Repost: Syracuse women build homes

Women in Construction

Posted on October 23, 2012 by Kori Hale


Read the original transcript at https://nccnews.expressions.syr.edu.

Repost: The Mag Interview | Alise Martiny helps women build a future

THE MAG INTERVIEW

The Mag Interview | Alise Martiny helps women build a future

BY CINDY HOEDEL

The Kansas City Star

JILL TOYOSHIBA

Alise Martiny, who had been a concrete finisher for 32 years, is now the business manager at the Greater Kansas City Trades Council.

Alise Martiny of Merriam is business manager for the Greater Kansas City Building and Trades Council. This conversation took place at Crossroads Coffeehouse.

Q What is the Building and Trades Council?

AThe AFL-CIO is the umbrella organization over all of organized labor. Underneath that are different departments, and one is building trades. So I work with all the construction trades on a daily basis.

Q How did you end up with this big union job? It’s not the kind of post people expect a woman to fill.

A No, it’s not. I’m the first female to hold that job in Kansas City and in Missouri. I’ve been in construction a long time.

Q How did you get into it?

A I was going to KU and I got up there and decided it wasn’t for me. Came home and heard an ad on the radio trying to get more minorities and females into the construction industry. This was 1980, when President Carter was pushing for affirmative action.

Q How did you get trained?

A I did an apprenticeship program with the cement masons.

Q How much does it cost to get into an apprenticeship program like that?

A Nothing. It’s all paid for by private dollars from labor management. So it makes a lot more sense for some people than taking on huge debt for college — it’s become people’s highest debt after home mortgages.

The programs are three to five years and when you start out you start out on a 50 percent scale, which is about $14 to $20 bucks an hour.

And you start right out getting health insurance and a pension, which not a lot of people get anymore.

Q You spend a lot of time speaking to young women about construction jobs. What is your message to them?

A That there are great opportunities for women in construction. Our numbers for women are very low. Our goal for females in Kansas City, Missouri, is 2 percent, and we are meeting that, but just barely.

Q Wow. Two percent is the goal?

A Yes, it’s low. It’s so sad.

Q Why do you think it’s so low?

A If you look at what it is across the country, it’s 3 1/2 to 4 percent. That’s low, and we are still lagging.

I think we haven’t done a good job of letting women know that they can do this job. Construction is a great job for a woman, especially if she is trying to provide health insurance, a pension and a livable wage for her and her family.

Read the full interview at http://www.kansascity.com/.

Read more here: http://www.kansascity.com/2012/10/24/3879488/star-magazine-interview-alise.html#storylink=cpy

Repost: Pioneer tradeswoman to read at Queen Anne Books

Queen Anne-based author Hadiyah Joan Carlyle will read from her memoir Torch in the Dark: One Woman’s Journey at Queen Anne Books, 1811 Queen Anne Ave. N. on Thursday, Oct. 18 at 6:30 p.m.

Carlyle’s book tells the story of how she, as a single mother, was one of the first women since World War II to enter the trades as a union welder. Beginning in a Jewish immigrant neighborhood in New Jersey, the story moves through San Francisco’s colorful Haight-Ashbury in the 1960s to arrive at last at Fairhaven Shipyard in Bellingham. For Carlyle, welding became both a path to self-reliance and economic survival and a metaphor for healing from early childhood trauma. “As one of the first female welders in the West Coast shipyards, Carlyle paved the way for women working in the trades today,” comments Arleen Williams, author of The Thirty-Ninth Victim.

The story of Carlyle’s journey offers inspiration for anyone struggling with issues of abuse and oppression. In addition, the book provides perspective on the culture of the 1960s and 1970s. “No one has even come close to the depth and detail of the sixties that Carlyle reaches,” says Jack Remick, author of The Deification and Blood.

Activist, hiker, grandmother, Carlyle is the mother of Washington State 36th District Legislator Reuven Carlyle.  More information about Torch in the Dark is available at www.torchinthedark.com.

Read the original article at http://queenannenews.com/.

