Transformation of an industry’s culture is a herculean task.

But Andersen Construction CEO Joel Andersen believes the construction industry can become one that rejects racism and discrimination, even if it takes a generation to do so fully. In Portland, that laborious process began with the launch of “Safe from Hate” – a contractor-led initiative developed in response to an incident on an Andersen Construction jobsite in which a rope noose was found hanging conspicuously.

Almost three weeks passed before Andersen Construction executives even became aware of the incident after it was reported. But then Andersen and others were spurred to seriously tackle the racism on jobsites that has been all too prevalent for far too long.

“We realize we have to do something to help try and transform our industry,” Andersen said. “If we keep doing what we’re doing, not only is nothing going to change – there is a good chance it gets worse.”

After the Metropolitan Alliance for Workforce Equity (MAWE), Oregon Tradeswomen, the National Association of Minority Contractors’ Oregon chapter (NAMC), the Urban League of Portland and other groups called for the contractor to explain what happened, Andersen realized there was an opportunity to do more than that.

“Everyone was hurt and frustrated, and rightfully so,” Andersen said. “But they were like, ‘Yes, we are absolutely willing to do something to make it better.”

A rapid response

The Safe from Hate campaign quickly attracted a wide variety of groups, including those involved in advocacy, the public sector, trade unions, designers and of course contractors and subcontractors. These groups have continued to meet for several months and reached agreement on four central pillars: 1, zero tolerance for discrimination; 2, education; 3, recruitment; and 4, advancement.

“They documented their commitment as owners, and all of this has really built momentum,” said Kelly Haines, a senior project manager with Worksystems and a MAWE representative. “We met every few weeks from that incident and we coauthored the pledge. From there, we know that’s just words on paper. So, to hold people true to that commitment, that’s what the alliance is meant to be – the implementation and the accountability.”

Then participants realized that such a large group needed to become smaller ones in order to foster more efficient communication. A steering committee was formed to oversee subcommittees comprised of apprentices, public owners, a labor caucus, subcontractors, trade associations, contractors, pre-apprenticeship training programs, public agencies and community-based organizations. The steering committee held its first meeting Feb. 4 and will continue on a monthly basis.

In addition, an executive council comprised of labor representatives will oversee the steering committee. This will also help guide future training and anti-discrimination efforts on the labor side.

“Everyone felt that those most impacted by jobsite culture needed to be leaders in that work,” Haines said. “So, everyone is essentially reporting back to that council. That’s the goal – to be a friendly competition, where everyone comes together and shares what they’re doing and coordinating.”

The Associated General Contractors‘ Oregon-Columbia chapter is serving alongside NAMC Oregon as a shepherd of sorts, providing guidance to help advance the entire process.

“The generals (contractors) … want to do the work individually to their companies, but they are looking at how you pull together as a structure, and that’s why they’re looking to us,” AGC Executive Director Mike Salsgiver said.

But there are no illusions that the work will be easy.

“I think even when you start to really think about what got us here, it was the noose,” said Nate McCoy, executive director of NAMC Oregon. “But what’s a bigger issue is the bias on the jobsites and who should be here and who shouldn’t.”

Building momentum

Jobsite racism affects Latinos as much as any other minority group. Further, they now represent around 30 percent of the construction workforce – a proportion that is growing.

“It’s always there,” said Leanna Petrone, executive director of trade association LatinoBuilt. “Discrimination and hateful acts against our community have been a huge barrier for Latinos.”

Incidents such as the noose are just the tip of the iceberg, Petrone said.

“There’s been a lot through the years, and it’s been this way as long as I can remember,” she said. “My father worked in trades, and he worked in a field, and it’s always been a segregated work environment. The white males tend to stick with their own kind. The women tend to stick with their own. The Latinos, generally men, stick with their own kind. They’re not really included.”

Safe from Hate is by no means the first attempt to address racism in the industry, McCoy said. The difference now is that participation is widespread.

“There have been many decades of conversation around this subject,” he said. “It’s just now the larger GCs are diving into it, which is totally what we want; we want to operate together.”

