Women, Unions and Our Stories: We’ve Come a Long Way Baby!!

When I first decided to start this blog, I did so because I knew a lot of women in unions, but I didn’t know their stories. There were railroader wives, teamsters, carpenters, office workers, government employees, teachers, nurses, etc…I think you get the picture. I wanted to know both the good and bad. Somewhere along the way I decided that I wasn’t just interested in their stories but about taking all of our stories and pulling them together with other data to help buoy the movement, in some small way.

Over the past 18 months, I’ve blogged about a couple of womens organizations that help women get into the trades. That even has included the late Shirley Chisholm’s contributions. Today, it seems almost as if we’ve taken a giant leap in the trades.

You see, I wandered over to Union Review today to check out what was up and I found that the Carpenter’s Union (UBC) has started a sister’s site.

This site is dedicated to training women in the trades through apprenticeship programs. Rock on!!

I couldn’t help but think of the three single moms in Cleveland who sat at a kitchen table in the 70’s and decided that they needed a group to help them in their jobs and to bring more women into the trades. Hard Hatted Women, I love you!!

Now, one other note to make on this topic, when starting an apprenticeship program, some might find that their incomes are reduced (not usually), they will increase at the Journeyman level, but it might take time. Also, apprentices are most often the first to endure layoffs and last to be re-hired. So, Sisters linked to a financial planning resource so that groups organizing apprenticeship programs can assist workers with developing financial planning skills and an emergency financial back-up plan. You should totally go and check out their site and more specifically the pdf they have up on financial planning.