Testimony of Jim Bowen President, West Virginia AFL-CIO and Executive Board Member of the AFL-CIO Appalachian Council
Before the Senate Labor – HHS Appropriations SubCommittee
July 22, 2004
Chairman Specter, Senator Byrd and members of the Subcommittee, thank you for this opportunity to testify on behalf of the Appalachian Council and its sole-source contract with the Department of Labor.
The AFL-CIO Appalachian Council, Inc. is a nonprofit organization pledged to aid disadvantaged persons and to encourage the realization of their full economic and cultural potential through a wide range of human resource development programs.
The Council began as an outgrowth of a meeting of the Appalachian Trade Union Conference held in Charleston, West Virginia in October, 1964. The twelve chief executive officers of the State AFL-CIO organizations in the area of greater Appalachia (Alabama, Georgia, Kentucky, Maryland-DC, Mississippi, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia and West Virginia) joined together to form a nonprofit corporation to work toward unearthing and understanding the employment and training of the region, develop plans for their solution, and to stimulate or undertake specific projects or action programs for their resolve and/or elimination. Our mission is to help people become productive and self-sufficient members of society.
The Appalachian Council’s National Programs has been in continuous operation since 1974 through a series of sole source, cost reimbursement contracts with the Department of Labor’s Employment and Training Administration and the National Office of Job Corps. The programs are evolving continuously in response to the various needs of the entities within the Job Corps community and those changes mandated by the U.S. Congress, the Administration, and Job Corps Federal Managers.
The Appalachian Council has to question whether our sole-source contract has been unfairly targeted, given the fact that this Labor Department, which seems to have a problem with labor unions, also revoked its national contract with the AFL-CIO Working for America Institute.
The Working for America Institute is a non-profit organization founded by the AFL-CIO to help unions and labor-management partnerships connect to the public workforce system.
For the past five years, the National Office of Job Corps as well as Region II (Philadelphia) officials has been proactive in their efforts to make it difficult for our staff to do their jobs. They often ignored our pleas for help, were quick to judgment and offered only criticism, thus fostering low morale and dissension. As we review the events that have occurred, we see a pattern of behavior from the National Office of Job Corps that substantiates our belief that there was, since the beginning of this contract (Nov 98), a plan in place to intentionally impede the Council’s capability to be successful.
The programs are being taken over by big corporations and then subcontracted out with very little accountability on performance and placements.
As an example of our actions in West Virginia, I wish to cite the Charleston Automobile Repair program located in Charleston, West Virginia at the Charleston Job Corps Center that has been operating since November of 2000. The program had performed up to all Center expectations. During PY 2001 and PY 2002 the Center’s Vocational Manager rated it as the best program on Center. One of the strengths of the program was the large numbers of students that entered military service. As a result of the efforts of our instructor, those students that enlisted into the military were encouraged to pursue military occupations related to their trade. From its first day of operation this program exceeded all of Job Corps’ accountability measures.
I will conclude my testimony by offering the following five (5) points:
1. The Council has a long and successful history of dedicated and committed service to Jobs Corps. We have managed our contractual responsibilities and have interfaced with government representatives in a straightforward and honest way.
2. The National office of Job Corps did everything in its power to make it difficult for us to fulfill our contractual obligations and to maintain our uniqueness.
3. We have never been provided an explanation of the decision not to renew our contract although the Council requested such an explanation.
4. We have never been informed by the NOJC that our sole source status had been changed.
5. The actual performance for our training programs based on Job Corps established criteria during the most recent Program Year (PY2003) compares favorably with other National Training Contractors for the same period and in most categories exceeds the National Average.
I thank you again, Mr. Chairman, Senator Byrd and the members of the Sub-Committee for the opportunity to testify today.
