WASHINGTON – Native Americans now have a further vested interest in construction careers when a group of union leaders joined tribal leaders on Capitol Hill to kick off a Native Construction Careers Institute.

The institute is rooted in a partnership between the Building and Construction Trades Department of the AFL-CIO union and a coalition of Native American Indian tribal councils.

Organizers explained that the partnership is intended to develop long-term careers in the construction trades for Native Americans throughout the country.

Rob Capriccioso  Indian Country Today Mark Ayers, president of the Building and Construction Trades Department of the AFL-CIO, Conrad Edwards, a member of the Colville Tribe and president of the Council for Tribal Employment Rights, and Rep. Norm Dicks, D-Wash, at the Native Construction Careers Institute launch.

Co-chairmen of NCCI are Mark Ayers, president of the Building and Construction Trades Department of the AFL-CIO and Conrad Edwards, a member of the Colville Tribe and president of the Council for Tribal Employment Rights, a national organization that represents the 300 tribes and Alaska Native villages that have established what are known as Tribal Employment Rights Offices.

Both gentlemen gave remarks at the launch of the institute, held Sept. 30 at the Senate Visitors Center.

“America’s Building Trades Unions are immensely proud to be a part of the NCCI and to work with tribal leaders to provide the much-needed training and expertise that will enable thousands of young Native Americans to secure careers as skilled craft professionals,” Ayers said.

“We are confident that this partnership will foster a deeper level of respect and admiration among and between the organizations and people involved in this important endeavor.”

Edwards explained that NCCI’s first project, funded by the federal stimulus act and administered through the Department of the Interior, is an initiative to train approximately 20 Native Americans on each of nine different reservations that have current unemployment rates in excess of 70 percent to become skilled craft professionals in various trades.

As part of the program, apprenticeship instructors will join staff from different tribal offices to provide the workers with training, supportive services, and job placement assistance upon graduation.

Organizers said the trainees are not required to join a union, but they will be informed about unions and their possible benefits.

Edwards said there were three pilot projects that led to the creation of NCCI, which had a 92 percent graduation and placement rate. He said several graduates went on to establish their own subcontracting firms.

While some tribes have expressed distaste for unions, Edwards said the tribal-union relationship he has overseen has been harmonious and productive. He believes unions and tribes share many common goals at the national level.

“America’s Building Trades Unions have agreed to bring training onto the reservations, to recognize tribal sovereignty and to indenture any training graduate who wants to become a union apprentice. Without question, they provide the world’s best skilled craft training, and they are now bringing that expertise to us.”

Edwards said reservations can provide the new members unions are looking for to begin building the infrastructure for America’s clean energy future, particularly in the booming rural West.

Ayers hopes the initiative will encourage more tribal leaders to enter into agreements with unions for work on their reservations.

The NCCI board of advisors is composed of union officials and 12 tribal leaders, including the chairs of the Shoshone Paiute Tribes, the Crow Nation of Montana, the Spirit Lake Sioux Tribe of North Dakota, and the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe of South Dakota.

Sen. Byron Dorgan, D-N.D., and Rep. Norm Dicks, D-Wash., made comments at the NCCI launch; both think the initiative will help combat the dramatic tribal unemployment numbers in their regions.

Dicks also implored support from the Obama administration to increase the effort.