Trades-backed alliance ramps up recruitment as MN’s construction industry booms

May 16, 2018 by

A union-backed initiative to recruit more women and people of color into construction careers is hoping a new website will amplify its marketing push and help ease the industry’s stubborn labor shortage.

The Construction Careers Pathways Alliance, which brings together Building Trades unions, contractors, apprenticeship programs and other groups, revamped its website, constructioncareers.org, last month, adding dynamic photos, videos and graphics that designers hope will stand out on social media platforms popular with millennials.

The aim is to get young people “to really start looking at construction as a very viable career choice, with good wages and good benefits to sustain themselves and their family members,” said Pat Wagner, founding executive director of the Construction Careers Foundation, which oversees the initiative.

The website touts year-round opportunities available to young people looking to explore a career in the trades, including two summer programs on the horizon.

  • The MN Trades Academy is a paid internship available to selected Twin Cities high schoolers, who visit apprenticeship training centers and complete projects related to specific crafts.
  • Kids at Work, a summer program for students in grades 4 through 9, offers a crash course in STEM activities, presented within the context of the construction industry.

These summer programs complement the Career Pathways initiative’s year-round work with school districts across the state to bring construction concepts back into the classroom. Thirteen school districts have partnered with the alliance to add the “multi-craft curriculum,” a Building Trades-endorsed program, to their tech-ed courses.

Construction classes “have been lost from the high school curriculum, whether it’s due to financial constraints or a shift in focus to four-year college degrees,” Wagner said.

Sparking a student’s interest in construction is just the first step, she added. The adults in a student’s life often turn out to be the tougher sell.

Pat Wagner

“You can see the light in their eyes when they get hooked,” Wagner said. “But we need to reach young people early on so the discussions can start at home concerning their future.”

The construction industry in Minnesota, however, is ripe with career opportunities.

In a survey taken last year by the Associated General Contractors, 90 percent of Minnesota contractors who responded said they anticipated hiring craftspeople in the next 12 months. Three-quarters said they expected it to be as hard or harder to find qualified applicants.

Recognizing the need to restock the pipeline of tradespeople, state lawmakers allotted funds two years ago to support Construction Career Pathways’ work to bring people from non-traditional backgrounds into the trades.

Unions, too, have been critical in supporting the initiative. It’s not often labor and management groups wholeheartedly agree on anything, which indicates just how serious the industry is about preparing the next generation of tradespeople for work.

“We’re really looking at a changing workforce, an aging workforce,” Wagner said. “We are in need of educating individuals of color, the immigrant population and young women. That is our future workforce, and we are reaching out to them.”

Change will take time, but the foundation’s work already has had an impact. Since 2017 over 7,000 students from 170 schools statewide attended or participated in a program sponsored by alliance. Female students accounted for 32 percent of those participants; 74 percent came from underrepresented communities.

“We need to provide young people with exposure and hands-on experiences,” Wagner said. “If young people have that experience, they tend to learn that it’s not their hands, it’s their minds and their passion and creativity that they are using.”

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Area Building Trades councils honored for community outreach

April 20, 2018 by

At the Ayers Award ceremony (L to R): Duluth Council President Craig Olson, NABTU President Sean McGarvey, Dan McConnell and Jenny Winkelaar of the Minneapolis Building Trades, Minnesota Executive Director Carly Melin, Minneapolis President Dave Ybarra, St. Paul Executive Secretary Don Mullin, St. Paul President Tom McCarthy and NABTU Secretary-Treasurer Brent Booker. submitted photo

Local Building Trades unions have put an emphasis in recent years on reaching out to make more women, veterans and people of color aware of their registered apprenticeship programs and the middle class career opportunities they make possible.

Those efforts earned national recognition Wednesday in Washington, D.C., when North America’s Building Trades Unions presented the St. Paul, Minneapolis and Minnesota Building Trades councils with the annual Mark H. Ayers Community Achievement Award.

After the longtime president of NABTU died in 2012, the organization created the award to honor Ayers’ passionate belief that Building Trades unions are a force for good in their local communities.

