WIB Labor Representative Job Description

The duties of a Workforce Investment Board Labor Representative include:

1. Represent and advocate for all unions and all workers, as well as communities, not simply your union or local.

2. Connect to the Central Labor Council, Building Trades Councils, and other councils so that information about the uses of public money flows to union leaders. Without this two-way communication, it is hard to have a strategic response to WIB decisions. See if your report can be presented at monthly meetings or committee meetings.

3. Connect with local unions who may want to use public funds in their industry or community or for their members. Work with labor councils to let local unions know the resources available to them.

4. Be informed of federal, state, and local policies, programs, and resources.

5. Actively seek to be on Executive Committees and other critical board committees. WIBs are often very large and the critical work gets done in committees.

6. Learn the jargon: be labor's technician who understands what is really going on and can explain it to others.

7. Build a coalition on the Board and in the community. With so few representatives, usually just two, labor cannot win without allies. Look for employers and agency staff who agree with a "High Road" perspective. Identify union employers who will sit on the board and have an interest in blocking their low road competitors.

8. Know the requirements for labor review and comment on plans and modifications of plans. Identify labor organizations to review WIA plans and policies with you. Work with the WIB staff to institute the level of labor notification that existed under JTPA, so that all unions are notified if training is proposed in an industry in which they represent a substantial number of workers.

9. Make sure you involve the unions that have jurisdiction in those cases and that your board understands that you cannot review these without that participation.

10. Attend as many meetings as possible and identify an alternate representative for meetings you cannot make. Work to have alternates allowed to attend – and to participate in – all meetings, including committee meetings.

This job description for a WIB labor representative was adapted from one developed by the AFL-CIO Working for America Institute.