected in local races, and it has no problem getting apprenticeship ordinances passed, McDonnell explained. However, the enforcement of the ordinances is a challenge, he said.

McDonnell explained how one contractor on the City Center project in Tampa Bay. awarded a steel erector project to a subcontractor who did not have a state approved apprenticeship program.

He then talked about the challenges of organizing in Florida, a So-Called “Right to Work” state. He discussed the differences between top down and bottom up organizing, along with the different approaches required when speaking to both contractors and workers about the benefits of the union building trades. Oftentimes, workers need to be inoculated against anti-union rhetoric, he added.

Lastly, McDonnell addressed Florida House Bill 1197, which would require unions with less than 50 percent membership to recertify every year. It is an annual push by anti-union legislators in the state, but he does not expect the bill to have any legs.

Listen to the entire episode to learn more about these topics.

America’s Work Force is the only daily labor podcast in the US and has been on the air since 1993, supplying listeners with useful, relevant input into their daily lives through fact-finding features, in-depth interviews, informative news segments and practical consumer reports. America’s Work Force is committed to providing an accessible venue in which America's workers and their families can hear discussion on important, relevant topics such as employment, healthcare, legislative action, labor-management relations, corporate practices, finances, local and national politics, consumer reports and labor issues.

America’s Work Force Union Podcast is brought to you in part by our sponsors: AFL-CIO, American Federation of Government Employees, American Federation of Musicians Local 4, Alliance for American Manufacturing, Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield, Brotherhood of Maintenance of Way Employes-IBT, Boyd Watterson, Columbus/Central Ohio Building and Construction Trades Council, Communication Workers of America, Mechanical Insulators Labor Management Cooperative Trust, International Association of Heat and Frost Insulators and Allied Workers Local 50, International Federation of Professional and Technical Engineers, International Union of Bricklayers and Allied Crafts, International Union of Painters and Allied Trades District Council 6, Ironworkers Great Lakes District Council, Melwood, The Labor Citizen newspaper, Laborers International Union of North America, The National Labor Office of Blue Cross and Blue Shield, North Coast Area Labor Federation, Ohio Federation of Teachers, United Labor Agency, United Steelworkers.

Florida apprenticeship ordinances are easy to pass, hard to enforce

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