Tradespeople deliver value to communities not only on the jobsite, Ayers believed, but also as stewards of their registered apprenticeship programs, which create a pathway for thousands of people across the country to get good jobs with family-supporting benefits and a secure retirement.

In presenting the award to the St. Paul, Minneapolis and Minnesota councils, NABTU recognized several union-driven initiatives piloted here – and replicated across the country – that recruit and prepare people for construction apprenticeships.

• Construct Tomorrow. In this program, representatives of different Building Trades apprenticeships set up interactive, hands-on exhibits in a school gymnasium, rec center or other public space, offering young people an opportunity to try out more than a dozen different construction crafts in the same day.

• Minnesota Trades Academy. This paid summer internship brings teenagers from a handful of urban schools into several different unions’ training facilities, where they spend their days learning from registered apprenticeship instructors.

• Outreach into public schools. Building Trades councils have been aggressive in cultivating new relationships with public schools, so that students, counselors and technical-education instructors are more aware of the opportunities available through unions’ apprenticeship programs.

Don Mullin, executive secretary of the St. Paul Building and Construction Trades Council, credited the award to the “broad efforts” of the council’s affiliate unions, as well as the vision laid out by his predecessor in office, Harry Melander, who now serves as the top officer of the state Building Trades council.

“All of our affiliates have had a hand in earning this recognition,” Mullin said. “We’ve worked together – in St. Paul, Minneapolis and statewide – to create opportunities for people across our state to take advantage of construction apprenticeship as a pathway to the middle class. And we’re proud of that work.

“President Ayers was a strong believer in community, that as Building Trades union members we live and work and volunteer in our communities. To be associated with his legacy is an amazing honor.”

The University of Minnesota’s Labor Education Service produced the video below for the 2018 Ayers Award ceremony.

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Native pride meets union pride in Cement Masons’ training program

August 2, 2016 by
For their final project, participants in Local 633's pre-apprenticeship program finish their own flat concrete slabs with attached curbs.

For their final project, participants in Local 633’s pre-apprenticeship program finish their own flat concrete slabs with attached curbs.

 

NEW BRIGHTON – As the first trickle of mud oozed out of the concrete truck’s chute, 13 trainees dressed in hardhats, safety vests and tall rubber boots sprung into action, using shovels and trowels to distribute the concrete evenly across 13 rectangular slabs.

The July heat was pushing 90 degrees, and the trainees, participants in a unique pre-apprenticeship program co-sponsored by the Cement Masons and area tribal authorities, worked in silence, heads down, as their instructors barked orders and critiqued their work.

“Let’s go, you’ve got to pick up the pace,” Local 633 apprenticeship instructor Moke Eaglefeathers warned three trainees as they leveled and smoothed one of the slabs. “Those guys over there are waiting on you. You’re falling behind.”

Concrete, any cement mason will tell you, is a perishable product. The brighter the sun, the shorter the lifespan. And the trainees, working on their final project of the program, wouldn’t get more than one shot to do the job right.

“Guys, this is the real world here. This is how fast it moves,” Local 633 instructor Dave Schutta said. “We’re not trying to bury you, but this is just it. This is the real deal.”

Two days later, all 13 trainees – 11 men and two women – were back at the Local 633 training center in New Brighton. They had traded the boots and vests for more formal attire, and their friends and family members, tribal leaders and dignitaries from MnDOT and the state Department of Labor had gathered to watch them take one big step closer to working, as Schutta put it, in the real world.

They’d made it to graduation.

“They went through 12 weeks of hell,” Eaglefeathers said. “I’m pretty hard on them, and I do it on purpose. If they can handle me, they can handle any supervisor or foreman out there.”

A member of the Cheyenne Tribe from Montana, Eaglefeathers calls Local 633’s pre-apprenticeship program “his baby.” He began reaching out to tribal authorities in Minnesota and Wisconsin six years ago after growing “tired of hearing about how there were no skilled workers on the reservations,” he said.

Since then Local 633 has graduated four classes of pre-apprentices, thanks to funding support from the Tribal Employment Rights Office (TERO) and public agencies, currently MnDOT. The most recent graduates included members of the Bois Forte Band of Chippewa, the Ho-Chunk Nation, the Red Lake Nation and the Leech Lake and Mille Lacs Ojibwe bands.

