BUD Teaches “Reality 101”
Date Posted: October 6, 2014
Posted In: News, Workforce,
by Tom Finan, Executive Director
Construction Forum STL
Early Monday morning, 12 students sat in the conference room at the Construction Training School on Knox Industrial Blvd in South St. Louis. They were the first class of the new Building Union Diversity (BUD) program – a joint effort of unions, universities, community-based-organizations, and governmental agencies. The first class Monday morning was an introduction to the common skills required by all the trades: safety, math, workplace expectations, etc.
Henry Johnson, St. Louis Carpenters Joint Apprenticeship Program (STL CJAP) curriculum director, and Leonard Harris, STL CJAP instructor, gave the class a run-through on what to expect as they progressed through their training. Along with the nuts and bolts of classes were plenty of down-to-earth nuggets about both the benefits of working in union construction trades and the expectations that are placed on construction workers.
“First-of-Its-Kind”
BUD will provide pre-apprenticeship skills training for minorities, women and the long-term unemployed residents of the St. Louis region interested in pursuing one of many available careers in construction. Monday’s class was comprised of 11 males and one female. Four were veterans. Seven had high school diplomas, one had earned an Associate of Arts and Sciences degree, and four had Bachelors’ degrees.
The training in the BUD program will include both classroom and shop training, and participants will earn national skills certifications as they progress through the training. Participating union apprenticeship training program providers include bricklayers, carpenters, IBEW electricians, ironworkers, laborers, operating engineers, and plumbers and pipefitters.
The BUD program brings together a comprehensive network of participating joint labor-management Construction Skills training providers, SLATE, the St. Louis Building and Construction Trades Council, and the Missouri Division of Workforce Development (DWD).
John Gaal, the Director of Training and Workforce Development at the Carpenters Union commented, “First and foremost, let me be very clear, the launch of the BUD project has been in the works since last November, it is by no means an opportunistic response to the dire situation in Ferguson.
“Collectively, labor, management, community-based organizations, St. Louis Community College, St. Louis University, and various local and state government entities have worked for nearly one year to ensure that this first-of-its-kind program provides the skills necessary for non-traditionals to succeed as entry-level construction workers in St. Louis’ regional marketplace.”
Jeff Aboussie, executive secretary/treasurer of the St. Louis Construction Trades Council, said that a number of contractors and construction company owners have already expressed support for the program, noting that several have already pledged to employ successful graduates from the pilot.
Straightforward Message
Along with running through the apprenticeship curriculum, Johnson and Harris delivered a straightforward message about the benefits and expectations of working in union construction trades. They told the students that they needed to plan financially during flush periods for slow times. “Set some money aside for the times you are sitting out,” Harris said. He told of starting his career in residential construction during the 16 percent interest rates of the late ‘70s and the long dry spells.
Johnson, prior to becoming an instructor worked for a commercial interiors contractor. He said in response to a student question, that the most time he had spent off was during one year when he was laid off a total of three months – three times from the same project. The contractor kept bringing him back as they could because they valued his work. But he also told of another time when he was working on a casino project, on which the crew was scheduled for 12-hour days during the week and 16-hour days on the weekends.
“I needed a wheelbarrow to carry my pay,” he said. “When you’re working a ton of overtime that’s an opportunity to save.”
The instructors emphasized the importance of professionalism and of communication. While contractors have project schedules that demand that apprentices reschedule training and workers may have personal issues such as a mortgage closing or injury, that information must be communicated, they said, so that training can be rescheduled.
They also stressed the high value that the apprentices receive from the union/contractor partnership through the union in return for their monthly dues. This value, in return, creates high expectations from the contractors. Harris, who formerly taught carpentry in a for-profit associate degree program, said that his graduates had completed the program owing the school $22,000. Johnson recalled a 42-year-old who had owned his own contracting business, but had joined the apprenticeship program at a significant cut in his hourly rate because he was paying $600 a month for health insurance for his family and could get the same benefit for the cost of his dues.
Harris told the students that as they advanced in the program and moved up the pay scale they needed to be conscious of delivering advanced skills and increased productivity to their contractors. “If I go into the store and buy a three-pack of underwear for $5 and I go back next week and it’s $10, I want to know if they’ve put in a better waist band or what,” he said. It was an unusual analogy, but the unvarnished truth of it resonated with the students.
In the back of the classroom Vic Sunshine, vice president of safety of the Associated General Contractors of St. Louis was on deck to deliver an apprentice-level introduction to OSHA. The first BUD class was on its way into the construction industry.