Jared Solway (L), Tyler McGhan and Erika Reil.
Erika Reil, Tyler McGhan and Jared Solway spent a Saturday morning last month making plumbing repairs at the home of a Marine veteran in St. Paul’s West Seventh neighborhood.
They put a new seat on a basement toilet and replaced its fill valve and flapper to stop it from running. Upstairs, the crew removed and reinstalled the hot and cold faucets on a new bathroom sink, after a handyman installed them backwards.
And best of all for the homeowner, Reil, McGhan and Solway did the work for free as part of Water’s Off, their union’s annual day of service.
Sponsored by St. Paul Plumbers Local 34 and Minneapolis Local 15, the event provides free service calls to low-income, senior and disabled homeowners in the Twin Cities. Journey workers and apprentices volunteer their skills, and union contractors donate any supplies and parts needed to complete the repairs.
Since its founding in 1994, union volunteers have given more than 14,000 hours of their services to over 4,000 households at a value of over $2 million. And that doesn’t include the savings on their future water bills.
“I think a lot of people don’t realize how much plumbing they use in their daily life,” Reil said. “They don’t think about it – until they need it.”
Reil, a Local 34 member, works as a foreman with Modern Heating and Air. Both McGhan and Solway are in the second year of Local 34’s apprenticeship program and employed by Mike’s Custom Mechanical.
Local Community Action Partner-ship agencies help unions identify homeowners in need of assistance.
Find a list of union residential plumbers in the Twin Cities at members.minnesotamca.org/directory.
– Michael Moore, Union Advocate editor
Union Advocate 