Tour and dis­cus­sion at The Great Lakes Tow­ing Com­pa­ny focused on fed­er­al funding’s impact and the impor­tance of employ­er involve­ment in work­force train­ing programs

Cleve­land, Ohio. U.S. Sec­re­tary of Labor Thomas E. Perez trav­eled to Cleve­land on Mon­day, June 6, to meet with Cuya­hoga Coun­ty Exec­u­tive Armond Bud­ish, Chair­man Ronald Ras­mus of The Great Lakes Tow­ing Com­pa­ny and mem­bers of the Cleve­land-Cuya­hoga Coun­ty Work­force Invest­ment Board to dis­cuss the cru­cial role that sec­tor strate­gic part­ner­ships play in equip­ping work­ers with the skills they need to com­pete in today’s labor mar­ket. “Sec­tor strate­gies” are employ­er-dri­ven part­ner­ships of indus­try, edu­ca­tion and train­ing, and oth­er stake­hold­ers that focus on the work­force needs of key indus­tries in a region­al labor market.

Pic­tured in the Fore­ground: Thomas Perez, U.S. Sec­re­tary of Labor; Ronald Ras­mus, Chair­man, The Great Lakes Tow­ing Com­pa­ny; Armond Bud­ish, Cuya­hoga Coun­ty, Coun­ty Exec­u­tive; Sharon Sobol Jor­dan, Chief of Staff, Cuya­hoga County.

Sec­re­tary Perez and Coun­ty Exec­u­tive Bud­ish toured Great Lakes Ship­yard – a full-ser­vice ship­yard for new ves­sel con­struc­tion, ship main­te­nance and repairs, and cus­tom fab­ri­ca­tion – that used its sec­tor part­ner­ships to grow their busi­ness and train their workers.

Dur­ing the vis­it, Sec­re­tary Perez announced the avail­abil­i­ty of approx­i­mate­ly $100 mil­lion in America’s Promise Job-Dri­ven Grants to devel­op and grow region­al part­ner­ships between work­force agen­cies, edu­ca­tion and train­ing providers and employ­ers in a vari­ety of indus­tries such as infor­ma­tion tech­nol­o­gy, health­care, advanced man­u­fac­tur­ing, finan­cial ser­vices and edu­ca­tion­al ser­vices. The America’s Promise grant com­pe­ti­tion is designed to:

• Increase oppor­tu­ni­ties for all Amer­i­cans through tuition-free train­ing for mid­dle-to high-skilled occu­pa­tions and industries.
• Expand employ­er involve­ment in the design and deliv­ery of train­ing programs.
• Uti­lize evi­dence-based sec­tor strate­gies to increase employ­a­bil­i­ty, employ­ment earn­ings and out­comes of job seekers.
• Lever­age addi­tion­al pub­lic, pri­vate and foun­da­tion resources to scale and sus­tain proven strategies.

“These grants are part of the Oba­ma administration’s com­mit­ment to redesign­ing a mod­ern skills infra­struc­ture in Amer­i­ca that engages employ­ers as nev­er before,” said U.S. Sec­re­tary of Labor Thomas Perez dur­ing his vis­it at The Great Lakes Tow­ing Com­pa­ny head­quar­ters. “Work­force part­ner­ships built around the indus­try-spe­cif­ic needs of mul­ti­ple employ­ers are help­ing to expand oppor­tu­ni­ty for Amer­i­can work­ers, while also strength­en­ing local com­mu­ni­ties and build­ing a U.S. econ­o­my poised for growth.”

In 2015, the Depart­ment of Labor award­ed a $7 mil­lion Sec­tor Part­ner­ship Nation­al Emer­gency Grant to the State of Ohio to sup­port a vari­ety of sec­tor part­ner­ships across the state. The State award­ed $2.1 mil­lion of that grant to the Cleve­land-Cuya­hoga Coun­ty Work­force Invest­ment Board for part­ner­ships focused on man­u­fac­tur­ing, health­care, and infor­ma­tion tech­nol­o­gy careers. For the past two years Great Lakes Ship­yard par­tic­i­pat­ed in the Med­i­na Coun­ty Work­force Devel­op­ment intern­ship pro­gram spon­sored by Ohio Means Jobs and the Make it in Amer­i­ca Grant. The grant was made avail­able to North­east Ohio weld­ing stu­dents through the edu­ca­tion­al lead­er­ship of Cuya­hoga Com­mu­ni­ty College.