At the graduation ceremony, state and tribal representatives offered the program high praise. For MnDOT, it’s the “longest and most physically intense program we have going right now,” Office of Civil Rights supervisor Maria Conley said, and it’s helping build a reserve of “ready-to-work individuals” for highway and construction projects on reservations across the state.

Minnesota Department of Labor Commissioner Ken Peterson addresses graduates of the Cement Mason’s pre-apprenticeship program.
Tony Beaulieu (L) accepts his plaque upon graduation from the pre-apprenticeship training.
Pre-apprenticeship graduate Billy Joe Garbow of the Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe opens the graduation ceremony at Cement Masons Local 633’s hall in New Brighton with a peace song, singing and playing on a hand-crafted drum.
Graduates of the latest Local 633 pre-apprenticeship training, with their instructors, are, L to R, (back) Payne Martinson, Lindsay Mason, Jarvis Goodsky, Alexa Goodsky, Russell Barrett, Billy Jo Garbow, David St. John, (middle) George White, Charles Robinson, Tony Beaulieu, Cameron Fisher, Jasmine Funmaker, Dave Schutta, Moke Eaglefeathers and (front) Mark Boshey.
Local 633 instructor Moke Eaglefeathers tears up a little after graduates present him with an eagle feather at the end of the graduation ceremony.

State Labor Commissioner Ken Peterson said programs like the Cement Masons’ are critical to making the construction trades workforce more reflective of the state’s broader demographics. Jobs in the trades used to be “reserved” for white males, but “things have changed a lot,” Peterson said. Now, apprenticeship programs statewide are creeping up on 20 percent women and minority participation. “And there’s still room to grow.”

On reservations where families struggle with unemployment, poverty, gang membership and other challenges, the training program offers a social benefit as well.

“You guys are going to be working in our communities, and you’re going to stabilize your families, stabilize your communities,” Bois Forte representative Ray Toutloff told graduates. “You’re all role models.”

Indeed, not everyone who started Local 633’s training program in late April made it to graduation 12 weeks later. Schutta and Eaglefeathers say they run the program like a jobsite, with strict rules about attendance and no tolerance for tardiness.

“When we do tool-recognition training, the first tool we bring out on the table is an alarm clock,” Schutta said. “The second is a backup battery.”

In addition to the “soft skills” necessary for employment, Local 633’s curriculum includes flat work, paving, curb-and-gutter technique, patching and decorative work – “skills that we’ll use for a lifetime,” according to Jasmine Funmaker, a graduate from the Ho-Chunk Nation.

Jasmine Funmaker
Jasmine Funmaker (L) and Jarvis Goodsky
Moke Eaglefeathers works with trainee Alexa Goodsky.
David St. John
Tony Beaulieu
Dave Schutta (R) pours concrete for David St. John (L) and Jarvis Goodsky.
Lindsay Mason

Picking up the craft took determination and patience, said Bois Forte member Alexa Goodsky, who left her job as a housekeeper at Fortune Bay hotel and casino to enroll in the training.

“It started getting progressively easier, and what I’m supposed to do got clearer as time went on,” Goodsky said. “Every time we pour, I’ve learned something new and gotten better.”

Goodsky’s sister graduated from the Cement Mason’s program last year and has been working in the field with JE Dunn Construction ever since. Hers is just one of several success stories that indicate graduates of the program are in high demand.

“These people can go out next Monday and fit right in on a jobsite, as opposed to somebody coming in off the street and filling out an application with no experience,” Schutta said.

Several even decide to continue their training as union apprentices.

“We show them the basics here,” Eaglefeathers said. “We show them the necessary work ethic. If they don’t want to be a concrete finisher, we’re fine with that. We’ll open the door for them to go into another trade so they can have a good life and provide for their families.

“Union life has that pension, that security, that pride. Like any Native American out there, I have pride, and I also have union pride. We show them that. We show them that going union is the best way to work.”

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Unions, employers reach out to St. Paul’s East Side at job fair

April 15, 2016 by
St. Paul Mayor Chris Coleman and Regional Labor Federation Bobby Kasper welcome job seekers and employers to the Union Job & Resource Fair at the East Side Freedom Library.