Haines, Oregon Tradeswomen Executive Director Kelly Kupcak and other industry figures have been working for some time to also implement Rise Up, Green Dot and other programs that aim to eliminate harassment and discrimination on jobsites. Safe from Hate simply builds upon those efforts, said Afton Walsh, community outreach director for Walsh Construction.

“This was in the works even before Safe from Hate,” she said. “So, to say this all started in June is wrong. There has been a lot of groundwork and a lot of work that the community has been doing for a long time.”

This process informed how Safe from Hate took shape, Walsh added.

“We spent months working on the language to make sure it was broad,” she said. “Each company has ways to implement these broader principles. We wanted everyone to join in the journey wherever they are, so it works for nonunion, union, large or small contractors. Everyone can use these as guiding principles to find where they fit in.”

Essentially safety

Kupcak said she and others have been in communication with the Oregon Bureau of Labor & Industries about harassment on jobsites for some time. She hopes to eventually see enactment of regulations that treat discrimination as a formal health and safety issue enforceable by Oregon Occupational Safety and Health.

“We have shifted the way we approach it as an intervention,” she said. “OSHA convened a task force a couple of years ago about harassment, and we are part of that conversation. Not only do we lose really good people – they love their jobs; they just don’t want to deal with it day after day – but people have died.”

A quarter of a century ago, safety began to become an everyday focus for contractors and clients, Andersen said. It was a slow process, but one aided by acknowledgment that it benefited the entire industry. The effort to eradicate racism and discrimination is no different, he said.

“That was a vernacular that was easily understood; it’s part of the everyday DNA of every jobsite,” he said. “The idea to build upon that with the campaign of Safe from Hate was to say let’s just include that in the definition of safety.”

There is no question that discrimination in construction is fundamentally a matter of health and safety, according to parties involved in the Safe from Hate effort.

“It is absolutely a safety issue,” said Michael Burch, the community relations and outreach representative for the Pacific Northwest Regional Council of Carpenters, which represents over 28,000 union carpenters in Oregon, Washington and four other states. “But it goes deeper than that.”

Beneath the surface

A crackdown on graffiti and casual use of racist language is just a start, Burch said. A broader effort must be made to recruit and retain people of color and women in the trades, he added.

“Instead of hiring folks and letting them languish out there, (firms’ leaders) need to be intentional about the leadership paths they put them on,” he said. “There’s a problem with porta potties and lunchrooms, but that’s low-hanging fruit, and we can do that. It’s a problem when you walk onto a construction site and there are 100 workers and they are all white males.”

Changing that is not only the right thing to do, Burch added, but also good for business. The Pacific Northwest Regional Council of Carpenters implemented positive jobsite culture training some time ago, and Safe from Hate fits neatly within those parameters. The goal is to strengthen the workforce and increase the flow of skilled labor to contractors and jobsites.

“We talked to the apprentices about whether or not they would go back to work tomorrow and asked if they would enjoy it, and most said no, they go for the paycheck,” Burch said. “We spent 18 months developing this curriculum. It’s in the safety class, which all apprentices take, and it’s a training that goes to jobsites.”

The carpenters’ union has even made this training mandatory at its jobsites. Some members have participated multiple times.

“It works for a while, but it’s a marathon, because our work is transient,” Burch said. “They are on the site when the training happens; (then) their work ends and they are off to other areas, and it’s right back to business as usual. So, you have to continue to water those seeds that you planted.”

History shows organized labor is strongest, Burch added, when everyone – “Black, brown, BIPOC folks” – comes together.

“It keeps being pointed out that the industry is weaker because of the divisions, and we’ve done quite a bit of work in that area,” he said.

Optimism for change

In the end, this is only a start to what promises to be a long and potentially frustrating process. But in Portland, at least, a tipping point may have finally been reached.

“We are just beginning, but, man, does it feel exciting to be where we are,” Andersen said. “I say that with this mixture of ‘Here I am, a white guy pumped about what we’re doing.’ But the part that sickens me is, for so many of our peers in the industry and those who have found themselves not welcome, this has been their life’s existence. And we haven’t done enough.”

Open acknowledgment of the problem is encouraging, McCoy said.

