U.S. Chamber: Workforce Issue: Career Forward Program Will Upskill 8,000 Veterans; BIRMINGHAM BLOOMFIELD CHAMBER’S VINE & DINE EVENT FUNDS 10,000 MEALS FOR GLEANERS COMMUNITY FOOD BANK OF SOUTHEASTER MICHIGAN AND ALSO DONATES FUNDS TO LOCAL RESTAURANTS; NEW BERLIN CHAMBER JOINS STATEWIDE EFFORT; Monthly tourism spending in Wisconsin tops record-setting year for first time since 2019; Mike Paone, Joliet Chamber: Employer Covid-19 Vaccine and Testing Rules Unveiled by Biden Administration; Town Square Publications Chamber Membership Directories, Maps, Quarterly Magazines, Digital Directory Sales and Community Profiles: The no cost, no risk best Chamber Publishing Partner in the USA;!

U.S. Chamber: Workforce Issue: Career Forward Program Will Upskill 8,000 Veterans

For employers struggling to fill open jobs, the military community is an overlooked talent pool. And the 200,000 military service members who leave active duty each year also face challenges when entering the job market—nearly 8 in 10 service members leave active duty without job prospects. The solution: The U.S. Chamber Foundation’s Hiring Our Heroes this week launched the Career Forward program with Google to bridge veteran employment gaps with online courses that equip learners with tech skills for in-demand jobs in 3-6 months. How it works: Career Forward aims to upskill 8,000 veterans, transitioning service members, and military spouses through Google Career Certificates, and provide wraparound support and career resources.

 

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Birmingham Bloomfield Chamber’s Vine & Dine Event Funds 10,000 Meals for Gleaners Community Food Bank of Southeaster Michigan and Also Donates Funds to Local Restaurants

 

Birmingham, MI – The Birmingham Bloomfield Chamber’s annual signature event, Vine & Dine, returned with a roar, raising significant funds for Gleaners Community Food Bank of Southeastern Michigan and local, participating restaurants.  The event was presented by Chief Financial Credit Union.

 

The Birmingham Bloomfield Chamber (BBChamber) hosted its 17th Vine & Dine September 14 at the Double Tree by Hilton in Bloomfield Hills. The food and wine tasting featured nearly 20 food and wine vendors, live music, a silent auction, and wine pull. Funds raised from the event benefit chamber programming and Gleaners.

New this year, the BBChamber donated more than $2,000 to participating restaurants who have endured a particularly challenging past two years due to the Covid-19 pandemic and resulting shutdowns.

“We know our local restaurants have suffered greatly from the pandemic, and we are so grateful they showed up in force, despite depleted workforces and operating capital, to support the amazing work of Gleaners,” said Chamber President Joe Bauman. “We wanted to share some of the proceeds with them as a way to at least help defray some of their costs for participating in the event.”

Gleaners Community Food Bank provides local families in need with access to sufficient, nutritious food, and related resources. This is accomplished this through collaboration, efficient operations, education, and innovative solutions to achieve a hunger-free community in southeast Michigan.

Gleaners provides food to more than 660 partner soup kitchens, food pantries, shelters, and other agencies across the region, and supplements efforts of those partners by offering direct service drive-up grocery and food box distributions. In its fiscal year 2020, Gleaners distributed nearly 64 million pounds of food to neighbors in need.  For more information, visit gcfb.org.

New Berlin Chamber Joins Statewide Effort

Wisconsin businesses call for Evers to restart multi-million-dollar workforce recruitment campaign

WMC, along with 36 chambers of commerce and industry associations, sent a letter Wednesday to Evers asking him to use $3 million appropriated by the state Legislature to restart a 2018 effort to bring new workers to Wisconsin. In 2018, former Republican Gov. Scott Walker's administration invested millions of dollars in a three-pronged marketing campaign to attract millennials, new veterans and graduates from Wisconsin colleges. The recruitment effort, which ran through 2019, resulted in positive responses from veterans, said Rachel Ver Velde, WMC director of workforce education and employment policy. "It's really hard to make a difference when you're just one employer trying to do talent recruitment yourself, you know, or one city trying to do talent recruitment yourself," said Ver Velde.