St. Paul Mayor Chris Coleman and Regional Labor Federation Bobby Kasper welcome job seekers and employers to the Union Job & Resource Fair at the East Side Freedom Library.

Union employers, apprenticeship programs and community service agencies set up shop on St. Paul’s East Side last night, recruiting talent from the distinctly working-class neighborhood and beyond at the Union Jobs and Resource Fair.

Many Latino, Hmong, Karen and East African families call the East Side home, and the job fair, organized by the St. Paul Regional Labor Federation, AFL-CIO, shows local unions are serious about reaching out to communities – particularly minorities and immigrants – underrepresented in their ranks.

“This is only the beginning,” St. Paul RLF President Bobby Kasper said. “Too many members of our community don’t know what unions do, or aren’t aware of opportunities for employment in a good, union job.

“Unions built the middle class in St. Paul, but we won’t survive as a labor movement unless we reflect our communities as a whole. That’s what this job fair is about.”

Jose Marrero of the North Central States Regional Council of Carpenters talks with jobseekers.
Mayor Chris Coleman’s remarks open the Union Job and Resource Fair.
Dua Thao (L) talks about resources available to jobseekers at St. Paul’s public libraries.
IBEW Local 110’s Jim Grim (R) offers information about a career as an electrical worker.
Gerone Hamilton, chief of community relations, represents the St. Paul Fire Department.
Jody Paulson offers information on an apprenticeship with Bricklayers and Allied Crafts Local 1.
Gary Larsen, a native East-Sider and representative of the Laborers Training Center in Lino Lakes, talks with jobseekers.
Matt Ryder of BCTGM Local 22 talks about employment opportunities in St. Paul’s industrial bakeries.
Interpreters fluent in several languages, including Karen, help jobseekers confer with representatives like Rick Dushaw of the Carpenters union.
St. Paul Regional Labor Federation President Bobby Kasper welcomes people to the job fair.

During the fair, held at the independent East Side Freedom Library, jobseekers ducked in and out of booths staffed by representatives of about 20 union employers and eight local agencies, which provided resources on everything from resume writing to record expungement.

Ebba Benti, a resident of Frogtown, took home a business card from one of the St. Paul Public Schools’ maintenance managers, who said Benti’s skills sounded like a match for several openings in the district. “I told him what skills I have, what I know, and he liked me, I guess,” Benti said.

Ebba Benti (R) talks with a representative of the St. Paul Public Schools, who told Benti his skills made him a good fit for several openings in the district's maintenance department.

Ebba Benti (R) talks with a representative of the St. Paul Public Schools, who told Benti his skills made him a good fit for several openings in the district’s maintenance department.

An immigrant from East Africa, Benti said a job at a school sounded appealing. “I like seeing kids doing stuff, having fun,” he added. “Where I’m from, you don’t see that enough.”

The St. Paul school district was among several public-sector employers represented at the job fair. Others included the city’s fire department and water services, as well as the City of Minneapolis. Private-sector employers at the fair included several nursing homes, industrial bakers and Eureka Recycling.

“Jobs are good, good jobs are better and union jobs are the best of all,” St. Paul Mayor Chris Coleman told jobseekers and employers during a brief program to kick off the event.

Gary Larsen, an East-Sider since birth, was one of several Building Trades representatives at the job fair promoting their apprenticeship programs. Larsen, a member of the Laborers union, said he was proud to be promoting good, union jobs in his own neighborhood.

“This is awesome for me,” said Larsen, a member of the Laborers union. “As a kid I used to ride my bike to this library.”

Apprenticeships in the trades offer workers the potential to earn as they learn, with middle-class wages and good health and pension benefits. Jobs like that were a lot more common on the East-Side when Larsen was growing up, before Whirlpool, 3M and Hamm’s shut down their production plants.

“Hopefully, we’re making some good connections here today that lead to not just jobs for East-Siders, but careers,” Larsen said. “We want to keep the East Side prospering the way it should be.”

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Union job fair coming to St. Paul’s East Side April 14

April 6, 2016 by

JobAndResourceFairFlyer-1Take the first step toward a career in construction, manufacturing, government, health care, hospitality or retail at the Union Job and Resource Fair April 14 at the East Side Freedom Library.

