Up for a challenge: Competitors test their skills at WBS Trade Games

December 10, 2024 by

Ashley Kula (L) and Anya Davis raced to finish Cement Masons Local 633’s challenge.

It wasn’t gold, silver or bronze, but there was plenty of metal in play during the Trade Games Challenge at St. Paul Pipefitters Local 455’s training center Nov. 21.

Hosted by Women Building Success (WBS) to celebrate National Apprenticeship Week, the friendly, hands-on competition drew nearly 200 participants in its second year.

“This event has hands-on challenge activities for each trade,” WBS board member Jenny Winkelaar, director of workforce and community development for Operating Engineers Local 49, said. “It is a fun way to showcase what the trades have to offer.”

Competitors included apprentices, journey workers and community members with an interest in exploring careers in the union construction trades.

Cement Masons apprentice Grace Olson checked out her virtual paint job.

Participants walked from station to station on the shop floor, trying their hand at challenges sponsored by different local union apprenticeship programs. Each union designed the challenge to reflect their unique craft.

At booths hosted by Plumbers Local 34 and Sprinklerfitters Local 417, instructors timed competitors as they followed the instructions for connecting pieces of pipe into a “pipe guy.” Insulators Local 34 challenged competitors to affix insulation to the proper place on a pipe structure, like a puzzle.

Some Trade Games challenges pitted competitors against each other. Laborers Local 563 held wheelbarrow races. At Pipefitters Local 455’s station, it was a chain hoist race, with competitors racing to raise their large spool to the finish point fastest.

Madi Jennings, a fourth-year apprentice with the Insulators union, tied rebar at Ironworkers Local 512’s station, clocking the second-fastest time of the event’s early session. Local 512 training coordinator Erik Hansen said that it’s good for apprentices like Jennings to gain exposure to other crafts – and good for apprenticeship programs’ recruitment efforts, too.

“We’re hoping this kind of becomes a word-of-mouth thing,” Hansen said. “OK, you’re already in a trade, but maybe you know someone considering their options, and you tell them, ‘Hey, check out the Ironworkers.’”

For competitors like Matt Segal, who learned about the event from a friend, the Trade Games Challenge also served as a career fair. After working in the tech industry for a decade, he’s looking for a change.

“I’m exploring my options and seeing what’s out there,” Segal, 34, said after splitting a pair of chain hoist races – hosted by the Pipefitters – with IBEW Local 110 member Marisa McAndrew. “I like working with my hands, and I’d like to learn some skills that I can take with me – that are applicable in my home and anywhere I go.

“It’s been exciting to be here and talk not only to trades instructors, but tradespeople, too.”

Dorlisa Squires (L), an apprentice with Local 49, and Glenda Tejada race to assemble a “pipe guy” at Sprinklerfitters Local 417’s challenge.
Ironworkers Local 512’s Erik Hansen timed Madi Jennings, an Insulators apprentice, as she raced to tie rebar.
Rockett (R), who said she uses just one name, matched insulation with piping at Insulators Local 34’s station during the Trade Games Challenge.
Mahaila Houle (R), a career navigator with Operating Engineers Local 49, guided Plumbers Local 34 apprentice Karen Severson through the excavator event.

For most attendees, though, the primary objective was fun and fellowship.

At Cement Masons Local 633’s station, that meant playing in the “mud,” as competitors raced to flatten and level wet cement, edge the sides and install control joints – the cuts in walkways or other slabs that allow for movement due to temperature or moisture.

Local 633 apprentice Grace Olson was not tempted to leave her craft behind after trying the virtual spraypainting booth, hosted by the Finishing Trades Institute, Painters and Allied Trades (IUPAT) District Council 82’s training arm.

“I think I did OK, but I probably could have done better,” the third-year apprentice laughed. “I think I over-sprayed it a little.”

But Plumbers Local 34 apprentice Karen Severson joked that she “might switch trades” after climbing into the excavator that Operating Engineers Local 49 parked inside the Pipefitters’ training hall, challenging participants to pick up and transfer a flagpole from one road cone to another. “That was fun,” Severson said.

WBS was founded in 2017 to recognize and promote the achievements of women in union construction trades. WBS hosts an annual awards ceremony, an apprenticeship photo contest and other events.