Repost: NAWIC Installs 2012-2013 National President and New Board Members

NEWS RELEASE
September 25, 2012

NAWIC Installs 2012-2013 National President and New Board Members

Cindy Johnsen, CBT, CDS, CIT leads NAWIC 

FORT WORTH, TEXAS — The National Association of Women in Construction (NAWIC) installed Cindy Johnsen, CBT, CDS, CIT, as its 58th National President during NAWIC’s Annual Meeting and Convention in Denver, Colo. on Friday, Aug. 31, 2012. Johnsen, an office administrator III for Granite Construction Company, has been a member of NAWIC’s San Bernardino-Riverside, Calif. Chapter since 1997.

Johnsen has exciting plans for her term as NAWIC president. She said, “My vision is to start the development of professional development programs in NAWIC that can be published and utilized throughout the industry to develop strong leaders/mentors and great employees.”

Asked about her top priority while in office, Johnsen said, “To revitalize our association. Now is the time for NAWIC! What better time to go after new members—we are in a revitalization mode so no idea is off the table. We need to hear every idea and determine if it is a fit for NAWIC. This includes the implementation of a professional development committee that assists with the groundwork for our new strategic plan goal to ‘develop and implement a Professional Development Program with multiple tracks by 2017.’”

Johnsen also plans to:

• Re-release the NAWIC Builds brand and logo to local chapters so they can utilize it locally and increase the brand’s visibility.
• Roll out NAWIC’s new strategic plan and encourage members to buy in.
• Increase NAWIC’s member retention rate.

NAWIC also installed officers President-Elect Yasmine A. Branden, CCA, Portland, Ore. Chapter; Vice President Sandy K. Field, CBT, CIT, Houston, Texas Chapter; Treasurer Connie M. Leipard, CIT, Central Missouri Chapter; Secretary Dove Sifers-Putman, Charlotte, N.C. Chapter; and Immediate Past President Judy DeWeese, CBT, CIT, San Antonio, Texas Chapter.

In addition to the officers, the NAWIC board is comprised of a national director from each of the association’s 14 regions. Each director serves a two-year term and is elected by her peers to bring the wishes and needs of the chapters to the attention of the association. New directors installed include:

• Region 2 Director Stephanie K. Crane, CIT, Greater Birmingham, Ala. Chapter; 
• Region 4 Director Mardi K. Gauer, Akron, Ohio Chapter; 
• Region 6 Director Beverly J. Sauerwein, CIT, Greater Wichita, Kan. Chapter; 
• Region 8 Director Karen Edmonston, El Paso, Texas Chapter; 
• Region 10 Director Donnalyn Revis, CIT, Santa Clara, Calif. Chapter; 
• Region 12 Director Keri S. Hawkins, CBT, Las Vegas, Nev. Chapter; and
• Region 14 Director Carol O’Donnell, CIT, No. 1 of Rhode Island Chapter.

NAWIC region directors serving the second year of their term include:

• Region 1 Director Maura C. Hesdon, LEED AP, Philadelphia, Pa. Chapter; 
• Region 3 Director Jean L. Cox, CBT, Greater Orlando, Fla. Chapter; 
• Region 5 Director Phyllis F. Haynes, Jackson, Miss. Chapter; 
• Region 7 Director Gracie Narey, CIT, Fort Worth, Texas Chapter; 
• Region 9 Director Dalene Schafer Bloom, Portland, Ore. Chapter; 
• Region 11 Director Deborah L. Knight, CDS, CIT, Greater Tidewater, Va. Chapter; and 
• Region 13 Director Amy Berg, CBT, CIT, Fargo-Moorhead, N.D.

# # #

Learn more about the National Association of Women in Construction and see the original press release at www.nawic.org.

Repost: Skilled Women Break Through Barriers to Entry and Promotion in Trades Work

Saturday, 06 October 2012
By Eleanor J Bader, Truthout | Report

Although role models are scarce, training is hard to find and sexism is rampant, determined women are finding professional success and satisfaction in the skilled trades: construction, sheet metal working, welding, pipefitting - and more.

When Leah Rambo became a sheet metal worker in 1988, she never imagined that she'd one day run the apprenticeship program for Local 38 of the Sheet Metal Air and Rail Transportation Union. But a little more than a year ago, she became one of the highest-ranking women in the US labor movement, taking the helm of a hands-on, 4 1/2-year training program for sheet metal workers in New York City and Nassau and Suffolk counties.