“It’s a marathon and not a sprint, and some may not be as equipped or have the systems in place to wrestle with this reality that there is racism and discrimination, big time,” he said. “This is not the first attempt at this, but typically we don’t have the top dogs using their time in the room and saying, ‘It starts with us.’ Now we’ve got that commitment, and it’s a beautiful thing.”

Already, there are signs of progress. Haines noted that several months after the noose was discovered at the Andersen Construction jobsite, a similar incident occurred at a Hoffman Construction jobsite. This time, there was a much more serious response. It was treated like a crime scene, she said, and the person found responsible was removed from the project immediately and disciplined.

“Part of the work is we don’t want to sweep it under the rug, and we found that Hoffman reacted night and day differently than Andersen,” she said. “They shut the site down, called the police, and we have tried to share that example. It was a painter, and the union wrote a letter right away and said they won’t defend members who engaged in this behavior. It was a coordinated effort and transparent.”

That’s why Petrone and others are optimistic.

“I’m not sure it will take 30 years to really shift the way we think of our current jobsite culture here,” she said. “I think it can be done. It might take a Coca-Cola ad, but we’ve already seen awareness and change come in this short period of time.”

After all, it’s about working for a better industry.

“It can’t just take people that look like us,” said Twauna Hennessee, who will soon take over Burch’s position at the Pacific Northwest Regional Council of Carpenters. “We need everyone not being afraid to speak truth and putting action behind what we hear.”

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With face coverings and masks on, more women are training to join the construction trades.

Mary Ann Naylor, communications & marketing director for Oregon Tradeswomen Inc., said demand is high for the organization’s pre-apprenticeship classes, despite cancellations of in-person recruitment events due to the pandemic.

Over the past decade, the percentage of women entering the trades industry has been steadily increasing. In 2019, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported 10.3 percent of workers in construction were women.

Organizations such as OTI have served as a workforce pipeline by providing advocacy and training. OTI’s eight-week pre-apprenticeship programs are offered four times a year.

Even now, in a socially distanced world, OTI is continuing its work via a hybrid model. Students take field trips to workshops, but they complete all classroom work remotely through Zoom.

One of OTI’s ongoing initiatives is to get more tradeswomen to the forefront of the industry and thus show other women that they can get their hands dirty.

“Culturally, we started degrading trades jobs 40 years ago,” Naylor said. “Parents didn’t want their kids to go the trades.”

Recruitment of women to join the industry has been a battle on multiple fronts, Naylor said. There’s been a cultural bias against trade jobs as well as the notion that getting one’s hands dirty mean’s one isn’t smart enough, she said.

Meanwhile, women don’t see other women doing the work, Naylor said. She recommended that company officials review their advertisements and online presence to see who’s represented.

OTI typically holds an annual career fair in which tradeswomen work with middle school students, high school students and adults. It’s an important recruitment event, Naylor said, because women can see others doing the work. But the event was cancelled both last year and this year because of the pandemic.

Holding recruitment events amid COVID-19 is challenging, said Bridget Quinn, workforce development coordinator for NECA-IBEW. The most impactful part of informational meetings, she added, is when they become social events and women in the industry give tips and tricks to those interested.

As more women get into the trades, others become increasingly interested, Quinn said. It turns into a word-of-mouth phenomenon where women in the industry begin referring friends, family members and neighbors.

In 2011, women made up 12 percent of NECA-IBEW’s workforce. By 2020, they made up 14.1 percent.

“It’s a lot harder to message to women to what has been traditionally a male occupation,” Quinn said.

OTI centers its programs on prepare women sufficiently for careers in the trades. For instance, students are encouraged to be vocal.

“As women, we’re not socialized to be loud and take up space,” Naylor said. “You need to be loud on construction sites yelling out stuff going on – People have to be able to hear you over the machines.”

OTI also collaborates with Fulcrum Fitness to train pre-apprentices for the profession’s physical demands.

In a typical year, OTI graduates 120 students; however, last year there were just 60 because of the pandemic. The group is looking to create freestanding modules and a pipeline navigation program to increase the number of women entering the industry, Naylor said.

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The Oregon State Building and Construction Trades Council has launched an industry-wide group to produce safety guidelines to help contractors work during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The COVID-19 Joint Construction Safety Task Force includes representatives from trade unions, contractors and other industry partners, and has been meeting via video conference three times a week.

