Evening star., 1946-08-25
By Geofoe Beveridoe

! Nearly 300 Washington area con-
tracing engineering firms are slated
to furnish apprenticeship training
opportunities to some IS operating
engineer trainees-mostly veterans
without even being aware the
training is going on, The Star
| learned last night.
The unusual new training, al
ready under way, is the result of a
program recently instituted by the
Apprenticeship Training Service of
the Labor Department.
Operating engineers. according to
Gino J, SINH, chief of the service,
are licensed tradesmen who operate
all types of mobile equipment-from
cranes and derriks to bulldozers and
road graders-on construction jobs.
Committee is Formed.
/ while apprenticeship training
for most trades-such as carpentry,
! plumbing and painting-follows a
definite schedule of work and prog
ress, operating engineer trainees
]
j program because no firm could pro-
vide the continuous and diversified
instruction the trainee needs Mr.
Simi said.
! To meet the problem. a District
of Columbia Operating Engineers
Joint Apprenticeship Committee
was formed. composed of contracting
officials and heads of the Operat-
ing Engineers Local No. II, to act
as the nominal employer of the
+ trainees, and to assign them. nearly
day by DAY, TO different construc-
ton jobs.
+ "AS union members are sent to
work on construction Jobs, trainee
will be sent along to gain appren-
tice experience with certain pieces
of equipment" he explained, He
may be sent to one job where a
bulldozer is being used and kept
there for two weeks. Then. he will
go to another job where, for exam
pie, he will work with skilled oper-
ator to learn the servicing and me-
chanics of pile-driving machine"
This constant shifting from one
job to another-for periods of from
one day to several weeks-Will ex-
tend through the four years of the
apprenticeship course, he said.
| Many times, under the program,
the contractors will not even know
/ apprentices are working on the jobs,
and contractors will not be held re-
sponsible for the quality of train
ing" Mr.. Simi said
Contractors will find out about 1t
every time an apprentice leaves his
! Job, however. according to j. c.
Turner, union member on the Joint
Committee.
Virginia to Get. Reports.
+ Mr.. Turner pointed out that
wages will be paid by contractors
for the apprentices as they leave
Jobs, regardless of how long they
stay there. The committee. mean
while. will keep a record of all time
worked and submit reports to the
Veterans Administration for sub
sistence allowances in case the
trainee is a veteran.
/ Regular Veterans Administrator
training officers will inspect Jobs
where apprentices are working" he
said. but most of our veterans will
be cut out of subsistence allowances
because of the wage ceilings" All
trainees are restricted by the
oopncv to toto uooa ,pd eyhr;rta~o.
allowance earnings of 5000 a month
for married veterans and SITS for
single men.
! Pay to the apprentices will begin
at $105 an hour and will reach
S1.22l2 at the end of the four-year
period. About 80 per cent of the
apprentices already registered are
veterans, "and they are about all
we can handle at the present time"
he added.
I MI. Turner said the trainees will
be kept on a 40-hour work week
and that he felt certain" that there
is enough construction work going
on now in the Washington area to
keep them all working.
Members Of tnG joint committee
include Edgar r. Brown. president
Of the Wilmington and Brown Co;
Louis Gregory, president of the Ele-
waited Concrete Co; J. C. Turner
and j. P. Shields. OF the union, and
alternate members are P. j. Julian,
jr, general superintendent of the
A. j. Ellis Construction Co, and
w. E. Tooke, of the union, Mr.. Simi
said.
Came As Surprise.
Many of the companies found for
/ the first time that they would be
furnishing training from Veterans
Administration notices that training
courses submitted by their firms
have been approved by the Board of
Education to give training under
the CT Bill
A number of officials promptly
called and wrote the agency to re-
port that their firms had not been
investigated, that they had no