This year, the program has 306 students, eight percent of them female.

"The challenge is not only to get women enrolled," Rambo says. "If you promote trades work to women, and they see other women doing the jobs, a lot will want in. The bigger challenge is improving the conditions so they stay in the field. Most women experience discrimination or harassment. As a matter of fact, when you are a woman, nobody - not the bosses and not your co-workers - sees your color. Your gender is much more important than your ethnicity or race. The sexism is not as bad as it was, but it is always an issue. Women are still hit on, still don't get the same promotion opportunities and still get laid off more frequently than men." ...

To read the full article, visit truth-out.org.

Repost: Turner's graduate programme good for industry

Turner, one of America's foremost Construction firms, has recently celebrated the graduation of its most recent crop of graduates from its esteemed programme aimed at minorities and women

3 OCT 2012, Stanley Jackson

Turner Construction Company’s Chicago office recently held a graduation ceremony for 48 graduates of the firm’s Turner School of Construction Management Program for minority and women-owned business enterprises (M/WBEs). Sponsors of the program this year included, Exelon Corporation, Roosevelt University’s Marshall Bennett Institute of Real Estate, The City of Chicago’s Department of Procurement, and endorsements from the Chicago Minority Business Development Council, Westwood College, the Women’s Business Development Center, The Federation of Women Contractors, and the U.S. Green Building Council.

“Another successful year of making a significant impact to the minority and women owned business community.  We are very proud of our 48 graduates as well as the time and effort dedicated by the Turner staff in organizing, supporting and teaching the program,” said Rick Blair, General Manager of Turner’s Chicago and Indianapolis operations.

Read more at www.constructiondigital.com.

Job Opportunity: Suffolk Construction is hiring a Compliance Officer

Position Summary:

The Compliance Officer monitors and reports on the goals and requirements related to workforce compliance and the use of minority, woman and disabled-owned businesses on all projects in Suffolk’s Northeast Region.  In addition, the Compliance Officer provides guidance to project management teams on matters relating to such goals and requirements. The Compliance Officer also plays an active role in outreach to and establishing relationships with local, state and community agencies, groups and organizations.

Department: Legal

Reports To:  Director of Diversity & Workforce Compliance

Direct Reports: None

Location: Boston, MA

Status: Full Time/Exempt Salary

To read the full job responsibilities or apply for this position, visit Suffolk Construction's website.

Repost: Building career in construction possible for women too

COURTESY GILBANE

HOUSE RULES: Pamela House, senior accountant at Gilbane Building Co., says companies and programs need to begin talking about alternative career paths as early as middle school.

By Rebecca KeisterPBN Staff WriterPosted 10/1/12

Pamela House considers herself lucky to have found someone willing to take a chance and offer her a foot in the door to a lifelong career when she was a single mother in the late 1970s, with only a part-time job and no real job training.

That the career happened to be in construction was even more unheard of for women than it may be today. But House relished the opportunity to make her way up the chain at Gilbane Building Company, where she works as a senior accountant.

In September she was awarded the Crystal Achievement Award from the National Association of Women in Construction, an organization she has belonged to for close to 20 years. She has held several leadership roles with the group, including on its board of directors.

PBN: Why do you think women might be reluctant to consider a career in the construction industry?

House: Because there's the stereotypical digging the ditch [assumption about the work] and not realizing the full range of possibilities that there are. This industry is about a lot more, everything from architects to accountants to IT. Right now, there's a revolution in the construction industry and the technology is incredible. It's incredible the amount of knowledge that [you need] for this job. I'd like to see more women in the trades and there's really no reason there shouldn't be. The days of women not being [able] to be out in the field are gone.

PBN: But are there some job functions women cannot do, simply because of size and strength?

House: That's up to them. There's a lot of women who can do some physical stuff better than some guys. [But] no one is expecting someone to do a job they can't do. As long as you can keep up, the days of physical limitations are over. It's hard to attract the next generation to the trades, because it's a different animal today. Maybe the reason is a lot of young people have been behind a computer all their lives. Girls in nontraditional trades are an age-old problem. That's why [someone] encouraged me to think outside the box. I do believe that afforded me to work my way up in the time when the industry was growing.

To read the full interview, visit the Providence Business News at www.pbn.com.