– Michael Moore, Union Advocate editor

Filed Under: Community Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Minnesota apprentice wins Insulators union’s international skills contest

July 26, 2024 by

Pictured (L to R) are Tommy Haun, the union’s international training director; Local 34 Business Agent William Meyer; Jordan Haller, who hoisted a Stanley Cup replica at the awards banquet; and Local 34 Business Manager Albert Byers. (photo by William Brouillette)

If insulating were an Olympic event, Jordan Haller would be heading to Paris this summer.

The 22-year-old from East Bethel placed first in a skills competition open to 4,000 apprentices with the International Association of Heat and Frost Insulators and Allied Workers, held June 23-27 in Orlando, Fla.

Haller is the third apprentice from Twin Cities-based Heat and Frost Insulators Local 34 to win the Master Apprentice Competition in 20 years.

“I think it says a lot about what our training program can do, about our instructors and the knowledge they have, the experience they have,” Haller said. “We’re putting a lot of time and effort and money into the apprentices, and when they’re coming out toward the end, they’re ready to go.”

Haller is finishing the fourth and final year of his apprenticeship with Local 34, and he will “turn out” as a journey-level worker later this summer. He entered the trade out of high school at the encouragement of his father, a former insulator apprentice who now owns a contracting firm, Insulation Midwest Inc.

John Hosley, who teaches fourth-year apprentices in the local, credited Haller’s work ethic and said the apprentice is “very mechanically inclined.”

“We’re not a very big trade, so it’s kind of nice that if you’re really good at it they acknowledge it with this competition,” Hosley said. “And then there’s the camaraderie that goes into it, the connections you make.”

Haller’s journey to Orlando began on the shop floor in Local 34’s training hall in St. Paul, where he competed with fellow fourth-year apprentices for the right to represent the local at the Midwest Conference competition in Omaha at the end of April. Haller won both competitions, advancing to the finals along with seven other regional champions from the U.S. and Canada.

In Orlando, the finalists took a written exam on Day 1, then spent the next three days in the shop, working to complete a project that would be judged by experts in mechanical insulation.

“They hand you a specification sheet of how this project needs to be insulated and finished, how it’s getting judged, what day it needs to be done and how everything needs to look,” Haller said.

(photos by William Brouillette)

The location of the competition changes each year, and contest planners tailor the final project to reflect the locale. In Orlando, of course, that could mean just one thing.

“Basically, it was two pipe risers with a big, large sweep that kind of represented the entrance to Disneyworld,” Haller said. “There were some other pipe systems to the side of that, and a large cake-looking thing in the middle, representing the 20th anniversary of the Master Apprentice Competition. And then there was a box with a big copper pipe that was insulated to represent a roller coaster, like the Tower of Terror.”

After receiving the specifications, Haller and the other finalists went to work.

“My approach was to create game plans for each day and set goals and reach those goals no matter what,” Haller said. “Making sure you can get it done is job No. 1, but while you’re doing that, take these skills you’ve learned over the last four years and apply them in that moment – and just attack it.”

The pressure was intense, Haller added.

“There were a lot of points throughout the three days of the shop competition where I felt like I was behind as far as the workload,” he said. “I felt like I was doing a good job, but there were moments where I felt like I needed to get going, otherwise I’m not going to finish.”

Indeed, Haller said he worked right up until time was called on Day 4 of the competition.

From there, it was a waiting game as judges inspected the apprentices’ projects before an awards banquet the following night.

“That’s the big moment,” Haller said. “They called each of us up one by one, and then announced the winner. It was probably one of the biggest moments of my life. My heart was pounding out of my neck.”

Haller said he felt both relief and excitement upon hearing his name. After shaking the other competitors’ hands – “all great guys, all top notch too,” he said – organizers presented Haller with the trophy, a replica of the National Hockey League’s Stanley Cup.

He also received a cash prize and a smaller cup that will go on display in Local 34’s trophy case. All eight finalists received scholarships to pursue training as an apprenticeship instructor at the international union’s facility in Maryland, too.

Sharing his skills and expertise with up-and-coming insulators is something Haller said he would like to pursue as a way of giving back to the union that gave him an opportunity to challenge himself at the highest level.

“I’m thankful for all the instructors I had, my union officers, everybody involved with the local side – and also on the contractor side, especially my dad, my boss and the journeymen out in the field, who I’ve worked with for many days,” Haller said. “I’m thankful for every experience that I’ve had throughout my whole apprenticeship.”

