Repost: A few strong women - Buildings Trades Union wants more female workers

More great press for Building Pathways New Hampshire! Here's a preview of the article in the April 17th issue of The Hippo:

"Nationally, women only make up about 2 percent of building industries workers, but if you ask the organizers of the New Hampshire Building Pathways program, a new initiative aimed at recruiting and training women for careers in construction, women do just as well as men. 

'The truth is, women have been doing heavy physical labor since the dawn of time. There’s nothing inherent about us that says we can’t do this,' said Liz Skidmore, Building Pathways organizer and veteran construction worker. 'As girls, we don’t get told this is an option, or this is possible.' 

The New Hampshire Building Trades Unions is piloting Building Pathways, which will give 13 unemployed and underemployed women the opportunity to participate in a pre-apprenticeship program." (Fishow, 17 April 2014)

Visit http://www.hippopress.com/ to read the full article.

Repost: New law requires MassDOT construction pre-apprentice program

A recent article in The Boston Globe describes a new bill that requires MassDOT to utilize a pre-apprenticeship program for training construction workers:

"State legislators are hoping that a pre-apprenticeship program required by a transportation bond bill will give women and minorities more access to state construction jobs. 

The provision in the bill mandates that the Massachusetts Department of Transportation train at least 300 young adults, women, minorities, or people from low-income families annually in a program that would last at least five years." (Powers, 25 April 2014)

Visit http://www.bostonglobe.com/metro to read the article. 

Career Opportunity: Building Pathways New Hampshire pre-apprenticeship program

Building Pathways New Hampshire is looking for women who want to join the construction trades!


BPNH PSA-JB 03122014 from UBC Sisters in the Brotherhoo on Vimeo.

Repost: Trades discuss challenges of attracting women and minorities

A pre-apprenticeship program in Pennsylvania helps women and minorities prepare to join the building trades.

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By Michael Bradwell
Feb 10, 2014

There are ample job opportunities in skilled trades for the area’s women and minorities, but promotion of the available positions is not always evident.

That was the acknowledgement Monday by a group of speakers from trade unions and the state Department of Transportation, who said there are a variety of reasons for the situation, one that they’re trying to remedy.

The discussions were part of a three-hour minority and female employment information forum at PONY League headquarters in Washington Square. The event was sponsored by state Rep. Brandon Neuman, D-North Strabane, and state Sen. Tim Solobay, D-Canonsburg.

Neuman said at the outset of the forum, which drew many high school guidance counselors and community representatives, including Washington Mayor Brenda Davis, that he was prompted to hold the event after learning from a constituent that he noticed a construction site that had no minorities or women working on it.

Monday’s event was the third that Neuman sponsored over the past two years. The others focused on career opportunities in the Marcellus Shale natural gas industry and the importance of science, technology, engineering and math, or STEM instruction, in high school curriculums.

As for opportunities that require a skilled trade, “We don’t have enough minorities, and we don’t have enough women in these jobs,” Neuman said.

Jason Koss, director of industry relations for the Constructors Association of Western Pennsylvania, noted that a number of large PennDOT highway projects such as the recently completed flyover at the south junction of Interstates 70 and 79, the Findlay Connector and the recently funded Southern Beltway project, provide jobs for large numbers of people who have skilled trades.

But getting a job requires someone to apply to one of the trade unions and take an entry exam focused on basic math and communication skills. If applicants achieve a high enough score, they receive an interview with Koss and others who determine which trade school would be appropriate for successful applicants.

Koss, whose group works with trade unions and contractors involved in construction of highways, airport runways, locks and dams, bridges and utility projects in 33 counties, acknowledged that across the counties, union heavy highway jobs had 9 percent minority and 3 percent women employees. Skilled trade apprenticeship programs currently have 12 percent minorities and seven percent women enrolled.

“It takes time to change these numbers,” he said.

Koss also acknowledged that while the jobs pay well, there are some challenges, including working in all types of weather, the need for reliable transportation and the requirement of working in a variety of locations.

“You could be in an urban area like Washington for two weeks, then the next two weeks, you could be in a rural area like Avella,” he said. He also acknowledged that the apprenticeship trade programs, whose training requires a multi-year learning commitment, receive little recognition, even though they pay the apprentices, who learn many of their skills on the job.

Another problem with the line of work is that it is sometime misunderstood by people who successfully earn jobs, but leave after a year or two because they don’t like the working conditions.

To remedy that, Koss said CAWP has developed “Future Road Builders,” a virtual highway construction pre-apprenticeship program that lets participants learn about the roles a carpenter, cement mason, laborer, heavy equipment operator and others play in a construction projects.

Jason Fincke, executive director of the Builders Guild of Western Pennsylvania, noted that the average age of an apprentice is 27, noting that many people attend a trade school after college, or after losing a job.

He said career and technology schools are a good place for high school students to receive a grounding in a trade.

