Union tradespeople from across Minnesota gathered at a White Bear Lake banquet facility June 5 to celebrate winners of the 2025 Women Building Success Awards, which recognize women forging careers in an industry long dominated by men.

Minnesota Building Trades unions founded Women Building Success (WBS) in 2017 to recognize and promote the achievements of women in their ranks, in the hopes of drawing more.

Experts have long argued that attracting more women to the construction trades would help reduce broader pay disparities, as skilled tradespeople – particularly union members – earn family-sustaining wages with access to health and pension benefits.

The kind of outreach, community-building, mentorship and support that WBS offers women in construction is critical to getting women to enter the skilled trades – and keeping them there, experts say.

Initiatives like WBS and Tradeswomen Build Nations, launched by North America’s Building Trades Unions 15 years ago, have helped drive an increase the number of women working in construction, by nearly 30% between 2018 and 2023, according to Institute for Women’s Policy Research.

But federally funded programs that look to build on that success face an uncertain future. Earlier this year, the National Taskforce on Tradeswomen’s Issues and five Building Trades unions issued a joint statement calling on Congress to maintain funding for the U.S. Department of Labor’s Women’s Bureau and the Women in Apprenticeship and Nontraditional Occupations (WANTO) program.

Both the Women’s Bureau and WANTO have been “instrumental” in creating pathways for women to enter male-dominated fields like construction, the organizations say, particularly in supporting pre-apprenticeship programs, which create opportunities to try out a trade before fully committing.

But since President Trump took office in January, the Labor Department has terminated WANTO grants, and Labor Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer’s budget request for 2026 would zero out funding for the Women’s Bureau, which she called a “relic of the past.”

WBS, self-funded by unions, isn’t likely going anywhere – and that’s a good thing for local tradeswomen, including these 2025 award winners, profiled below.

Apprentice of the Year

Ironworkers Local 512 apprentice Michaela Oelkers, 29, began welding at 18, earning a Certified Welding Inspector credential on her own time while working two jobs. When her boss at a non-union shop told her they didn’t need another CWI on staff, Oelkers acted on a friend’s suggestion to check out the Ironworkers.

Pete Teigland, the local’s apprenticeship training director, is glad she did. “Michaela represents everything we look for in an apprentice ironworker,” he said. “She has a great attitude, is hard working and wants to be good at whatever task is laid in front of her.”

The award came as a surprise to the third-year apprentice from Baldwin, Wis., but she left the awards ceremony feeling “hyped up,” she said.

“The women are all so positive and couldn’t be more supportive. I wanted to know, are there tips and tricks for how to keep your mindset so focused? And how the hell did they do it for so long?”

Oelkers said being the only woman on a jobsite can be “a pain in the ass sometimes,” but she keeps her sense of humor.

“I’m not going to lie, they’re big and burly, and frankly they’re kind of gross,” she said. “But the men I’ve worked with have been so good and willing to teach the next generation (of apprentices), so there’s an upside and a downside. And hey, women can be hormonal and annoying as well.”

Journey Worker of the Year

Heidi Loesch, 61, of Shell Lake, Wis., retired after a nearly 40-year career as an operator two years ago. The member of Operating Engineers Local 49 didn’t take the traditional apprenticeship pathway, instead attending technical college in Staples after graduating from high school to gain the skills she would need as an operator.

Loesch had no idea Women Building Success existed until Melissa Vandal, a dispatcher with Local 49, asked if she could nominate Loesch for an award. At the ceremony, another woman who, like Loesch, worked for Bolander Construction approached Loesch’s daughter, Megan, to say she had been hearing about her mother for years.

“It was interesting to learn that you were kind of mentoring everybody along the way – whether you knew it or not,” Loesch said. “No women were in the field when I started – that I ran across anyway.”

What kept her going? “I just loved my job, and I was pretty good at it,” she said. “And there are a lot of guys out there that will tell you that, too. If I was going to worry about the guy-girl ratio, probably I wouldn’t have gotten out of vo-tech.”

Women’s Advocate

Rachel Malmer, a member of Electrical Workers (IBEW) Local 110 who works at the wastewater treatment plant in St. Paul, is blunt about what attracted her to the trade: “money and insurance.” But the 33-year-old from Bay City, Wis., has thrived in several roles since joining the union in 2017, volunteering with the Electrical Workers Minority Caucus and representing members on several committees.

As a member of the executive board, Malmer sees new apprentices and members being sworn into the union, and she makes a point of reaching out to women taking the oath.

“A lot of times you’re the only woman on the job site, and let’s just say some people suck,” Malmer said. “So having someone to talk through that or work through things – people who have experienced it and know different ways to navigate things – it helps. I want them to know that they have a support system.”

A self-described “behind-the-scenes person,” Malmer was not eager for her moment in the spotlight at the WBS awards. “I was mad,” she said. “I don’t like getting up in front of people, let alone talking in front of people or talking about myself, really. I’m just doing what I feel like people are supposed to do.”

Tradeswomen in Leadership

Two tradeswomen shared the leadership honor this year: Erica Hartse of Heat and Frost Insulators Local 34, and Colleen Bibeau, an instructor at the Laborers Training Center in Lino Lakes.

Hartse, a 32-year-old from Lindstrom, recently took an office job at Local 34 after working 10 years in the field, starting in 2014. That’s when she left her job as customer-service representative to join a pre-apprenticeship program. She joined Local 34 soon after, but said she wishes she had learned about career opportunities in the trades sooner.

“My biggest gripe is that it was never really posed as an option in high school, or maybe I would have taken a different path earlier on in life,” Hartse said. “Maybe I would have seen it as a viable option sooner.”

Hartse, who serves as Local 34’s vice president, called the experience of winning the WBS award “overwhelming but exciting.” She said she appreciates the organization’s work to create space for women in the trades. “Seeing people relatable to you is so important,” she said. “I can hear a guy talking about careers like this, but to have that real success story in front of you, then it’s real.”

Bibeau, who lives in North Branch, joined the Laborers in 1999. She was working two jobs and raising three kids on her own, with no child support. “My kids needed to have a mom more,” she said. “I needed more money.”

She worked in the field until 2013, when she applied for an instructor’s position at the training center, teaching safety on the job.

“I love getting to work with apprentices,” she said. “I get to see a lightbulb go off every week with my students.”

Now 59, Bibeau has seen firsthand the how the industry has changed to become more inclusive of women, and she hears about it from the apprentices who come through her classroom, too.

“I ask them all the time, ‘How many women are working with you guys?’” she said. “And there’s always multiple women on the jobsites, which I’m so happy to hear.”

This article appeared in the August 2025 issue of the Saint Paul Union Advocate.

– Michael Moore, Union Advocate editor