Wilson Allocates Funds for S.D. Worker Training

Gov. Pete Wilson on Thursday made $2 million available to San Diego County agencies that are helping to retrain local aerospace workers who lose jobs because of federal defense spending cuts.

The funds were part of a $3.4-million state aid package that Wilson announced during a Thursday breakfast meeting with the Greater San Diego Chamber of Commerce. Los Angeles County agencies received the remaining $1.4 million.

Wilson had requested the funds through the federal Job Training Partnership Act, which earmarks federal funds for states to help the growing number of people being laid off as federal defense budgets are reduced.

The funds will be used to boost existing retraining programs offered by the state Employment Development Division and the San Diego Consortium and Private Industry Council. The $2 million will cover the costs of retraining about 1,000 displaced workers, according to Private Industry Council spokesman Earl Parker.

“It’s relatively little money but it’s better than nothing at all,” said William Hickey Jr., president of the International Assn. of Machinists Local 1125, which represents several thousand employees at General Dynamics.

“The money is definitely something that we need,” Hickey said. “There are a lot of people out of work in the aerospace industry. And it’s good that a large part of the funds came to San Diego . . . that’s great because someone (in Sacramento) realized that people down here” need help.

Wilson said that the funds are needed because “California has been particularly hard hit by defense cutbacks.” The funds will be used to “find new skills and new jobs here in San Diego today,” Wilson said.

Wilson also announced that he had signed SB 589, which will allow the state to continue to pay up to 33 weeks of extended unemployment benefits through the federal Emergency Unemployment Compensation program that President Bush signed into law last November.