Repost: Union Tradeswomen Are Urged to 'Lean In' at Big Gathering

By JT Long in Sacramento

Photo Courtesy of Women Building California and the Nation

Attendees got motivation from AFL-CIO executive Liz Shuler.

A record 650 union tradeswomen attending the annual "Women Building California and the Nation" conference earlier this month were urged to take a cue from top Facebook executive Sheryl Sandburg and "lean in" to become leaders at jobsites, union halls and in their communities.

The Sacramento, Calif., conference, co-sponsored by the AFL-CIO's Building and Construction Trades Dept. and the California State Building and Construction Trades Council, brought together women electricians, ironworkers, sheet-metal workers, plumbers, bricklayers and other craft workers from across the state, the U.S. and Canada to show solidarity, network and gain insights to boost their numbers and economic clout.

Women currently make up 3% of workers in the building trades, but the popularity of craft-specific networking sessions for pre-apprentices and journeywomen indicated the pipeline was still flowing. "It's a wonderful opportunity for the newbies to chat with those who really do the work," said Debra Chaplan, state council spokeswoman and a member of Teamsters' union Local 853 in San Leandro, Calif. Chaplan credited the recovering economy in part for the record sponsorship of unions from regions that have been absent in recent years. New jobs are coming back in some places faster than in others, she notes.

The dominant message in the workshops, which encouraged attendees to "make the law work for you" and run for union and political office, was that women, including minority women who are underrepresented in the industry, need to self-nominate and get involved. "The more visible you become, the more you hear, the more changes you can make, and the more you can bring others with you," said Jane Templin, interim president of electrical workers' Local 11 in Pasadena, Calif.

Read the remainder of this article at http://ern.construction.com.

© 2013 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.

Repost: Registration Is Open for the 3rd Annual Women Building the Nation Conference

The 3rd Annual Women Building the Nation Conference will be held on April 5-7 in Sacramento, CA. The event celebrates women who are leaders in the construction workplace, their communities and in their unions, is sponsored by the AFL-CIO’s Building and Construction Trades Department (BCTD) and the State Building & Construction Trades Council of California (SBCTC) and will be held at Sacramento’s Sheraton Grand.

The goals of the conference include:

• Recruit more women into building and construction trades
• Promote retention of women in the trades
• Develop tradeswomen’s capacity for leadership and career growth, on the job and in their unions

The three day event, which also represents the 13th year of the Women Building California gathering, will begin with a Friday meet and greet that will connect women who are leaders in their unions. On Saturday, tradeswomen, union leaders, apprenticeship coordinators, contractors, and politicians will facilitate 30 different workshop sessions aimed at helping women have continued success in their careers in the trades. Topics for the workshops will include Pre-Apprentices, Staying in & Staying Strong, Promoting Leadership, and Policy and Politics.

On Sunday, attendees will join for mind-melding caucuses set up by each trade. A National Policy Forum will be held that day as well.

Registration is done based on a tiered system that will cost the attendee $75 before February 22nd, $100 before March 31st, and $125 from April 1st, until the doors open on Friday the 5th. Members of unions affiliated with the BCTD will receive a $15 discount.

More information is available at 916-443-3302, or on the SBCTC website.

Content from Chaz Bolte at wepartypatriots.com.

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

$10,000 Edna Award to outstanding young woman leader deadline July 31st

For the second year in a row, the Berger-Marks Foundation is offering its $10,000 Edna Award to an outstanding young woman leader in the social justice movement.
 The Edna Award will spotlight the contributions to social justice made by women age 35 and younger.  It will honor one woman who has made an extraordinary contribution early in her career – and whose ongoing work will likely improve the lives of working women and men. The top Edna Award will be presented to the winner in a fall ceremony, which also will recognize several runners-up.
 Edna Award nominees are not permitted to nominate themselves.  So it’s up to you or a colleague step up and nominate a young woman who's made a real difference
-- and whose good work has impressed you.

Nominations will be accepted online only through July 31, and will be judged by a panel of well-known leaders who are also women. Find out more on our website at www. bergermarks.org.  Also on our website, you can read about the young woman who won last year’s first-ever $10,000 Edna Award and the three Nominees of Note who were each awarded $1,000.
 To inspire you to nominate a dynamic young woman, I leave you with a quote from one of this year’s judges, AFL-CIO Secretary-Treasurer Liz Shuler:

"Major change in our country has always been led by young people. Martin Luther King Jr. was 26 when he led the Montgomery bus boycott. At 25, Cesar Chavez was registering Mexican-Americans to vote. Walter Reuther headed strikes demanding GM recognize its workers’ rights starting when he was 30."

 We look forward to being introduced to today’s promising young women leaders. Thanks for what you can do to help.

In solidarity,
Linda Foley
President, Berger-Marks Foundation

America's Labor Leaders to Release Major Study on The Associated Builders and Contractors

WHAT: The Building and Construction Trades Department (BCTD), joined by the AFL-CIO and LIUNA, will release the findings of a first-ever state-by-state comparative analysis of the Associated Builders and Contractors trade association, better known as ABC, and its affiliate organizations. The findings expose ABC's data manipulation and an aggressive disinformation campaign designed to confuse elected officials, the public and the press into supporting policies that produce fewer jobs, lower wages, and minimal workforce training, which have had a detrimental effect on workers, their communities and the US construction industry as a whole.

The report, written by Dr. Thomas J. Kriger, analyzes ABC from a number of different perspectives, including its origins, its membership and density among contractors in the American construction industry, its finances, its formal apprenticeship and craft training programs (along with its affiliate, the National Center for Construction Education and Research, NCCER), and ABC's more recent electronic, ideological issues advocacy.

The findings of the report, "Driving the Low Road in the Construction Industry: An Analysis of Associated Builders and Contractors (ABC)," will be released at a teleprint conference call.

CLICK HERE TO READ THE REPORT

Repost: Tradeswomen Push for Union Jobs, Equal Pay at Oakland Conference

Tradeswomen Push for Union Jobs, Equal Pay at Oakland Conference

May 05, 2011


By Robert Carlsen and Debra Rubin

Not content to see themselves locked at 2.5% of the national craft union workforce for the past 30 years, more than 625 tradeswomen gathered in Oakland last weekend to learn how to boost those numbers at the first national conference for women in the trades.

Photo by Vicki Hamlin, Tradeswomen Inc.

Photo by Vicki Hamlin, Tradeswomen Inc.

Sean McGarvey, national building trades’ secretary-treasurer

The meeting, co-sponsored by the AFL-CIO’s Building and Construction Trades Dept., included women craft workers from across the country and Canada. It was also the 10th annual Women Building California conference, which, according to conference organizers, never attracted this large an audience.