About Us

About Us

The Mid-Atlantic Laborers’ Cooperation Trust (LECET) is a cutting-edge labor-management trust fund with a simple but potent mission: to generate business opportunities for union contractors and jobs for union members. We are part of a North American network of similar funds established by a partnership of the Laborers’ International Union of North America (LIUNA) with signatory contractors.

Here is how we are working to expand market share:

We Find the Jobs

By using our extensive network of industry contacts and the latest information technology we are able to identify upcoming work.

Our Cooperation Trust Tracking System (CTTS), is the most comprehensive program of its kind in the industry, for the early identification of construction projects. Through our on-line database, we:

	Track over 25,000 active projects, in all sectors of the market, including: commercial buildings; heavy and highway; tunneling; environmental cleanup; and public housing rehabilitation.
	Supply important information on thousands of construction contractors, including general contractors, subcontractors, and construction managers, as well as minority, disadvantaged and woman-owned business enterprises.
	Issue “Project Alerts” to signatory contractors containing information on projects coming up for bid in their respective locals.
	Provide detailed information on each construction project identified, including: bid dates; dollar value; type of work; funding source(s); and bid specifications (such as set aside requirements).

We Create the Jobs

To win the war to increase union market share and competitiveness, it is important to focus on every battle from the policy front to the communications arena, from market research to project identification, from business development to coalition building.

This focus includes:

	Marketing the demonstratable workmanship, long-term value, and productivity between conscientious union employers and their non-union counterparts.
	Financing contractors and skilled union labor projects through union pension monies. By investing members’ pension monies in real estate investment trusts and similar vehicles, LIUNA directly finances new construction and renovation.
	Accessing Market Recovery Funds. LIUNA has created a job-targeting fund to lower bid costs when bidding against non-union competition.
	Expanding Best Value Contracting and Responsible Contracting Provisions. The Trust encourages owners to reward those contractors who invest in training and apprenticeship, who care about safety, and who perform quality work at cost and on schedule, without costly overruns.

We Make the Jobs Better

We match our contractors with the best-skilled labor available to provide owners with top quality, cost-effective workmanship. As one of the largest and most progressive unions in North America, the Laborers can complete the most formidable projects. Our programs for skills and safety training include:

	We provide training and apprenticeship to address workforce needs. Our eight Training Centers in the Mid-Atlantic Region ensure easy access to the training that Laborers and contractors need, with two mobile Training Units, and more than twenty professional instructors. The training centers combine classroom and hands-on training in government-recognized apprenticeship programs with the latest safety and specialty-skills training.
	We offer safety and health programs that save time, money, and jobs, through customized site safety plans and training: health and wellness programs; innovative research, expert regulatory advice; and excellent health benefit prescription drug plans.
	The “Laborers On Time and Safe” Program, which provides safety awards to Laborers for working safely and for being on-time.