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Philadelphia School District Mulls Payment to Get Grads in Trade Unions

Posted on: Friday, 19 August 2005, 18:00 CDT

Aug. 19--Philadelphia school officials are considering paying a high-powered consulting firm up to $100,000 to help increase the number of public-school graduates who enter building-trade apprenticeship programs.

The School Reform Commission, which governs the 185,000-student school district, postponed voting on the contract this week, but are expected to take action on it next month.

If approved, the district would hire Egan Bloom & Associates, a Plymouth Meeting-based public-affairs and management-consulting firm, for up to $10,000 per month, but not to exceed $100,000.

Among the firm's jobs would be to help school officials and the powerful Philadelphia Building Trades Council negotiate and implement a project labor agreement, which would set down terms for boosting the number of graduates in the unions' apprenticeships. These training programs often lead to jobs.

The Building Trades Council comprises 42 local unions representing electricians, plumbers, carpenters, bricklayers and painters, among others.

In February, reform commission Chairman James Nevels told the Daily News: "It is easier for one of our student graduates to go to Harvard or Yale than to enter the building trades, and I don't think that's fair."

At that time, Nevels suggested that failure to reach a project labor agreement could result in the unions losing millions of dollars in contracts tied to the district's $1.5 billion capital construction program that is now under way.

Nevels was not available for comment yesterday, but "sustained discussions" have been taking place with leaders of the Building Trades Council, said Cecilia Cummings, a school district spokeswoman.

Attempts to reach Pat Gillespie, president of the Building Trades Council, were not successful yesterday.

Among the principals of Egan Bloom & Associates are John J. Egan, founding member and treasurer of the Pennsylvania Intergovernmental Cooperation Authority, the state agency established in the early 1990s to oversee Philadelphia's finances, and James J. Bloom, a former member of the Philadelphia Stock Exchange.

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Source: The Philadelphia Daily News

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