“Builders like people to go to apprenticeship schools,” which he said last from three to five years, but are tuition-free for successful applicants.

Like Koss, Fincke said the decision by many high schools to end driver training courses has had a negative impact on skilled trades, since all require apprentices to have reliable transportation.

The trades are open to women, but it’s often a tough sell, he said.

“It’s tough to get women to apply to our trades, but there isn’t a trade out there that doesn’t have women working in it,” he said.

Fincke acknowledged that grades are important, but trade schools tend to focus more on high school students’ attendance records, noting that attendance is an indicator of whether someone will show up for work every day.

William Kerney Jr., chief of the contract compliance division for PennDOT in Harrisburg, said his department works closely with all of its prime contractors to ensure that equal opportunity requirements are being met, but acknowledged that while employers will try many ways to find minorities and women to work on a project, including getting in touch with community leaders where they’re working, they often come up empty.

“We have to do a better job of communicating the opportunities that exist,” he said.

View the original article at http://www.observer-reporter.com/.

Repost: Massachusetts Building Trades face long diversity odds

(Photo Courtesy of Building Pathways)

by Martin Desmarais | 12/4/2013, 11:34am

Increasing the numbers of blacks, Latinos Asians and women in the construction industry and the building trades is an uphill battle, with thousands of workers entering each year and the established diversity programs helping a small number so far, but Massachusetts trades organizations say they are committed to the fight.

Mayor-elect Marty Walsh touted his own effort — Building Pathways, a building trades pre-apprenticeship program serving low-income residents of the Greater Boston area.

The program, which he launched while he served as head of the Building and Construction Trades Council of the Metropolitan District, was designed to help Boston residents, with a focus on women and people of color, learn the skills and receive the credentials to enter building trades apprenticeship programs.

With over 20 different trades and several dozen apprenticeship programs throughout the state, Building Pathways aims to help its students find the right career direction.

Launched in 2011, the six-week skills training, assessment and placement program has had five training cycles with 70 graduates, 95 percent of whom are women and minorities. According to Building Pathways statistics, 85 percent of the graduates have been placed in apprenticeship programs. The last class of 16 participants graduated last month, all of whom were low-income minority Boston area residents, including 10 women.

While Walsh has received plaudits for his diversity efforts, the numbers are just a tiny fraction of the workers who enter the building trades on a yearly basis. According to the Massachusetts Building Trades Council, almost 6,500 workers were enrolled in both union and non-union apprenticeship programs last year — with unions spending close to $30 million to recruit and train new workers. Comparably, Building Pathways has graduated 70 over three years.

Walsh says he recognizes that the Building Pathways program is not going to single-handedly diversify the building trades industry overnight, but he says it is an extremely important program for what it is attempting to do and that it can serve as a model for a way to increase diversity.

He also points out that the only reason the program has had any success at all is because the different building trades are behind the efforts and have guaranteed placement of its graduates — they want to increase diversity.

“All of them are very much into it,” Walsh said. “That was the key to this program.

“It is the only program of its kind that is successful,” he added. “It has been very, very effective.”

Despite their professed commitment to diversifying their ranks, none of the union or non-union building trades organizations would disclose the demographics of their workers.

Frank Callahan, president of the Massachusetts Building Trades Council, says the problem is not about a requirement to track diversity, the challenge is so many different unions and organizations that are run separately and have their own bylaws and charters.

“It is difficult on a whole number of fronts,” Callahan said. “I get frustrated about it myself.”

Callahan says he believes the building trades are sincere in their diversity efforts.

“I go out to the union halls, I see the diversity in members,” he said. “It is something that the building trades have been committed to for quite some time.”

District 7 City Councilor Tito Jackson says the unions will have to disclose numbers if they want to make progress on diversifying.

“We know the building trades don’t reflect the population of the city of Boston,” he said. “We need to make sure we’re being thoughtful and deliberate about how we diversify the building trades. We have to be able to measure our gains against a baseline.”

While the Massachusetts building trades continue their efforts without numbers to illustrate the cause, other states that have made pushes for diversity in the trades have estimated numbers — and the results do not reflect much improvement.

A report out of Philadelphia, which cites numbers from the Office of Housing and Community Development collected from 2008 to 2012, found that the makeup of the union members in the building trades by the end of this period were 99 percent male, 76 percent white and 67 percent suburban residents. This number is only union members — non-union numbers have not been recorded — so it may not reflect the true diversity of the building trades workforce.

But the report findings demonstrated that even after Philadelphia officials pushed for diversity there was little impact on the unions that lead the way in the industry.

The National Black Chamber of Commerce was quick to jump on the implications of the report, releasing to the media an open letter in July to U.S. Representative Marcia Fudge, chair of the Congressional Black Caucus.

“We are very disturbed that elected officials as well as civil rights organizations have this cordial relationship with construction unions. Construction unions have consistently discriminated against black workers and contractors,” the letter stated. “Ninety-eight percent of all black construction firms are nonunion. There is a reason — if they join a union the union will manage their employees and thus never hire them for work. The end result is the business being void of any black workers and the former black employees will soon be unemployed.”