Click here to learn more: https://www.wpr.org/wisconsin-businesses-call-evers-restart-multi-million-dollar-workforce-recruitment-campaign 

Monthly tourism spending in Wisconsin tops record-setting year for first time since 2019

On Thursday, Gov. Tony Evers and Wisconsin Department of Tourism Secretary-designee Anne Sayers celebrated news in Wisconsin's tourism industry as national travel spending data for September reveals Wisconsin's first growth in monthly year-over-year tourism spending compared to 2019, while the national average continues to lag at a 9 percent drop. 

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Mike Paone, Joliet Chamber: Employer Covid-19 Vaccine and Testing Rules Unveiled by Biden Administration

Many employers will have to ensure by Jan. 4 that their workers are vaccinated or tested weekly for Covid-19 under a set of new vaccine requirements by the Biden administration that will cover more than 80 million employees.
 
The requirements released Thursday by the Labor Department implement a vaccine directive that President Biden announced in September. They apply to employers with 100 or more employees. While the administration has said the requirements are necessary to curb the Covid-19 pandemic, they have drawn opposition from many Republicans.
 
Companies subject to the rules must ensure that employees who aren’t vaccinated against Covid-19 produce a negative test at least weekly and wear a mask in the workplace. Employers aren’t required under the new policy to provide or pay for tests, with potential exceptions if collective bargaining agreements compel them to do so.
 
Employers who don’t adhere to the requirements could face penalties of up to around $13,600 per violation.
 
Republican opposition to the policy has intensified since September, when the Labor Department’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration said it would issue an emergency temporary standard implementing the new requirements.
 
Arizona Attorney General Mark Brnovich in September filed a lawsuit against Mr. Biden’s Covid-19 requirements for businesses and a set of rules for federal contractors. Many other states have also sought to challenge the administration’s mandate for federal contractors.
 
Employers subject to the new rules must require each vaccinated worker to provide proof of vaccination status, federal officials said. Acceptable documents include a record of immunization from a provider or pharmacy; a copy of a CDC Covid-19 vaccination card; medical records; immunization records from public health, state or tribal immunization information system; or a copy of other official documentation that contains the type and dates of vaccination.
 
When documentation can’t be obtained, a signed and dated statement from the employee attesting to his or her vaccination status is permitted. The OSHA rules require those employers to provide paid time off to workers so they can receive the Covid-19 vaccine, as well as sick leave to recover from any side effects, and to ensure that unvaccinated employees wear a face mask while in the workplace by Dec. 5.
 
President Biden has said he was reluctant to issue vaccination requirements and did so after a monthslong campaign encouraging people to get the shot failed to persuade many Americans. The administration also sought to give employers cover to issue vaccine requirements since some were concerned that workers in a tight labor market might quit and go to other companies without an industry standard, two people familiar with the planning said.

Town Square Publications Chamber Membership Directories, Maps, Quarterly Magazines, Digital Directory Sales and Community Profiles: The no cost, no risk best Chamber Publishing Partner in the USA!

Town Square Publications, a division of the Daily Herald Media Group, is a national chamber custom publishing group that specializes in developing partnerships by producing high-quality print and digitally integrated publications along with other added value programs dedicated to creating relevancy for local chambers of commerce and other membership focused organizations interested in raising non-dues revenues.

Town Square Publications parent company, Paddock Publications, has over 100 years’ experience of print product development and dedicated customer service in communities throughout the Midwest. Our experience allows Town Square Publications to offer you attractive royalty and non-dues revenue share streams, provide direct distribution of your custom designed printed publications, including digital and mobile integration, and all with the quickest turn-around times available in the industry. Town Square also offers multi-media maps in both print and online formats, both with our No-Cost guarantee. More information: Town Square Publications

Chambers of Commerce and member focused organizations serve as a valuable resource in the local marketplace. The networking opportunities and representation with a wide variety of diverse businesses in your community is the catalyst of a successful organization. For further information about Town Square's publishing partnership with chambers of commerce and our No-Cost guarantee and Earned Revenue Share Program, To request your chamber publication or map proposal, contact Town Square Chamber Proposal or email John Dussman with the subject line: Chamber Publication Proposal Requested. Thank you!