“The safety of the people who are out there working on construction sites is our highest priority,” Robert Camarillo, the trades council’s executive secretary, stated in a press release. “With this task force, our goal is to improve job safety and increase educational resources during an incredibly challenging time.”

Task force members and Oregon Occupational Safety and Health Division staffers also are visiting jobsites to assess the effectiveness of safety practices intended to protect workers during the pandemic. Meanwhile, the group is monitoring current practices across the country, collecting data and sharing it with contractors and workers alike.

The task force is looking only at Oregon construction sites, which Gov. Kate Brown has left open during the coronavirus crisis. In Washington, Gov. Jay Inslee initially shut down virtually all construction, but has since allowed some to reopen – with the requirement that safety measures such as social distancing be observed at all times.

People interested in learning more about the task force can contact Mary Ann Naylor at Oregon Tradeswomen Inc. at 503-819-9201 or maryann@tradeswomen.net.

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While construction activities have not stopped in Oregon as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, apprenticeship and pre-apprenticeship training programs have.

Union and nonunion training centers alike have shuttered their operations in the past two weeks to avoid unnecessary face-to-face interactions. One is Oregon Tradeswomen Inc., which last month celebrated the opening of its new 8,000-square-foot shop and headquarters in Southeast Portland. Now its office is closed through March 31.

“I can tell you that all staff are currently working remotely,” OTI communications director Mary Ann Naylor said. “We were able to complete training in the new space, but we did cancel the graduation ceremony on March 12.”

OTI canceled an environmental worker training and delayed the start of its spring pre-apprenticeship training until April 14. In addition, the group’s popular annual career fair, normally held in May, has been rescheduled this year for Sept. 25 and 26.

“We’re in process of sorting out the details, and making backup plans,” Naylor said. “We are also looking at ways to up our technology game to provide components of our training and education in a virtual manner, including information sessions about our class, career education, and portions of our curriculum that currently happen in the classroom.”

Virtually all union-affiliated training centers in the Portland-metro area shut down in-person operations before Friday, said Robert Camarillo, executive secretary of the Oregon State Building and Construction Trades Council. One of the only exceptions is Operating Engineers Local 701, which is continuing to offer limited training due to the nature of the trade, which places operators outside the normal risks inherent on a crowded jobsite.

“We had a conference call, and just about every one of (the training centers) have closed down the apprenticeships for the next several months at least,” Camarillo said. “Some are utilizing long-distance learning to continue to offer instruction as much as possible. Everybody is getting a little creative.”

Local 701 managed to wrap up a training round recently, said Jim Anderson, the union’s business manager. Recruitment and interviews of new apprentices will continue, he added, but full-scale training is on hold.

“We got the round of apprentices through last week,” he said. “There were 12 apprentices, and we had them set up two per instructor and we rotated them through. But for now we’re going to hold off on training classes until we get the OK from the governor.”

At the Northwest College of Construction in Northeast Portland, all apprenticeship classes are suspended until at least April 5 while administrators try to devise ways in which to offer instruction safely.

Instructional efforts at NWCOC are changing to remote and online forms for the time being, said Laurie Emery, the college’s interim executive director. Also, administrative staffers are being asked to work from home.

“We’ve never experienced anything like this before,” she said. “My team and I are developing an online training system that will go into effect April 6, but we’re still working out all of the kinks. As far as we’re concerned we will continue with classes, just with no hands-on instruction.”

The timeline is uncertain at present, but when circumstances allow, students will be able to receive required in-person instruction and take exams.

“It’s not a perfect system, but it keeps students in classes,” Emery said. “Our concern is not having students get too far behind, as well as those apprentices also who are ready to graduate. We want to help them meet that goal and as soon as possible.”

None of this will happen on regular schedule, Emery said, but it will allow the college to meet the hourly training requirements for the Oregon Bureau of Labor and Industries. The pandemic also is hastening plans by the college to move more instruction online, she added.

“We’ve been talking about online training for some time, but it’s never really fit into our model,” she said, mainly because National Center for Construction Education and Research accreditation requires in-person testing with a proctor.