Great Lakes Ship­yard part­nered with Cuya­hoga Com­mu­ni­ty College’s (Tri‑C) Fast Track Weld­ing Pro­gram to recruit interns to be trained in the Ship­yard. The Tri‑C Fast Track Weld­ing Pro­gram is a ten-week pro­gram which offers hands-on train­ing in Weld­ing Blue­print read­ing, Stick weld­ing, MIG weld­ing, and TIG weld­ing. At the end of each class, the stu­dents sub­mit test pieces for AWS eval­u­a­tion by Ele­ment Mate­ri­als Tech­nolo­gies, and receive cer­ti­fi­ca­tion for qual­i­fied sub­mis­sions. Admis­sion to the pro­gram requires the stu­dent to have a high school diplo­ma or GED, they must pass the ACT WorkKeys assess­ment test, and suc­cess­ful­ly com­plete a back­ground check and drug test. The Com­pa­ny also used resources pro­vid­ed by The Man­u­fac­tur­ing Advo­ca­cy and Growth Net­work (MAGNET) to cre­ate a struc­tured on-the-job train­ing plan for the interns. Rep­re­sen­ta­tives from MAGNET along with the Ship­yard staff worked togeth­er to devel­op a train­ing pro­gram to ensure each intern receives stan­dard­ized and com­pre­hen­sive train­ing in all facets of the job here at Great Lakes Shipyard.

Pic­tured Above:
Atten­dees at the Cleve­land-Cuya­hoga Coun­ty Work­force Invest­ment Board round­table dis­cus­sion host­ed at The Great Lakes Tow­ing Company’s head­quar­ters in Cleve­land, Ohio.

Ras­mus shared details on the Work­force Pipeline that The Great Lakes Tow­ing Com­pa­ny and Great Lakes Ship­yard cre­at­ed to pro­vide intern­ship and on-the-job train­ing oppor­tu­ni­ties for local stu­dents at three Cleve­land schools: Cuya­hoga Com­mu­ni­ty Col­lege (Tri‑C), Max S. Hayes High School and Saint Mar­tin de Por­res High School. Ras­mus believes that these scholas­tic part­ner­ships sup­port skilled trades by con­tin­u­ing their lega­cy through Cleveland’s future employ­ees. “As a Cleve­land busi­ness with 116 years of exper­tise in the mar­itime indus­try, The Tow­ing Com­pa­ny has always known the sig­nif­i­cance of train­ing and devel­op­ing our youth in prepa­ra­tion for real-world, good pay­ing careers in the trades. Expos­ing stu­dents to the Ship­yard and teach­ing them inter­per­son­al skills, not only increas­es their growth but allows us to cre­ate a tal­ent pool for us to tap into as we expand our man­u­fac­tur­ing business.”

Ras­mus intro­duced Sec­re­tary Perez to sev­er­al employ­ees that have par­tic­i­pat­ed in the Work­force Pipeline Program.

Fea­tured in Fore­ground: Julius Stafford, Assis­tant Fleet Engi­neer; Thomas Perez, U.S. Sec­re­tary of Labor. Stafford attend­ed Max S. Hayes High School pri­or to join­ing Great Lakes Ship­yard and The Great Lakes Tow­ing Company.

Left to Right (in front of the world’s third largest Marine Trav­elift): Don Ramos, Welder, Great Lakes Ship­yard; Thomas Perez, U.S. Sec­re­tary of Labor; Dar­win Ramos, Welder, Great Lakes Ship­yard. Both Don and Dar­win par­tic­i­pat­ed in the Great Lakes Ship­yard intern­ship pro­gram and were hired as full-time employees.

Left to Right: Thomas Perez, U.S. Sec­re­tary of Labor; Teon­nie Mitchell, Pay­roll Super­vi­sor, The Great Lakes Tow­ing Com­pa­ny. Mitchell par­tic­i­pat­ed in The Great Lakes Tow­ing Company’s Col­lege Edu­ca­tion program.