Employers and union representatives at the event will provide information to both ready-to-hire job seekers and young people exploring their career options. Interpreters will be available to assist non-English speakers.

The job fair will run from 3 to 7 p.m. at the independent library, located at 1105 Greenbrier St. in St. Paul. It’s free and open to the public.

Co-sponsors include the St. Paul Regional Labor Federation, St. Paul Building and Construction Trades Council and other union groups, as well as cultural organizations, employment service agencies, the City of St. Paul, and district councils representing the East Side.

Daud Mohamed, director of community outreach for the Ka Joog organization, said the job fair’s focus on good-paying union jobs, many of which offer “earn-while-you-learn” training opportunities, “makes it stand out as particularly worthwhile to attend.”

“Unions built the American middle class, and a union job remains the best way for working people to secure livable wages and decent health and retirement benefits,” said Bobby Kasper, president of the 50,000-member Saint Paul RLF.

“As a labor movement, we need to raise awareness about the value of a union contract, especially among immigrant communities and young workers,” Kasper added. “This job fair is an exciting opportunity to extend our outreach and build new relationships on the East Side, and we’re proud to be a part of it.”

José Santos Jr., who works with jobseekers at the nonprofit Merrick Community Services, said most job fairs take place in “far-flung parts of the Metro Area.”

“It’s great to have more of this kind of event on the East Side, in Payne-Phalen,” he said.

For more information about the Union Job and Resource Fair, contact Peter Rachleff at the East Side Freedom Library: 651-230-3294 or rachleff@macalester.edu.

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Ken Peterson: Apprenticeship training meets workforce needs of today and tomorrow

November 5, 2015 by
Minnesota DLI Commissioner Ken Peterson

Minnesota DLI Commissioner Ken Peterson

Minnesota’s workforce is experiencing tremendous transition. Thousands of our experienced baby boomers are retiring, while many employers are seeking a workforce capable of meeting increased levels of skill to operate new technologies with precision.

An emerging, yet familiar, pathway for some employers to successfully bridge that gap is registered apprenticeship programs.

Registered apprenticeship programs have been referred to as “the other four-year degree” in Minnesota since they began in 1939. Through apprenticeship, Minnesotans have built careers — without debt — by combining paid on-the-job training with focused classroom education. Both at the workplace and in class, training is customized to meet employers’ needs.

As apprentices learn more they earn more and at the end of their apprenticeship they receive a state-issued, industry-recognized credential. Plus, according to the U.S. Department of Labor, a fully proficient worker who completes an apprenticeship earns about $50,000 each year.

Today, there are more than 11,000 registered apprentices in Minnesota. Three-fourths of them are in the construction trades, such as carpenters, laborers and electricians. These programs, financed by employers and unions, have a long history of providing high-caliber job preparation. They are also increasingly diverse, with women and racial minorities now accounting for more than 25 percent of construction apprentices.

Using the same “earn while you learn” model, the state of Minnesota hopes to expand registered apprenticeship opportunities in other industries during the next five years.

A new Minnesota Apprenticeship Initiative will be one way to expand those opportunities. More than 800 individuals, working for 100 employers around the state, will participate in newly registered apprenticeship programs in 29 high-growth occupations in advanced manufacturing, agriculture, health care, information technology and transportation. Everyone who completes a program will receive a credential that demonstrates they possess the skills needed for success in their field. The initiative is federally funded, but will be administered by state agencies.

Another program, the Minnesota PIPELINE Project, provides grants to employers for dual-training in an occupation for which their industry has designed competency standards. The work must be done in collaboration with a training provider and be in one of four industries: advanced manufacturing, agriculture, health care or information technology.

Large and small manufacturers, health care facilities, auto dealers and others have found that registered apprenticeships offer employer-driven solutions to help them recruit, train and retain highly skilled employees. They are good for employers, workers and Minnesota’s future.

For more information about registered apprenticeship programs, call the Minnesota Department of Labor and Industry at 1-800-342-5354 or visit www.dli.mn.gov.

