Lee Worley has been appointed executive director of apprenticeship training for the International Association of Bridge, Structural, Ornamental and Reinforcing Iron Workers.
Worley, 48, served as the administrator of the Portland-based Pacific Northwest Ironworkers Trusts for the past two years. Prior to that he was apprenticeship coordinator for Local 29’s and Local 516’s joint apprenticeship training committee for 13 years.
A 25-year member of Local 29, Worley relocated to Washington, D.C., earlier this year.
As executive director, Worley will oversee Iron Worker training programs nationwide, making sure they are in compliance with federal and/or state standards, as well as adhering to the Ironworkers Apprenticeship Certification Program. The IACP was designed by the international union five years ago to standardize the quality of training offered apprentices at every local nationwide.
Ironworkers on the West Coast have been in the forefront establishing state- of-the-art training programs, and Worley says he will borrow from that success as he travels to training programs across the country.
“I plan to use what we do in the Pacific Northwest as a model for other programs,” Worley said. “I’ve learned from some of the best.”
Worley is the son of retired Iron Worker general secretary (and former Local 29 business manager) LeRoy Worley. His uncle, Tom, was business manager of Local 29 for many years, and Lee came into the trade under the tutelage of retired Local 29 apprenticeship coordinator Frank Cusma.
Succeeding Worley as administrator of the Pacific Northwest Ironworkers Trusts is Jim Pauley. Pauley, 55, had been re-elected in December to a third term as president and business agent of Local 29. In accepting the job as administrator, he had to relinquish both positions.
He is a 32-year member of Local 29.
In his new job, Pauley is the collection coordinator for the trusts. “Basically, I’m the first line of defense for collecting unpaid contributions from contractors,” he said.
Pauley also administers the budgets of the three apprenticeship training programs in the Pacific Northwest — Local 29 in Portland, Local 86 in Seattle, and Local 14 in Spokane, and he oversees the Drugfree Workplace Program.