– Michael Moore, Union Advocate editor

Filed Under: Community Tagged With: , ,

#NAW2016: Minnesota’s Building Trades apprentices earn paychecks while mastering their craft

November 16, 2016 by
Heat and Frost Insulators Local 34 instructor Lee Houske drives home a point to apprentices about pipe insulation.

Heat and Frost Insulators Local 34 instructor Lee Houske drives home a point to apprentices about pipe insulation.

 

When Joe Odell’s friends plan to go out on Friday nights, he usually takes a pass. It’s not that the 23-year-old from Monticello is no fun, but Odell has someplace important to be early on Saturday mornings: Heat and Frost Insulators Local 34’s training center in St. Paul.

Odell is one of the 11,000-plus registered apprentices enrolled in accredited programs statewide, most operated by Building and Construction Trades unions and their signatory contractors.

Minnesota’s apprentices have a wide range of backgrounds, and they enroll at different times in their lives. But almost all are seeking the same thing out of their apprenticeship: a middle-class career.

Joe Odell works a bead roller in Heat and Frost Insulators Local 34’s metal shop.

Joe Odell works a bead roller in Heat and Frost Insulators Local 34’s metal shop.

“It was kind of hard jumping into it right away, with how young I was,” said Odell, now in his fourth and final year of apprenticeship with Local 34. “But you’re making money the whole time.

“I have health benefits and a pension. If the union stays strong, I’ll probably always have a job.”

By definition, an apprenticeship is an on-the-job training program. Most Building Trades apprentices work regular shifts with a union contractor. They earn more with each year they complete until finally “booking out” into journeyperson’s wages.

Joanna Rojas, a 48-year-old college graduate, is still three years away from earning her journey card with St. Paul-based Plumbers Local 34. But apprenticeship already has enabled the former social worker and stay-at-home mom to make the emergency mortgage payments necessary to keep her Coon Rapids home.

“When you’re only making $15 an hour, and $8 of that is paying for health insurance, you need to do something different,” Rojas said. “I needed the union. I needed a good living wage, or I would have lost my house.”

[Click here for a list of apprenticeship opportunities sponsored by Minnesota’s Building and Construction Trades unions.]

Apprenticeship programs are rich with stories like Rojas’, of men and women in their 30s and 40s taking the plunge into a new career.

Ken Flores, a 36-year-old St. Paul resident, quit his white-collar job four years ago to enroll in Heat and Frost Local 34’s program. “I realized what I had was just a job,” he said.

Heat and Frost Insulators Local 34 apprentice Angela Sheehan gets a sewing tip from instructor J.J. Ralston.

Heat and Frost Insulators Local 34 apprentice Angela Sheehan gets a sewing tip from instructor J.J. Ralston.

Angela Sheehan, 39, said enrolling in Local 34’s program “has changed my life a lot in just two years.” The mother of two from North Branch earns about three times what she took home in the manufacturing job she left behind, and the union’s health insurance plan is far superior.

“Some days I’m like, ‘I still can’t believe this is happening,’” she said.

A ‘win-win’ for workers, employers

The apprenticeship model works well for employers, too. They can customize a training curriculum with the union while coaxing workers into greater responsibilities on the jobsite.

It’s a proven formula for guaranteeing contractors a highly skilled workforce for years to come, Elevator Constructors Local 9 apprenticeship coordinator Jeff Burns said.

“We have them for 144 hours at the training center,” he said. “The companies have them for 2,000.”

The two experiences go hand-in-hand, said Local 9 apprentice John Haider, a 35-year-old resident of Bayport in his second year of the four-year program. He works a 40-hour week with All City Elevator and attends class at Local 9’s training center in Little Canada on Monday nights.

“You learn a lot in here, but out on the job every day you’re seeing something new and going through it with your (journeyperson) mechanic,” Haider said. “He’s almost like another instructor for those four years.”

Apprentices with Elevator Constructors Local 9 test their skills in the union’s motor lab.

Apprentices with Elevator Constructors Local 9 test their skills in the union’s motor lab.

Surrounded by support

The willingness of members of the same union to support each other and share advice is, for Haider, a sharp contrast to his experience working an oil rig in North Dakota for three years.

