Repost: Building unions seek women

Great press on the new Building Pathways New Hampshire! Please spread the word to any individuals in NH interested in a career in the building trades.

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Tuesday, March 4, 2014

New Hampshire’s Building Trades Unions are looking for NH women who are seeking a good career with a future and who like working with their hands as well as their brain; who have a sense of adventure; and who like making good wages and benefits.

Building Pathways New Hampshire, a new pre-apprenticeship program designed to bring Granite State women into high-skill, high-wage construction careers is now seeking applicants for its upcoming training program slated to begin in mid-May. Building Pathways is a five week, hands-on education and training program in the building trades, with commitments to place qualified graduates into union apprenticeships.

Interested women MUST attend one of the four information sessions, which will be held on March 11, 13, 17, and 24 from 6:00-7:30 p.m. at the Plumbers and Pipefitters Union Hall, 161 Londonderry Turnpike, Hookset.

Classes will start Monday, May 12, and end Friday, June 13, at the Carpenters Training Center in Manchester. Classes will be Monday – Friday, 7 am-3:30 pm, the typical construction day.

Students will get hands-on instruction in a number of trades including carpentry, electrical, sheetmetal, plumbing and more. They will earn their OSHA 10 and First Aid/CPR certificates. They will visit different training centers as well as an active construction site. The class is free of charge, but space is limited – only 13 women will be accepted.

“I’ve been a union carpenter for 25 years. I started my apprenticeship in 1989, and I have loved it. I’ve worked on heavy highway concrete jobs, and high-end finish jobs. I moved up the career ladder and worked for a contractor doing estimating, and now I work for the union. I’ve made good money, and have a real skill that no one can take from me. It’s been an incredibly rewarding career,” said Liz Skidmore, a long-time carpenter and now business manager of Carpenters Union Local 118.

“In most fields, women don’t get paid as much as men doing the same work. In the Granite State, women only get paid $0.77 to the dollar a man makes. I’m proud that in the union building trades, women get paid exactly the same, dollar for dollar, hour.”

Skidmore added, “Construction work isn’t for everyone – male or female; you have to want to work hard and work outside in all weather, but if you love the work, it’s a fantastic career. The health and retirement benefits are exceptional.”

The program is designed for female New Hampshire residents who are unemployed or underemployed, who are physically able to work in construction, are 18 or older, are authorized to work in the US, have a high school diploma or GED, are drug free and agree to drug testing, are on time, are interested in a construction career, can pass an eighth grade level English and math test and who have access to reliable transportation. Women of color and veterans are strongly encouraged to apply.

The program is sponsored by the NH AFL-CIO, the NH State Building and Construction Trades Council, and the Carpenters Union. It is supported by federal Workforce Investment Act funds, the New Hampshire Charitable Foundation, and program partners.

Anyone interested in applying should contact Joe Gallagher at 603-948-8161 or at buildingpathwaysnh@gmail.com. Program information can also be found on Facebook at www.facebook.com/buildingpathwaysnh

Visit http://www.fosters.com/ to view the original article.

Repost: Settlement Requires New Jersey Contractor, Plumbers’ Union to Recruit More Women

By Lorraine McCarthy

March 3 — A New Jersey mechanical contracting company agreed Feb. 24 to pay a total of $400,000 to settle allegations that it violated state law and regulations barring gender discrimination in employment by failing to employ female plumbers on jobs it handled, including many taxpayer-funded projects (In re Falasca Mech. Inc. and Plumbers & Pipefitters Local No. 332, N.J. Att'y Gen., No. EF14SB-61686, administrative consent order filed 2/24/14).

Under terms of the administrative consent order announced by the New Jersey Attorney General's office, Falasca Mechanical Inc. of Vineland, N.J., will make payments of $250,000 to the state and $150,000 to journeyman plumber Bette Feldeisen, a member of Plumbers and Pipefitters Local Union No. 322.

Under its ongoing labor agreement with Local 322, Falasca staffs its projects by requesting workers from the union.

The state alleged that Falasca repeatedly hired less experienced, less qualified male plumbers over Feldeisen and in general failed to make a good-faith effort to employ female plumbers while handling millions of dollars in public works jobs.

Local 322, which is a non-paying party to the same settlement, agreed to join with Falasca in a cooperative effort to increase female recruitment into the union and to increase training and employment opportunities for female plumbers during the next three apprenticeship cycles.

Preferential Hiring of Men Alleged
Feldeisen worked for Falasca on occasional jobs beginning in 2000 and continuously from December 2006 through January 2009, when she was laid off for economic reasons, according to the state's summary of the case.

When the company was hired for a 2009 hospital construction project that required work on medical gas systems, Feldeisen, who holds a certification in medical gas installation, was passed over by Falasca and the union in favor of male plumbers who had fewer years of experience and who weren't certified in medical gas installation, according to the state.

In administrative complaints filed against Falasca and the union in September 2010, Feldeisen alleged that she was passed over repeatedly when Falasca sought plumbers through Local 322 for private and public projects, despite her experience and prior employment relationship with the contractor.

Her complaints alleged gender discrimination in violation of the New Jersey Law Against Discrimination and the state's Equal Employment Opportunity (EEO) rules for public contractors.

The state's investigation showed that “for a period of at least four years, encompassing over 150 public contracts, Falasca has not been in compliance with the EEO rules when accepting and carrying out public contracts,’’ according to the consent order.

Hiring Goals, Recruitment Efforts Mandated
Under terms of its agreement with the state, Falasca makes no admission of wrongdoing or liability.

In addition to the monetary terms of the settlement, Falasca agreed to work with Local 322 to comply with state hiring goals for female workers.

The company also agreed to keep records for at least three years of its efforts to reach hiring goals for women for every public contract it is awarded, including records of all individuals requested or referred from a union and all those interviewed or hired.

Falasca also will develop its own anti-discrimination and EEO rules compliance policy, distribute it to all unions with which the company has a labor agreement, and provide mandatory training on the policy to all project managers, foremen, hiring personnel and the Local 322 business manager.

The settlement includes reporting and monitoring provisions to ensure compliance.

The Local 322 Joint Apprenticeship Training Committee (JATC) has committed to its own outreach and recruitment efforts to attract more women to the apprenticeship program.

The union agreed to undertake outreach to students in at least three vocational-technical high schools during the next five academic years to provide information about the plumbing industry as a career and to encourage first- and second-year female students to pursue careers in the trade.

Representatives of Falasca and Local 322 could not be reached for comment.

To contact the reporter on this story: Lorraine McCarthy in Philadelphia at lmccarthy@bna.com
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Susan J. McGolrick at smcgolrick@bna.com

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/.