Below, is a portion of an E-mail sent out from our District Council office to an owner's representative regarding a specific upcoming project. Notwithstanding, its intended target is ANY project and ANY ironworking companies that choose not to provide serious industry-related training to their employees. This particular communication was sent on January 28, 2007, and one of its main intents was to explain the costly expenses related to this  comprehensive training.

"...This is what we must compete against. The underlined words below are verbatim from sworn testimony from Don Morel of Ajax Construction, a major non-union steel erector in New England:  
 
Question: Is Ajax involved in any training programs? 
 
MOREL: Specifically outside the company, no. 
 
Question: How about inside the company?
 
MOREL: It's pretty much experience is gained with the people they're working with.
 
Question: If I show up on my first day, and I'm assigned to a crew, I learn from the people I work with; is that how it works?
 
MOREL: Yes.
 
$2.3M annually (UNION) vs. some sort of "on-the-job training" (NON-UNION) where if you make a mistake on a job , you will (hopefully) avoid it on the next job. We're not talking about some mundane occupation here. Ironworking is one of the most dangerous and demanding occupations in the country. I respectfully submit that any added costs related to working with a self-sufficient, highly trained organization with a strong sense of short and long term social responsibility (i.e. pensions and health insurance) is money well spent...."

We don't make those choices but we will continue to train the workers and hope that the inherent value of that training is added into the owners' equations when decisions must be made.