“Oil fields were huge like that, guys trying to stab you in the back,” he said. “It’s nice having guys looking out for you as opposed to trying to get a step up on you.”

That might help explain why the number of military veterans in Minnesota’s apprenticeship programs is on the rise.

Chris Vant of Osseola, Wis., saw a year of active combat duty as an Army specialist in Iraq. After being honorably discharged in 2010, Vant worked for a non-union construction firm, then used his education benefits to take classes at Dunwoody until a spot opened up in Local 9’s program.

“I saw the benefit package,” the second-year apprentice said. “It’s a pretty good deal.”

A better deal than working non-union, he added. That meant going without sick pay, vacation time or a pension.

“You started off pretty low in the wages, too, so the only way you could make a decent living was through the overtime,” Vant said. “I worked piles of OT, almost 80-hour weeks, and often out of town.”

Registered apprentices in Plumbers Local 34’s program include (L to R) Tamika Foster-Dixon, Matt Paolo, Joanna Rojas, Jon Antolick, Mitch Gale and Jason Meyer.

Registered apprentices in Plumbers Local 34’s program include (L to R) Tamika Foster-Dixon, Matt Paolo, Joanna Rojas, Jon Antolick, Mitch Gale and Jason Meyer.

‘Dirty and grimy’

Still, the rewards of apprenticeship go beyond the wages and benefits. For Tamika Foster-Dixon of St. Paul, a fourth-year apprentice with Plumbers Local 34, there’s something gratifying about working with her hands.

“That’s not to say it isn’t dirty and grimy every day – it is,” she said. “But it’s fun.”

Jon Antolick, a 37-year-old from Hastings, agreed with his classmate.

“Being an apprentice means you’re a part of something bigger,” he said. “You’ve been a part of a project and built something that’s going to last. There’s a sense of pride in what you do.”

Foster-Dixon laughed: “Even if they immediately cover it up with sheet rock.”

Filed Under: Community, Politics Tagged With: , , , , , , ,

In Forest Lake, Electrical Workers picket City Hall construction site

May 22, 2014 by
Members of IBEW Local 110 picket the non-union entrance to the construction site of Forest Lake's new City Hall. Picketing, from L to R, are Gary Kispert, Mike Finamore and John Vejtruba.

Members of IBEW Local 110 picket the non-union entrance to the construction site of Forest Lake’s new City Hall. Picketing, from L to R, are Gary Kispert, Mike Finamore and John Vejtruba.

FOREST LAKE – Construction of a new City Hall in this northeast suburb slowed to a snail’s pace yesterday, as members of Local 110 of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers erected a picket line to protest the city’s use of an electrical contractor that, members say, undermines area standards for wages and benefits.

Efforts to reach an agreement with Vinco Inc. to pay wages and benefits on par with area standards have been unsuccessful, Local 110 organizer Bill Malecha said. Union members have greeted the contractor with “Shame On You” banners at its job sites more than a dozen times in recent months.

But when the City of Forest Lake awarded the electrical work on the City Hall project to Vinco, it was the final straw.

“We decided to step up the pressure with a three-day picket,” Malecha said, adding that the action had been sanctioned by the St. Paul Building & Construction Trades Council. “We can’t tell our union brothers and sisters not cross the line, but you can see pretty much the only people on the jobsite are the non-union electrical workers.”

Laborers Local 563 was among the unions who honored Local 110’s picket line yesterday, business agent Chris Peltier said. He and a handful of other Laborers bolstered the IBEW members’ ranks on the picket line today.

“When there’s a dispute on a job, we try to do whatever we can to support the other Trades,” Peltier said. “Yesterday we were able to keep all our people out, along with the other Trades.”

Before work began this morning, the general contractor on the construction site, Kraus-Anderson, established a “double-gate system.” It allows union contractors to access the construction site through a picket-free entrance. Work has picked up somewhat as a result.

It’s not the first time in recent months that the City of Forest Lake, under City Administrator Aaron Parrish, has found itself the target of a union protest. In fact, the IBEW’s three-day picket isn’t even the only demonstration taking place on the City Hall construction site.

Heat and Frost Insulators Local 34 has put up a banner protesting R.J. Mechanical for subcontracting insulation work on the site to O’Leary Insulation, a non-union contractor that fails to pay the industry-standard wages and benefits established by Local 34.

