WASHINGTON, D.C. – March 31, 2026 – Today, North America’s Building Trades Unions (NABTU) President Sean McGarvey released the following statement:

“For nearly a century, Registered Apprenticeship has been the gold standard of workforce development. In that time and like no other, building trades unions have shown the maximum effectiveness of this model by training millions of men and women for middle class careers in construction. That is why NABTU applauds the Administration for supporting Registered Apprenticeship and in particular, their efforts to encourage widespread adoption in more industries.

“The DOL’s new guidance does raise questions regarding unscrupulous training providers using it to cut corners and shortchange workers’ training. For this reason, NABTU will work with Secretary Chavez DeRemer and ETA Assistant Secretary Mack to ensure the Administration’s goals for quantity of new Registered Apprentices doesn’t inadvertently sacrifice quality.”

###

Media Contact: Betsy Barrett, (202) 997-3266 | bbarrett@nabtu.org

About NABTU: North America’s Building Trades Unions is an alliance of 14 national and international unions in the building and construction industry collectively representing over 3 million skilled craft professionals in the United States and Canada. Each year, our unions and signatory contractor partners invest over $2.5 billion in private-sector money to fund and operate over 1,900 apprenticeship training and education facilities across North America that produce the safest, most highly trained, and most productive, skilled craft workers anywhere in the world. NABTU is dedicated to creating economic security and employment opportunities for its construction workers by safeguarding wage and benefits standards, promoting responsible private capital investments, investing in renowned apprenticeship and training, and creating more construction career pathways to the middle class for women, communities of color, Indigenous people, veterans, and the justice-involved. For more information, please visit nabtu.org.