Ken Peterson, commissioner of Minnesota’s Department of Labor and Industry, wrote this column for Apprenticeship Week, observed Nov. 2-8 as proclaimed by Gov. Mark Dayton and the U.S. Department of Labor.

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Ready to work? Contractors at April 6 expo will be looking to hire

March 19, 2015 by

hardhatFor the second consecutive year, the Minnesota Construction Crew will host the Trades Hiring Expo, an opportunity for work-ready individuals looking to begin a career in the industry to meet with 25 contractors hiring for the 2015 construction season.

Organizers particularly encourage veterans, women and people of color to attend.

The expo will run from 7 to 10:30 a.m. April 6 at the Minneapolis Convention Center, 1301 2nd Ave. S.

Representatives of several unions will be available at the expo to answer questions about their trades and pathways into their apprenticeship training programs.

The Minnesota Construction Crew consists of contractors, unions and government representatives. The group hosts an “Info/Expo” event each fall to help individuals connect with multiple resources to get ready for the next hiring season, then connects those work-ready individuals to contractors working on high-profile metro building projects the following spring.

Last year over 400 people attended the events.

All attendees are encouraged to sign up through the Construction Hiring Connection, a database of construction career seekers. Many contractors now use the system to find qualified people to work on their projects.

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Trades showcase apprenticeship programs at Construct Tomorrow career fair

July 30, 2014 by
James, an Edina resident who attended the Construct Tomorrow event with Big Brothers Big Sisters, solders his first pipe at the Pipefitters Local 455 booth.

James, an Edina resident who attended the Construct Tomorrow event with the Big Brothers Big Sisters program, solders his first pipe at Pipefitters Local 455’s booth.

Maria Meza watched intently as Robbie Luukkonen, a journeyman member of Bricklayers Local 1, installed ceramic tile onto a makeshift practice wall. When Luukkonen had finished the demonstration, Meza picked up the tools and tried tiling for herself.

This is the way Meza, who graduated from St. Paul Johnson High School in the spring, learns best. “I’m a hands-on type of person,” she explained. “I’m not the type of person to sit behind a computer all day.”

Meza and dozens of other young people received a hands-on introduction to careers in the Building Trades yesterday at Construct Tomorrow, an apprenticeship fair held on the outdoor quad on the grounds of the Humphrey Job Corps in St. Paul.

Several unions set up interactive booths around the quad, marketing their apprenticeship programs to young people – from middle-schoolers to 21-year-olds – from several educational and job-training initiatives, including Big Brothers Big Sisters, the Humphrey Job Corps and UnderConstruction, a program that introduces urban teens to the Building Trades.

Participants wandered from booth to booth, trying out the tools of various trades and firing questions at journeymen volunteers like Luukonen and apprenticeship instructors like Mark Szybatka of Sheet Metal Workers Local 10.

“They ask how people get into the trades, how long it takes to complete the apprenticeship,” Szybatka said. “Some ask us about injuries – cuts – because of the sharp edges we work with.

“I tell them as long as you like to work with your hands, there’s got to be something we offer that you’ll like doing, ”

Ravinia Walker (R), a 21-year-old from St. Paul, watched as M.J. Fackler, a second-year apprentice with Ironworkers Local 512, demonstrated different methods of using wire to tie rebar together.

Ravinia Walker (R), a 21-year-old from St. Paul, watched as M.J. Fackler, a second-year apprentice with Ironworkers Local 512, demonstrated different methods of using wire to tie rebar together.

Benefits of apprenticeship abound

Local 10, Szybatka said, will take on about 100 new apprentices this year. They will join more than 358,000 registered apprentices nationwide, according to U.S. Department of Labor statistics from 2012.

With college tuition on the rise, apprenticeships appeal to aspiring workers looking to start earning good wages right away. Most apprenticeships mix coursework with paid, on-the-job training, and some Building Trades apprentices are eligible for health insurance and other benefits as a result.

“From Day 1 you start with a certain wage, and as the union negotiates wages with the contractors, our wages go up along with the journeymen’s,” second-year apprentice M.J. Fackler told two young women visiting Ironworkers Local 512’s booth. “After two years, I’m up to earning about 70 percent of what a journeyman earns.”

