Case Study of the Alameda County and Southgate Dislocated Worker Demonstration Programs

摘要

At the conclusion of the 1982 Federal fiscal year, the Department of Labor awarded grants to organizations in six areas to implement one-year demonstration programs aimed at assisting the readjustment of dislocated workers. These areas were Alameda County, CA; Buffalo, NY; Lehigh Valley, PA; Mid-Willamette Valley, OR; Milwaukee, WI; and Yakima, WA. This report is a case study of the program operated in Alameda County. This program was combined with a program initiated by the State of California, GM and the UAW to serve workers laid-off from a GM assembly plant in Fremont, CA. A comparison project was also initiated for GM workers in Southgate, a small industrial city in Los Angeles County. This project is also examined in the report. In Alameda 90 percent of the 3181 participants came from the GM plant and in Southgate all 1682 participants came from GM. The participants were offered job search workshops and placement assistance through the California Job Service, OJT, and classroom training. There was a heavy emphasis on classroom training with 27 and 45 percent of the participants enrolled in training in Alameda and Southgate respectively. The projects were notable for their large size and the numerous public and private organizations that worked smoothly together. Overall placement rates, however, were low, 17 percent in Alameda and under 5 percent in Southgate, although the fact that both projects continued after the end of the year-long DOL grant period provides a partial explanation for this outcome.