“That makes it difficult to go to a fully online program,” she said. “But in a way it makes me glad that we have this option available to us now. Maybe it’s a future option for us; I don’t know. It will be based on what BOLI allows, but at least we have a framework.”

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Oregon Tradeswomen Inc., founded 30 years ago, is finally getting its own training facility.

The nonprofit group, known primarily for training and advocating for women in the building industry, in mid-January will move into a remodeled building in Gresham’s Rockwood neighborhood.

Central Bethany Construction, a division of project developer Central Bethany Development, is carrying out tenant improvement work at an 8,000-square-foot space on Southeast 187th Avenue, near the intersection with Stark Street. YBA Architects carried out design work for the project.

“It’s been a personal goal of mine, and an agency goal, to do this and we’re really excited,” OTI Executive Director Kelly Kupcak said. “We serve more and more women who are living in poverty and are coming to our program for answers. So it’s a critical opportunity for us to shift the way we do business and the way we reinvest back into our community and region.”

Crews broke ground on the OTI project in June, around the same time workers began tackling Rockwood Rising nearby; that mixed-use project also is being developed by Central Bethany Development.

OTI has inked a five-year lease for the new space, which will have a large shop, meeting rooms, staff space, and locker rooms for students. The group will not only have a better place to train women in pre-apprenticeships, but also space to host public workshops and other events while partnering with the cities of Gresham and Portland and other entities.

“We’re really looking forward to those things,” Kupcak said. “But the other piece that is really important to us is that we will be able to train our women at night and on weekends, which is huge for the women who are working toward new careers.”

OTI has encountered serious challenges in bringing women with day jobs into pre-apprenticeship training, Kupcak said. The new facility will help immensely, she added.

The group also will focus more on working with people simply looking for work or an opportunity.

“We are serving folks who are houseless, and we didn’t used to do this before,” Kupcak said. “Over the last two years we’ve made a lot of change about intentionality and about removing barriers for our clients; we wanted a welcoming physical space for the public and for tradeswomen.”

Kupcak praised the efforts of Central Bethany Development General Managing Partner Roy Kim and his firm.

“They really wanted a workforce development partner in there, and they’ve been incredible to work with,” she said. “Everyone’s talking about Rockwood being poor; we all know that. But it’s also the most diverse neighborhood in the region, and there is a young population, so there are huge opportunities there.”

Demolition was carried out at the site some time ago, Central Bethany Construction Superintendent Steve Wahle said, but real tenant improvement work began last month. The building was once part of a former Fred Meyer store that closed over 15 years ago, he said.

“We took it down to the studs, took out all the ceiling – and we had a lot of rot, so we did repairs there,” Wahle said. “Then we had a floor plan from our architect, and that’s what we have going here now.”

A large roll-up door separates the entrance from a large classroom on one side and staff space on the other. The building’s north end holds the shop and training area. Currently, drywall is being installed in preparation for painting and finishes.

“This warehouse side is a big space,” Wahle said. “We’re just waiting for the Sheetrock to get done and the finishes to start. It’s a little rough still, but it’s a big thing for them and for the city, the area of Rockwood; it’s all transforming right now.”

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Oregon Tradeswomen Inc. is set to host its 12th annual Tradeswomen Leadership Institute event, which offers workshops on leadership development, advocacy and unity among women in the architecture, construction and engineering industries.

This year’s event will take place from 8:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Dec. 7, at the Sheet Metal Institute Training Center at 2379 N.E. 178th Ave. in Portland. Tickets are $35, and include breakfast and lunch. Child care vouchers are available upon request. Registration will close Nov. 26.

During the “Thriving and Surviving in Apprenticeship” session, a panel of tradeswomen will talk about community services that can help workers find child care, address jobsite harassment and enter the industry after incarceration.

Other workshops will include “Advancing Your Professional Career,” “Public Policy and Advocacy – She Runs” and “Financial Toolkit for the Trades.”

Prospective attendees can learn more by emailing Kelly Kupcak at kelly@tradeswomen.net.

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Building industry professionals are invited to swap their tools and work gear at an event hosted by Oregon Tradeswomen Inc. It’s scheduled for Nov. 14, from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m., at the nonprofit’s offices at 3934 N.E. Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd in Portland.