Each year, according to the DOL, Building Trades unions and their partner contractors invest more than $1 billion in apprentice and journey-level training, millions more in training facilities and about $10 billion in apprentice wages and benefits. That investment represents a major boost not only to the construction industry, but to the U.S. economy as well.

Maria Meza, who graduated from St. Paul Johnson in the spring, will enter the Carpenters union's apprenticeship program this fall.

Maria Meza, who graduated from St. Paul Johnson in the spring, will enter the Carpenters union’s apprenticeship program this fall.

Outreach to the underrepresented

Despite the benefits of apprenticeship, awareness among young people remains low, said Joe Navejas, a business representative for Roofers Local 96.

“When you go to school, people stress the importance of going to college, but not everybody is college material. Some want to do things with their hands,” Navejas said. “Many kids don’t get an opportunity to figure out that the trades are a career option too. Today, this is an opportunity for us to provide that experience for kids.”

Construct Tomorrow is also an opportunity for apprenticeship programs to reach out to women and young people from minority communities, who often are underrepresented in the Building Trades.

Brett Rickert, 20, of Avon attended as part of his curriculum at the Department of Labor & Industry’s Humphrey Job Corps, a free program that provides students 1,000 hours of pre-apprenticeship training in the basics of construction work.

Brett Rickert, 20, of Avon attended as part of his curriculum at the Department of Labor & Industry’s Humphrey Job Corps, a free program that provides students 1,000 hours of pre-apprenticeship training in the basics of construction work.

Dawn Zamora, a journeywoman with St. Paul Pipefitters Local 455, worried about how others would react to having a woman in their class when she began her apprenticeship six years ago.

“I did have concerns I wouldn’t be accepted, but I really have had very few problems,” Zamora said. “Just like in any workplace, people take their time getting to know you, but as long as you work hard and try your best, you are accepted.”

What’s more, Zamora found many journeymen were willing to share advice and tricks of the trade with apprentices on the jobsite – a quality Zamora carried forward yesterday, helping Construct Tomorrow participants solder copper pipes at Local 455’s booth.

“It’s important that young people get to know their options, that young women can know this career is a possibility,” Zamora said. “The union is like a family. I do not regret it at all.”

Click here for a directory of apprenticeship programs offered by Minnesota’s Building Trades unions.

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

Harry Melander: Building builders, growing our economy

July 24, 2013 by
mug-melander

Harry Melander

Drive to just about any region in our State. Look up or down, and you will see: “We are back.”

You see new mining opportunities on the Iron Range and housing developments in our urban core. You see expansion of our medical center in Rochester and new investments in our regional transit system. All are indications that “we are back.”

After suffering unemployment rates that reached Depression-year rates, the Building Trades industry is once again back in full swing. Union members are finding work, collecting paychecks and stimulating their local economies.

These have been tough years, but now we can breathe a bit easier. The majority of unions in the Minnesota State Building and Construction Trades Council have seen worker hours increase the last two years.

You can, once again, find steady employment in the trades. Credit for that, in large part, goes out to our “Building Governor,” Mark Dayton, as well as St. Paul Mayor Chris Coleman and friends of labor serving in the State House, Senate and throughout the local levels of government in Minnesota.

The future looks even better – not only for our current members, but for those new Building Trades members that we are seeking to recruit. This is the time that “new hands,” including women and emerging communities of color, will be the workforce that should – and can – support this industry.

We are looking for determined, hard-working Americans with professional attitudes, strong math skills and the willingness to be a part of our construction community. By 2040, 40 percent of the Metro region will be from these emerging communities. Now is the time for community leaders to encourage strong, career-minded people to consider – and enter – this great industry.

The Building Trades offer careers for all, but we want those at the head of their classes.

Last month in Tower, Minn., Building Trades members from all around our state got together for their annual meeting, setting the agenda for the upcoming year and into the future.

Among the priorities our unions set was making sure we embrace our new workforce, so that we continue to develop highly trained, skilled and safe workers who are prepared for the end of this decade and beyond.

Thanks to those Building Trades leaders who did just that. Together, we will continue to “build builders” who will make sure our industry and market share grow.

