http://www.jsonline.com/story/index.aspx?id=445119

Chao pushes worker training
U.S. convention of Latino leaders asked to help close 'the skills gap'
By JOEL DRESANG
jdresang@journalsentinel.com
Posted: June 30, 2006
In a quest to reform the U.S. work force for a more knowledge-based economy, U.S. Labor Secretary Elaine Chao came to Milwaukee on Thursday to enlist the assistance of the League of United Latin American Citizens.

Chao asked the national convention of Latino leaders to help spread the word that workers need education and training to acquire more skills for the changing economy. She asked them to be informed and vigilant to help her agency protect workers' rights. She also encouraged her lunchtime audience at the Midwest Airlines Center to consider job opportunities with the federal government, which has about 20,000 openings and faces retirement by 60% of its work force in the next decade.

The brunt of Chao's message was on "closing the skills gap."

"The challenge of our country is the skills gap," Chao said. "There are workers seeking jobs but lacking the right skill sets. And there are employers unable to find skilled workers."

Chao estimated that 90% of the new occupations being created need some post-secondary education. She said high school dropouts have a 50% higher unemployment rate and 50% lower earning average than high school graduates.

Everyone - the private, public and non-profit sectors, as well as individuals - shares the responsibility in training and educating the work force, Chao said in an interview afterward.

The Labor Department allocates about $196 million a year to Wisconsin, according to Chao's office. Since January 2001, when Chao took office, Wisconsin has received $1.15 billion in funds for training and employment services for dislocated workers.

Chao also talked about the equal treatment of workers, saying that her agency has recovered more than $1 million in back wages for workers - including "vulnerable immigrants" - who have been shortchanged for their labor in the Gulf region after Hurricane Katrina. She used the issue to touch on immigration reform, a topic that the Latino league is scheduled to discuss today and at a rally Saturday.

"It is this administration's policy that all workers are protected by our nation's health, safety and wage laws - regardless of their (immigration) status," Chao told the convention.

In the interview, Chao contended that protecting all workers was part of the objective of Bush's immigration proposals, which include creating a guest worker program and beefing up border security.

Before Chao's address at what the league called its "Unity Luncheon," Bruce Gordon, president of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, told the convention that their organizations need to stand together and build coalitions to push Congress to enact comprehensive immigration reform and renew the Voting Rights Act of 1965, which has provisions set to expire next year.

"Our strength and our success - yours and mine - will come through unity," he said.

For more information on the League of United Latin American Citizens and its national convention, go to www.lulac.org