THE MAG INTERVIEW
The Mag Interview | Alise Martiny helps women build a future
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/.
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