– Harry Melander was re-elected president of the Minnesota State Building and Construction Trades Council at the body’s annual convention last month. He also directs the St. Paul Building and Construction Trades.

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Summer internships introduce St. Paul teens to construction careers

July 16, 2013 by
UnderConstruction interns (L to R) Andy Johnson, Ger Yang and Marcus Byington saw materials for a new garage in Frogtown.

UnderConstruction interns (L to R) Andy Johnson, Ger Yang and Marcus Byington saw materials for a new garage in Frogtown.

A crew of 12 UnderConstruction interns arrived at a vacant lot in St. Paul’s Frogtown neighborhood before 9 a.m. today. Their task was to build a garage from the ground up, and within two hours the structure had begun taking shape.

The concrete foundation had settled. The framework was up. Interns were taking turns shingling the roof in pairs.

Crouching low to nail a strip of siding onto the garage’s exterior, 17-year-old Sapphire Thompson looked up from her hammer and beamed with pride.

Sapphire Thompson (near) and Pheng Lee nail siding to the garage.

Sapphire Thompson (near) and Pheng Lee nail siding to the garage.

“At first I didn’t believe it. I was like, ‘Are we really going to build a garage?’” the incoming senior at St. Paul Johnson High School said. “But look at this. We’re going to do it.”

Thompson is one of 23 students working as UnderConstruction interns this summer. In its ninth year, the program introduces urban teens, many from minority communities, to careers in the construction trades.

During the eight-week, paid internship, participants receive training in OSHA 10 safety compliance, financial literacy, physical fitness (“making sure they’re limber and nobody gets hurt,” program coordinator Ethan Laubach said with a chuckle) and so-called “soft skills” for employment – time management, communication and the like.

“About 60 percent of this program is work-related skills,” Laubach said. “We’re teaching the construction stuff, but it’s also about how to have a job.”

The curriculum brings interns to several union jobsites and training facilities, including Sheet Metal Workers Local 10, Painters Local 61, Ironworkers Local 512 and the Laborers. A panel of professionals from the management side of the industry talks to interns as well.

The goal, Laubach said, is to get young adults thinking about careers they might not hear about from their guidance counselors or family members.

“Young people don’t get enough exposure to these kind of career options now,” Laubach said. “Schools are pushing people toward college. This is a great way to try things out and get exposed to an industry that offers a wide range of jobs.”

UnderConstruction also exposes the industry to potential hires – or apprentices – from backgrounds currently underrepresented. Laubach launched the program 10 years ago in an attempt to “help the industry absorb people who are not like most people already in the industry, and to get adults in the industry thinking about the emerging workforce.”

It’s working. UnderConstruction boasts a number “graduates” who have gone on to successful careers in construction, including the first Hmong-American project manager in the country – a woman, no less – and a handful of union journeymen.

Aaron Lindsley (left) and Philip Norris apply shingles to the garage roof.

Aaron Lindsley (left) and Philip Norris apply shingles to the garage roof.

Thompson, one of three female interns in the UnderConstruction program this summer, is using the experience to prepare herself for another male-dominated career path. After graduation next spring, Thompson plans to enlist in the military.

“I get picked on sometimes – ‘Let a man handle that!’ – but I like to prove I can do it, and I will do it,” Thompson said. “This kind of gets me set up for what I’m going to have to overcome in the military too.”

A big reason for UnderConstruction’s success is the partnerships Laubach has developed with construction firms like Kraus Anderson, PCL, McGough and Mortenson, as well as agencies like the Department of Labor and Industry and the Frogtown Community Development Corporation.

The vacant lot where Thompson other interns erected a garage today is owned by the Frogtown CDC. Blocks away, another UnderConstruction crew tackled an improvement project at the CDC’s headquarters.

For Marcus Byington, a 15-year-old from St. Paul, the vacant lot provided a first taste of what it’s like to work on a construction jobsite.

“It’s hands on. I love that,” Byington said. “It’s so visual. Putting hammer to nail – you can’t do that on paper. I like the hands-on learning.”

For more information on UnderConstruction, or to find out how your union can get involved in supporting the curriculum, go to the project’s Facebook page.

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