Attendees can bring their own functional tools and gear to either trade or donate. Food and drinks will be provided while they browse available items.

Donated items will be distributed on a first-come-first-serve basis; swaps will be determined by tools’ current owners. Any equipment left over at the end of the evening will be donated to students in OTI‘s pre-apprenticeship programs.

OTI also will be celebrating its selection as one of the 150-some nonprofits to participate in Willamette Week’s annual Give!Guide campaign. A donation of $10 to any of the nonprofits in this year’s campaign will yield a 12-month subscription to the Chinook Book app.

People can learn more about the tool swap by contacting Kim Neel at kim@tradeswomen.net or 503-335-8200 (extension 123).

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In Gresham’s Rockwood neighborhood, on the east side of Southeast 187th Avenue near its intersection with Stark Street, an existing single-story commercial building is being refurbished to accommodate a host of new tenants. One will be Oregon Tradeswomen Inc.

The Portland Opportunities Industrialization Center, Mt. Hood Community College Small Business Development Center and Micro Enterprise Services of Oregon will occupy space in the building. OTI plans to move its operations there from Northeast Portland sometime between December 2019 and January 2020, according to OTI communications director Mary Ann Naylor.

“This new location will allow us to have our offices, our classroom, as well as our workshop (together),” she said Wednesday. “Right now, the way we handle the hands-on training portion of our pre-apprenticeship classes, we partner with other nonprofits that need help with their projects because we want to give our students an authentic building experience to really prepare them for the jobsite.”

But that also means students currently have to travel to various jobsites and training facilities around the metro area. However, in Rockwood, with space of their own to work in, students generally won’t have to travel as much.

“Having a workshop will allow us to standardize that training and bring our partners in to conduct specific trainings,” Naylor said. “We will actually have a place to train our students. It’s just going to give us all the flexibility we’ve been wanting for the last few years to really better serve our students and industry.”

Naylor also noted that OTI originally established its headquarters in Northeast Portland because that area of the city was considered blighted and socioeconomically disadvantaged. As the area gentrified and property values shot up, however, the same women OTI sought to serve were priced out.

“In the 20 years that Oregon Tradeswomen has had offices in Northeast (Portland), it was perfect because that’s where our people used to be,” she said. “But as we’ve developed in the Northeast, a lot of those people have moved out (to east Multnomah County).”

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At Sam Barlow High School in Gresham, Lease Crutcher Lewis is serving as general contractor for a $54 million renovation and expansion of the 50-year-old campus. But in addition to building structural improvements, the firm is building relationships with students who could eventually step into professional careers in the industry.

Lease Crutcher Lewis project manager Mike Levesque and assistant superintendent Matt Hockett have joined Barlow High School career coordinator LindaLee Frazier and others to offer luncheons for students possibly interested in construction careers. Basic information is presented, tours of the construction site are given and pizza is provided.

“We meet, we talk about the project and we walk (the site) really quick because it’s during their lunch period,” Levesque said. “Then we come back, they have pizza and they ask questions and we ask questions just to get them interested and thinking about careers and how construction is not just a hammer and saw.”

Last week, at least three students stayed behind after the third and final construction luncheon of the semester to express interest in joining the industry. One student even had a solid plan for attending college and then becoming a construction manager.

“That was great,” Levesque said.

The luncheons developed as an adjunct to a wider Gresham-Barlow School District initiative done in partnership with Lease Crutcher Lewis and the Associated General Contractors’ Oregon-Columbia chapter. With use of the Barlow project as a working lab, the Career Pathway Pilot Program is engaging students in the school’s construction, autoCAD and marketing classes that together make up part of the career and technical education (CTE) curriculum. Lewis employees have led students through numerous job walks, forklift training exercises and excavation training exercises.

In addition to hands-on education, the pilot program has provided students an inside look at the construction industry and its many trades. In total, 49 students participated in the three aforementioned courses during the 2018-19 school year.

“I think it’s been huge,” Frazier said. “Not only has the metals class gone through (the job site), the woods, carpentry and construction students also went through several times and we had Matt stopping in and helping. When I learned Lease Crutcher Lewis was willing to do this, I was like ‘I want to get more kids involved.’”