Last fall members of Local 517 of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees pushed back against Parrish’s drastic plan to reorganize city staff. Most notoriously, Parrish made firefighting a part of five workers’ job descriptions, despite the fact most were older than 50 with no previous firefighting experience.

“We’ve heard it many, many times from people who stop to ask us what we’re doing. They say, ‘It’s about time somebody does something in this town,’” Malecha said. “I would only hope the city would understand the reason this project is being held up is because they hired a non-union contractor who doesn’t pay area-standard wages and benefits.”

Local 110 plans to keep the picket line up through Friday.

“Our goal is to have Vinco sign a letter of assent with Local 110,” Malecha said.

Heat and Frost Insulators Local 34 protested alongside IBEW members on the Forest Lake City Hall construction site, targeting a non-union insulating contractor. Holding the banner, from L to R, are Brandon Sebesta, Robin Carlen and Angela Sheehan.

Heat and Frost Insulators Local 34 protested alongside IBEW members on the Forest Lake City Hall construction site, targeting a non-union insulating contractor. Holding the banner, from L to R, are Brandon Sebesta, Robin Carlen and Angela Sheehan.

Filed Under: Union Events Tagged With: , , , , , , , , ,

Trades remember the fallen, renew call for safety in Workers Memorial Day ceremony

April 28, 2014 by

web.wmd2014-aThe Minnesota Building and Construction Trades Council held its annual Workers Memorial Day observance last Friday, honoring nine union workers who died over the previous year as a result of workplace injuries or illnesses.

The ceremony, held at the Workers Memorial Garden on the State Capitol grounds, included remarks from St. Paul Mayor Chris Coleman, who renewed the call for safe workplaces and good jobs for all workers.

St. Paul Mayor Chris Coleman delivers remarks during the Building Trades' Workers Memorial Day ceremony.

St. Paul Mayor Chris Coleman delivers remarks during the Building Trades’ Workers Memorial Day ceremony.

“Today we remember those we have lost, but we must remember every day those that are on the site who we must protect,” Coleman said, “so that when they leave home in the morning, they have every assurance that they will come home that night.”

“It is not possible to eliminate all risk” from construction jobs, Coleman added; “but it is possible to reduce unnecessary risk.”

The mayor pointed specifically to the loss of John Valek, a 61-year-old member of Operating Engineers Local 49, who died Sept. 10, 2013 during demolition work on the site of the new St. Paul Saints baseball park downtown.

Building Trades leaders draped black scarves across white crosses bearing the names of Valek and other workers remembered during the ceremony Friday. A bell rang out once as each worker’s name was read.

Two other members of Local 49 were remembered during the ceremony: Jesse Grimsley, 31, who died Aug. 13 in a bulldozer accident, and Corey Lewellin, 34, who died Oct. 21 in a crane accident.

Michael Dalsin, 49, a member of Sheet Metal Workers Local 10 who died in a fall March 31, 2014 was included in the remembrance ceremony, as were five workers who died from workplace-related illnesses over the previous year. They included:

• Art Rossbach, 71, a member of Pipefitters Local 455 who died Aug. 7 of mesothelioma.

• Theodore Schmitz, 74, a member of Local 455 who died Aug. 6 of asbestosis.

• Elmer R. Skaaden, 86, a member of Heat and Frost Insulators Local 34 who died April 22, 2013 of asbestosis.

• John W. Phillips, 78, a member of Local 34 who died Jan. 18 of lung cancer.

• Alan Crepeau, 70, a member of Local 34 who died Jan. 28 of lung cancer.

Workers Memorial Day observances are continue across the country and throughout the world today, the annual day of reflection on workplace fatalities and safety on the job.

In 2012, according to preliminary data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, 4,383 workers were killed by traumatic injuries, down from 4,693 deaths reported the previous year. An estimated 50,000 to 60,000 more workers died from occupational diseases in 2012.

Minnesota saw 70 workplace fatalities in 2012, 15th lowest among states.

Operating Engineers Local 49 member John Valek died last fall during work on the new ballpark downtown St. Paul.

Operating Engineers Local 49 member John Valek died last fall during work on the new ballpark downtown St. Paul.

Filed Under: Union Events Tagged With: , , , , , , , ,