News

Frontline Workforce Development Emerges as Transit Policy Priority for 2014

Posted January 2014

America’s top transit leaders - from both management and labor - are pushing for strong new workforce provisions in new legislation to reauthorize the Surface Transportation Act.  Workforce provisions are very modest in MAP-21, the current federal legislation for transit, highways and passenger rail, that is due to expire in September 2014.

Last month APTA’s Legislative Committee unanimously adopted unprecedented workforce proposals as part of their reauthorization recommendations, and APTA’s Executive Committee unamiously approved their package.  These new workforce proposals call for opening up 1 percent of federal capital funds to transit agencies for investments in human capital - the skills and knowledge of the transit workforce - along with doubling the size of FTA’s workforce grant program.

Last week ATU President Larry Hanley strongly emphasized the need for expanded training for the frontline workforce in his reauthorization testimony before the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee.  He called for all human capital investments to qualify without limit under FTA capital grants.
Pointing out an ongoing bias toward white collar training in DOT funding, Hanley also proposed equal treatment for the train needs of the 80 percent of transit’s workforce who are frontline operations and maintenance workers.  Equal treatment for frontline work would counterbalance FTA’s historic tilt, investing “$5 million per year, almost exclusively for white collar transit workforce training, [while] at the same time, there is $0 for ongoing support for the frontline workforce.”

The leadership push within APTA to expand workforce training, especially for the frontline workforce, was introduced by Joe Calabrese, CEO of Greater Cleveland RTA and supported by Barbara Gannon, Bev Scott of MBTA, and Angela Iannuzziello of AEComm, among others.  Calabrese acknowledged the breadth of this leadership effort, saying:  “On the behalf of many supporters, I had the honor of asking for increased emphasis and funding for workforce development training, and more specifically, for blue-collar technical training.  I was very pleased that this amendment was unanimously approved by both the APTA reauthorization task force and the APTA Board of Directors.  This addresses a critical need that is so important to the future of our industry.”