The Career Pathway Pilot Program was formed to address the long-term shortage of skilled tradespeople in the construction industry. The concurrent lack of dedicated trades education and training in the public school system has left individual districts and contractors more or less to their own devices when it comes to forging a solution.

That has led Gresham-Barlow School District to pursue a more active CTE curriculum as it uses $291 million in 2016 bond money to renovate and replace schools. This includes new wood and metals shops at Barlow and a new automotive shop at Gresham High School, as well as revamped marketing courses and classroom space.

The hope is that by partnering the Career Pathway Pilot Program and others, students will not only learn about potential careers in construction and manufacturing, but also remain engaged in school.

The pilot program was introduced at three schools for the 2018-19 school year.

At Powell Valley Elementary School, a class of fourth-grade students learned to construct simple furniture using 3-D modeling online. Russell Middle School students also used 3-D modeling to construct a model of an entire house. And Barlow High School construction students were tasked with building their own garden shed with the goal of recouping the cost of materials through its sale.

“They’re exposing the students early on,” Levesque said. “The earlier they can be exposed to different opportunities then they have alternate routes. They can go to college and get a degree or you can also do this if you enjoy working with your hands and decide you want something different.”

It’s all about choices, Frazier said. In addition to the Career Pathway Pilot Program, the district has offered students interested in construction careers a chance to attend a summer camp of sorts. Participants will work full time with contractors during an eight-week course and be paid for their efforts.

“The more experience we can give them now with careers, whether it’s construction tours or something like that,” she said, “the more prepared they are for making a career decision for the next step.”

To bolster their case, Frazier and Levesque enlisted the help of Amy Haddox, a third-term apprentice electrician with Local 48. She is part of EC Electric‘s crew working on the Barlow project. She’s also taking advantage of the project to share her own experience with students and help lead tours of the jobsite.

Haddox took the traditional college path, graduating from UCLA with a degree in environmental science and going on to earn a master’s degree. But that ultimately put her behind a desk, where she quickly learned she was never going to be content.

“I was just out in the world trying to get by,” she said.

Then Haddox attended a pre-apprenticeship class offered by Oregon Tradeswomen Inc., and used that as a springboard into an apprenticeship with IBEW Local 48. Now, she’s looking forward to a career with far more security – and enjoyment.

“I was thinking outside the box about what would work better for me,” she told assembled students last week, noting that upon finishing her apprenticeship she will be making twice as much money as she made at her previous job requiring a master’s degree.

“I get to problem-solve all day and I get to work outdoors,” she told students. “It’s a lot closer, honestly, to what I wanted to do in environmental science than what I was doing at a desk job processing rebate applications.”

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Oregon Tradeswomen Inc. executive Tiffany Thompson has left to take a position with a union group: the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees Council 75.

Thompson spent the past four years with OTI as director of advocacy programs seeking out new opportunities to usher more women into skilled trades and the construction industry. Her last day at OTI was Monday.

“Tiffany has been a tremendous asset not only to Oregon Tradeswomen, but to our industry as a whole,” OTI Executive Director Kelly Kupcak stated, “and also to the national tradeswomen movement in shifting our conversation from what is wrong to the powerful impact we can have when we collaborate together.”

Thompson said she is both excited for the challenges ahead and sad to leave great friends.

“I wouldn’t be here if it weren’t for the wonderful experience I have had at Oregon Tradeswomen,” she stated. “I plan to stay an active volunteer and donor of the organization. Most importantly, I know that this move will only deepen the relationship between Oregon Tradeswomen and AFSCME, strengthening our shared fight for respectful workplaces, the rights of working folks, and the leadership of our members.”

AFSCME Council 75 is one of the largest trade unions in Oregon, with over 25,000 members representing public employees at the municipal, county and state levels. The union also represents some private-sector workers, primarily nonprofit employees who perform public service work.

Oregon AFSCME is gaining a valuable team member, according to its executive director, Stacy Chamberlain.

“We couldn’t be more excited to welcome Tiffany to our team at Oregon AFSCME,” Chamberlain stated. “Her commitment to worker rights and experience in leadership development and organizing will be huge assets to our organization.”

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