Free Market Coalition Groups to Freeholders:

No Apprenticeship Burdens for Public Projects

Friday, January 20, 2017
Dear Members of the Board of Chosen Freeholders:
On behalf of the members of our respective organizations, we
ask you to reject the proposal to require apprenticeship programs on
all contractors for public works projects in Morris County over
$500,000 in value. These requirements will raise costs for county
taxpayers, harm skilled workers, minorities, and women in our
county, and benefit special interests at the expense of small
businesses. Passing these onerous requirements would raise barriers
to opportunity for everyone, and we respectfully request that you
refrain from doing so.
These requirements place a significant time and administrative
burden upon small businesses who wish to start an apprenticeship
program.
Acquiring
permanent
approval
to
sponsor
an
apprenticeship program in New Jersey can take a year or more,
representing a significant burden of time, money, and paperwork for
many small shops. While large companies may be able to absorb
theses costs, smaller businesses and startups are often left unable to
compete.

Many existing shops without apprenticeship programs are home

to skilled workers that are more than qualified to work on public
works projects in the county. These small businesses often have their
own specialized in-house training programs suited to the services
they provide, and often have no need for the generalized training
received by apprentices. By limiting public works contracts to only
those businesses that sponsor apprenticeship programs, the
proposed regulation hands many skilled workers at smaller firms a
raw deal. Moreover, studies in other states have shown that similar
apprenticeship programs could disproportionately harm young
people and minorities.
Finally, these requirements benefit special interests in
organized labor at the expense of small businesses. In order to
sponsor an apprenticeship program, businesses whose workers are
represented by a union must obtain permission from union officials.
If there is currently no union in a workplace, the employer must
furnish to an existing union, which would be the representative of
the employees to be trained. This special treatment of organized
labor will disadvantage non-union shops by locking them out of the
bidding process on public works projects.
All three of the above issues are inevitable if the Board of
Chosen Freeholders approves these apprenticeship requirements,
and we therefore urge you not to pass such regulations at this time.
Sincerely,
Erica Jedynak, New Jersey State Director for Americans for
Prosperity
Daniel Garza, President for The Libre Initiative
Daniel Caldwell, Director of Policy Engagement for Concerned
Veterans for America
David Barnes, Director of Policy Engagement for Generation
Opportunity
Anthony Russo, President for the Commerce & Industry Association
of New Jersey