State falling short on labor needs in trades, high tech

Educators and labor leaders painted a woeful picture of the obstacles facing Washington's work force Wednesday.

Public education is failing to adequately prepare high school graduates to enter college or vocational training, they said at a roundtable discussion. And others added that the U.S. is educating talented immigrants but failing to keep them in the country, which can motivate a company to outsource work.

The discussion was part of a series of meetings that Sen. Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., will attend across the state this week to hear from community leaders about work force needs. Wednesday's meeting at the University of Washington was the third of five similar events and included more than 15 representatives from local businesses, colleges and labor groups.

State labor leaders lamented that young people don't seem interested in traditional trade work such as construction or plumbing -- and many singled out the decline of vocational training in the schools for that apparent apathy.

"We have got to get more young people into our skilled trades," said Rick Bender, president of the Washington State Labor Council.

In her opening remarks, Cantwell beat those labor leaders to the punch, signaling that she was aware of the shortage of trade workers.

"To me, it is imperative that we put the apprentice program on steroids," Cantwell said.

In the past two years, the state has seen a 62 percent increase in registered apprentices. But employers report that an aging work force coupled with a rapidly increasing need for skilled workers will still mean a devastating shortfall in just a decade or two, especially if economists are right that "green initiatives" will create new construction and energy-related work.

Several labor advocates said public schools need to emphasize to students as early as elementary school that the trades are a viable career path. The downsizing of career education (especially in the Seattle school district, one panel member said) has some students thinking it's a university education or nothing, labor leaders complained.

And representatives of local powerhouse companies told the senator Wednesday that to remain competitive with overseas firms, the federal government has to help them retain foreign-born talent. Scott Pitasky, general manager of human resources at Microsoft, cited visa reform as his chief priority.

In the computer science field, more than half of the workers are born in other countries, he said. But immigration laws make it difficult for some potential tech workers to stay in the country after their visas expire. Jean Floten, president of Bellevue Community College, urged Cantwell to look at a system the Canadian government is considering, where foreign-born college students would earn a green card upon graduation.

"Finding a way to keep them in our country is very important," she said.

Others argued that more resources should be spent educating Washington state residents to take those jobs. And when it comes to the trades, some indicated that immigrant workers could pose a significant threat to the work force by undercutting union rates and taking jobs away from locals.

Dave Johnson, executive secretary of the state's building trades council, said that constructing roads, putting up buildings and similar work can't be outsourced. "But you can in-source the workers," he said. "That's what we want to avoid."