In December 2020, Jobs to Move America signed our third Community Benefits Agreement (CBA), this time with electric bus manufacturer Proterra and United Steelworkers Local 675 (USW 675).
The CBA has led to transformative investments in Los Angeles communities, helping to train, support, and hire workers for skilled union jobs in zero-emissions bus manufacturing at Proterra’s City of Industry facility.
The CBA includes commitments to develop a pre-hire training program that could grow into a bona fide apprenticeship. The agreement formalized the inclusion of JMA coalition partners in recruiting, training, and hiring candidates from disadvantaged backgrounds and populations historically underrepresented in manufacturing.
In the spring of 2021, the USW-Proterra training partnership was awarded a $650,000 grant from California’s High Road Training Partnership (HRTP) to build out a newly formed joint labor-management training committee that will develop certified apprenticeship pathways for existing workers and new hires. Proterra’s CBA with JMA and the Miguel Contreras Foundation made them eligible for HRTP resources designed specifically for training partnerships between workers, community members, and employers. Before the HRTP award, Proterra successfully graduated 12 participants in a pilot training program with the Los Angeles County Workforce Development Agency and Citrus College. In the summer of 2021, a second cohort completed the training program with support from HRTP funds and LA County First District Supervisor Hilda Solis. You can read one of the graduate’s stories here.