The letter also concluded: “These construction unions are a prime contributor to black unemployment.”

Municipal officials in the Maryland, Virginia and the Washington D.C. metro area have also made a push for diversity in the building trades, but like in Massachusetts, there is little data to back up what is actually happening.

While the numbers of minorities in the Massachusetts building trades workforce is small, the increased number of construction projects in Boston has created an opportune time for all parties involved to really target the diversity issue in the Massachusetts building trades.

“Boston is No. 2 in the nation for construction right now, so we are really booming,” said Mary Vogel, executive director of the Construction Institute and program manager for Building Pathways. “This is the opportunity to make sure all of our construction workforce reflects our neighborhoods. Women, in particular, are underrepresented in our industry and we want to make sure they have an opportunity to get these kind of careers.”

View the original article at http://baystatebanner.com.

Career Opportunity: Building Pathways Pre-Apprenticeship Program

Click the above image to download this flyer.

Repost: Program aims to diversify highway construction workforce

By Peter Wong

A state agency is seeking proposals for pre-apprenticeship services that will help encourage more women and minorities to begin careers in highway construction.

The services are the result of a partnership between the Bureau of Labor and Industries and the Oregon Department of Transportation. They are intended to inform students and young adults about potential careers as carpenters, cement masons, iron workers, laborers, operating engineers and painters.

About $200,000 will be split among two or three proposals. The amount will be drawn from $2.1 million in federal funds approved by the 2013 Legislature for pre-apprenticeship services and efforts to diversify the highway construction workforce. The two agencies will ensure that the amount is spread statewide.

Proposals are due at 2:30 p.m. Oct. 28 at the Department of Administrative Services/Procurement Services office in Salem. Services are scheduled to start Jan. 1 and run for 18 months.

To view the original article, visit http://www.statesmanjournal.com.

Repost: Female pipefitter in training gives thanks for Trade-Up’s pre-apprenticeship program

By David Pendered

on September 1st, 2013, 11:38 pm

As the United States pauses to honor workers on Labor Day, one Atlanta mother is thankful and proud that she’s on her way to becoming a pipefitter.

Jacquelyn Treadville-Samuels is changing careers after working as a forensic science technician in Atlanta and Alabama. She lost her taste for that work after caring for her cancer-stricken mother in Alabama. She returned to Atlanta and became homeless while looking for a job.

“This is a dream come true,” Treadville-Sanders said outside the auditorium where members of Georgia Stand-Up had just applauded the first all-female class of pre-apprentice trainees in its Trade-Up program. “I’ve prayed for something like this, but I never knew is would be like this.”

Students in the first all-female pre-apprenticeship program
offered by Georgia Trade-Up stand beneath a banner
of an iconic tradesman: Tyeshia Foster (left to right);
Lisa Brooks; Jacquelyn Treadville-Sanders (president);
Leslee Shepherd (coordinator); Janell Carter; Joanne Barker;
Chamena Johnson (secretary). Photo credits: David Pendered

Treadville-Samuels took a few moments outside the I.B.E.W. auditorium in downtown Atlanta to count her blessings. Even as she looks ahead to a good job that will enable her to provide for herself and her 8-year-old son, she’s contemplating how to give back to the community.

“I want to offer low-income housing for single parents because, if you’re not a husband and wife, you just can’t afford to buy a house,” Treadville-Samuels said.

“I want to go on and open my own business, and the only thing I ask is that I am able to take another woman under my wing and pay it forward,” she said.

“I want to teach our community that you can be better and do better, and there are people in our community who can help you do that,” she said. “There are so many people in our community who need an opportunity, or want an opportunity.”

Treadville-Sanders is enrolled in Georgia Trade-Up. It’s a pre-apprenticeship and workforce development program that teaches job-readiness skills to men and women who plan to enter construction trades apprenticeship programs or the construction industry. The program lasts eight weeks.

The all-female class in which she’s enrolled is funded by Goodwill Industries International. Goodwill, in turn, received the funding through the Department of Labor’s Women in Apprenticeship and Nontraditional Occupations program, according to Deborah Scott, executive director of Georgia Stand-Up and founder of Trade-Up.

Georgia was the only southern state to receive any of the $1.8 million the Labor Department announced in 2012. Goodwill received $300,000, the amount awarded each of the six programs nationwide, and promised to place at least 100 participants over the life of the two-year program into a registered apprenticeship program, according to a DOL statement.

These are good jobs in a field that’s anticipated to have labor shortages, Scott said. According to Scott, the Governor’s Office of Workforce Development has predicted openings for 82,000 skilled tradespersons by 2016. Some of those openings are due to workers who retired during the recession and aren’t expected to return to the field, Scott said.

To read the remainder of this article, visit http://saportareport.com/.