As part of their national “Opportunity Pipeline Tour”, North America's Building Trades Unions made a stop in Pittsburgh on Thursday to recognize the region’s workforce development.
Business and labor leaders, government officials, community partners and building trades workers met at the Ironworkers Local Union 3 in the Strip District to discuss major projects coming to the greater Pittsburgh region.
Pittsburgh is one of five cities the Biden-Harris Administration is attempting to funnel investments and incentives toward via the federal actions including the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, CHIPS and Science Act, and Inflation Reduction Act. It’s part of the administration’s economic growth strategy to create workforce hubs by encouraging private and public partnerships.
Darrin Kelly, president of the Allegheny-Fayette Central Labor Council, said the impending election could impact improvements Western Pennsylvania’s middle class workforce has seen during President Biden’s tenure.
“When we look at this right here, we try not to put politics in things, but [Biden] is a president that ran on an infrastructure plan, delivering an infrastructure plan,” Kelly said. “And what you see right now is the biggest public works project in the history of this country. Unions. We're talking about family-sustaining wages, health care, retirement, pension, that is how you build a modern economy. So everybody, no matter if you're Republican, Democrat, independent is going to benefit from this infrastructure plan.”
Jay Costa, state senator for District 43, pointed out that work still needs to be done to improve the transition from trade apprenticeships to sustaining jobs.
“We have a tremendous opportunity at the federal level to draw down resources here in Pennsylvania,” Costa said. “Our work is not done. We have to be able to provide the investments on our end, to be able to match those resources, to continue to be able to build what we need to build here in our Commonwealth.”
City of Pittsburgh mayor Ed Gainey said there’s also work to do to address substance abuse among trade apprentices and workers.
“I tell people in the city right now that have experienced a situation with drugs: I'm here to get you help, but you got to want to get help first,” Gainey said. “We're not winning the war on drugs. And the reason why I'm speaking about this at the building trades,” he added, “is because you've changed so much, and this is a front line war of you.We got to make sure that we hit it head on.”
The event also included a tour of the Ironworkers’ apprenticeship facility highlighting three to five year apprenticeship programs that mix in-class education and hands-on field experience, as well as other programs offered through the Pittsburgh Gateways Corporation.
Hannah Hamer, a 21-year-old from Somerset, Pa., is a recent graduate of a masonry apprenticeship.
“Whenever I was in high school, I did three years of tech for Brick and Block, and then once I graduated, I knew I needed a job, so I joined the Operative, Plasters and Cement Masons local 526,” Hamer said. “ I turned journeyman in May, and it's really good because you get wage increases throughout the years and health benefits.”
Hamer said being a woman in this industry has “never been an issue.”
“I really like that there's always a part for everybody, no matter that I'm a 100-pound girl,” Hamer said. “You don't have to be the biggest or the baddest. You don't have to be macho. There’s a place for everybody and there’s solidarity.”
Emily Smith, a 21-year-old from Smithton, Pa., is a fourth-year electrician apprentice who plans to graduate this year. After high school, she was working for UPS and started some schooling for heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC), but then decided to follow in her father’s footsteps.
“I just decided to give it a go,” Smith said. “I’m working at the Pittsburgh Airport right now, and I'm meeting a lot of journeymen that are willing to show me stuff and these new tools and tricks.”
North America's Building Trades Unions stopped in Philadelphia last summer.
