If you've read this site before, you know how much I love Hard Hatted Women, well, yesterday, I'm equally proud of DCLabor. From Metro Washington Council News:

TRADESWOMEN TRADE TOOLS FOR CAPS & GOWNS:

Family and friends of 21 newly-minted graduates filled the Gompers Room at the AFL-CIO Monday for the Washington Area Women in the Trades (WAWIT) graduation ceremony. Traci Pfeffer and Jhonnal Daniels spoke for many of their fellow-graduates when they shared the many challenges they faced to complete the 12-week building and construction trades pre-apprenticeship program.

Congratulatory and supportive words were offered by keynote speakers including Channel 7 anchor Maureen Bunyan and YWCA Executive Director Orysia Stanchak, and special thanks were given to the four unions who provided hands-on experience for the women at their apprenticeship schools, including Cement Masons Local 891, the Sheet Metal Workers Apprenticeship program, the Joint Carpentry Apprenticeship Committee and the IBEW Apprenticeship Program.

This is the fourth group of female construction workers to complete the training, which is coordinated by the YWCA of the National Capital Area, Wider Opportunities for Women and the Community Services Agency of the Metropolitan Washington Council, AFL-CIO.

What I especially like about this program is that it empowers women to do something else, something more. It encourages women to find a new way to provide for their families. More about this program from the Metro Council:

The Program:
We have developed a strategy to help women acquire the skills they need to pursue careers in the trades, and to connect them to apprenticeship and career opportunities after they graduate from the program. The program will reach out to women from different communities and include some who face barriers that have prevented them from finding or keeping well-paying jobs in the past.

Might I also point out here that it takes women from low benefit Certified Nursing Assistant jobs into jobs with growth, potential and opportunity. And with DC City Council restricting the City's paid sick leave legistlation to everone who doesn't work in the food industry and the health care industry and further isolating those groups to fulltime AND only after having been on the job for 12 months, well, you can see how working in a trade might be much more valuable. Again from the Metro Council:

Basic skills curriculum:
The YWCA will be responsible for developing and implementing a curriculum that incorporates elements of earlier curricula developed by the YWCA and WOW. The curriculum will provide students with an array of soft skills necessary to be successful in the construction and building trades, including math and reading skills, fitness, life skills, and an introduction to the trades. The basic skills component will be taught at the YWCA headquarters in downtown Washington.

For more information on future programs, I'd suggest you drop Kathleen McKirchy: Comm Serv Agency 202-974-8221 (office) 202-974-8152 (fax) or Silvia Casaro a line.

Pictures are available on the Metropolitan Washington Council's website.

Read More...

Often, union members are not acknowledged for their contributions to companies, cities, hell, even the political process. But this past Friday, the Washington Post deep inside the newspaper’s print edition and again on the web (yeah, I can link to it!) did a story on the building of the new DC Nationals’ Stadium. This was a PUBLICLY funded project, so I won’t be mentioning the owner of the Nats from here on out, I’m not a fan of his. Instead, I’ll be focusing on what the Post’s Hamil R. Harris Focused on, the workers.

…for nearly two years, the sprawling site off South Capitol Street SE was the domain of men and women who wore hard hats instead of baseball helmets, leather boots instead of spikes.

People such as Theodore Richmond, who helped pour the concrete for Nationals Park. And Christopher Shrewsberry, who helped put in thousands of seats. And Veronica Salas, who made sure the workers were lined up and ready for their latest assignments.

More than 2,700 people helped build the ballpark -- immigrants, war veterans, people on their first jobs, longtime D.C. residents, tradesmen and women who traveled hundreds of miles for a chance to work on the project. Electricians, ironworkers, carpenters, plumbers, laborers, you name it, tended to the details. They celebrated last summer when the last beam was put in place by construction workers. History was being made, an electrician said at the time. Then everyone went back to work on the plumbing, wiring and other tasks that were yet to be done.