Left to Right: Jalon Daw­son, Office Assis­tant, The Great Lakes Tow­ing Com­pa­ny; Thomas Perez, U.S. Sec­re­tary of Labor. Daw­son par­tic­i­pat­ed in the The Great Lakes Tow­ing Company’s intern­ship pro­gram and was hired after recent­ly grad­u­at­ing from Saint Mar­tin de Por­res High School.\

About the U.S. Department of Labor

The Depart­ment of Labor admin­is­ters a vari­ety of fed­er­al labor laws to guar­an­tee work­ers’ rights to fair, safe, and healthy work­ing con­di­tions, includ­ing min­i­mum hourly wage and over­time pay, pro­tec­tion against employ­ment dis­crim­i­na­tion, and unem­ploy­ment insur­ance. U.S. Secu­ri­ty of Labor Thomas E. Perez leads the U.S. Depart­ment of Labor in its mis­sion of giv­ing all Amer­i­cans the chance to get ahead and stay ahead. Pri­or­i­ties for the depart­ment include ensur­ing a fair day’s pay for a fair day’s work through con­tin­ued efforts to raise the min­i­mum wage, expand over­time pro­tec­tions, and by being smarter and more strate­gic in the depart­men­t’s enforce­ment of fed­er­al law. Sec­re­tary Perez strives every day to ensure that Amer­i­cans return home from their jobs safe and healthy. Perez has made job train­ing and work­force devel­op­ment a focal point of his tenure. With his­toric invest­ments in com­mu­ni­ty col­leges and appren­tice­ships and the depart­men­t’s imple­men­ta­tion of the bipar­ti­san Work­force Inno­va­tion and Oppor­tu­ni­ty Act, he is com­mit­ted to con­nect­ing ready-to-work Amer­i­cans with ready-to-be-filled jobs. 

Contact

Mat­tie Zazue­ta, 202–615-8259, zazueta.matilde.m@dol.gov
Scott Allen, 312–353-4727, allen.scott@dol.gov

About The Great Lakes Towing Company & Great Lakes Shipyard

Great Lakes Ship­yard is a full-ser­vice ship­yard for new ves­sel con­struc­tion includ­ing new work­boats and barges, truck­able prod­ucts, cus­tom fab­ri­ca­tion, ship main­te­nance and repairs, in a world-class facil­i­ty that includes state-of-the-art equip­ment such as a 770-ton mobile Trav­elift and a 300-ton float­ing dry­dock. GLS facil­i­ties are locat­ed at the Company’s head­quar­ters on the Old Riv­er Chan­nel of the Cuya­hoga Riv­er in Cleve­land, Ohio. GLT’s ship­yard exper­tise includes design­ing, build­ing and main­tain­ing its own fleet, as well as an exten­sive list of com­mer­cial and gov­ern­ment tug­boats, sup­ply boats, fer­ries, barges, cruise boats, large yachts, and many oth­er types of ves­sels, includ­ing larg­er domes­tic and for­eign car­go ves­sels. The ship­yard is a major con­trac­tor for the U.S. Coast Guard, U.S. Geo­log­i­cal Sur­vey, U.S. Army Corps of Engi­neers, EPA, and many oth­er fed­er­al, state and local gov­ern­ments, attest­ing to its high-qual­i­ty work­man­ship, on-time per­for­mance, and com­pet­i­tive pric­ing. Learn more at www.greatlakesshipyard.com. Great Lakes Ship­yard is a divi­sion of The Great Lakes Tow­ing Com­pa­ny, an indus­try leader since 1899, pro­vid­ing essen­tial, com­mer­cial tug­boat ser­vices such as har­bor assist and tow­ing, ice­break­ing and car­go trans­porta­tion in more than 35 U.S. ports, in all 8 U.S. Great Lakes’ states, includ­ing Ohio, Michi­gan, Illi­nois, Indi­ana, Min­neso­ta, Wis­con­sin, Penn­syl­va­nia, New York, and the St. Lawrence Riv­er. Learn more at www.thegreatlakestowingcompany.com.

Contact

Joseph P. Star­ck, Jr., Pres­i­dent, The Great Lakes Tow­ing Company
Tel: 216–367-8126
E‑mail: jps@thegreatlakesgroup.com

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