For all the unsung hero’s like Local 40 Ironworkers at the World Trade Center or locals 262 and 235 UAW out on strike in Michigan at American Axle, this is for you…

"During the first phase, I helped pour the concrete. In the second phase, I did the insulation. In the third phase, I am installing TVs, desks, anything to do with the offices. . . . There aren't a lot of things that you can be proud of in your life. I think that this will be one of the things. It will be something that I can show my kids years down the road. I helped build the stadium. . . . This will be one of my war stories. I've never been to war, but this will be one of the stories that I will be telling."
Theodore Richmond, 33
Southeast Washington, Laborer

and another

"We did the scoreboard. It is a beautiful thing to look at that big screen."
Herbert Brown, 57
Northeast Washington,
Electrician apprentice

PS, there are a number of apprenticeship programs out there. Ironworkers in NY have a site dedicated to their programs , DC government has one, Hard Hatted Women in Cleveland trains women for the trades. There’s even a program for transitioning veterans and guards members called Helmets to Hard Hats and the Boilermakers have a post up now.

How about a few more comments?

"I think this is a good project because Latinos and African Americans are working together. Our workers are proud of this project. Even apprentices come here to practice and learn more. It is a sense of pride. . . . Our members are happy to be part of this."
Veronica Salas, 32
Staff, Laborers' International
Union of North America
Northeast Washington, Laborer

"I am putting in the fiber-optic cable for the camera setup to capture the speed of the ball. I'm a Nats fan. This means a lot. There is a lot of history around here. I will bring my kids here when they get a little older."
George Kerr
Indian Head, Electrician

For all that unions members do around this country, thank you. Thank you, Thank you, THANK YOU!!

Read More...

I love the trades. I know, as if that's a surprise. Actually, what I like most about the trades is that they do things like this:

The Community Service Agency’s (CSA) Building Futures Program “makes you like a top draft choice out there in the workforce,” said Daryl McNeil following a four-hour math tutorial course that will help him to pass the application test for a spot in a union construction apprenticeship program. McNeil – a former member of the Army and telecommunications worker – ran into some tough times after his military service but sees his participation in the Building Futures Program as a way to turn his life around and become a model father for his 11 year-old son. “I get a lot of positive reinforcement and help in bringing me up to speed in areas that I am weak in to make me competitive in the workplace.”

But so that you don't think this is just a DC thing, take a look at Hard Hatted Women. Hard Hatted Women is one of my favorite organizations. It's about women empowering women and in doing so, they also make it possible for women to enter the Trades. Yep, I mean good paying union jobs.

Hard Hatted Women began in 1979 when three women, a telephone repair technician, a steelworker and a truck driver, formed a support group for tradeswomen.

They started working these jobs to feed their families. They've helped take women from certified nursing programs which pay minimum wage and to put them into the trades making more as an apprentice than these women made being CNAs. But I'm really paraphrasing one of the founders here from a TV report from more than 10 years ago. See what kind of an impact it made on me?

In an era when women still make about 71 cents for every dollar that a man earns, Hard Hatted Women strives to train, advocate and support women in non-traditional jobs that often offer more pay, benefits and security than some others.

What this article fails to tell you is that this group has had amazing success not only in training women but placing them in jobs with starting salaries in the Cleveland area of $16 to 19 and hour. Again, I'm paraphrasing a 10 year old program. What I remembered most of that program was a woman who'd been through the program and moved from being a waitress to being an electrician. At the time, she made $2.10 an hour plus tips but when she became a journeyman electrician, she made no less than $27 an hour. She bought a house, put two kids through college and said that she didn't care how the men treated her, she was there to do a job and she could do it just as well as any man she met.

For years now, I've wanted to start a similar program in DC. Now that I see there is a full on program available, I wonder how easy or hard it would be to get them to expand this program to include women helping women in the trades.

From the DC program site:

Clients will come from several sources

Referrals from community groups running pre-apprenticeship training programs and those running Job Readiness programs.

Referrals from the DC Public School system and UDC.

Referrals from the DC One Stop Center system.

Self-referrals of individuals who hear about the project.

I wish they included women in this list.

Read More...