Close to 80 union members gathered at the IBEW Local 48 hall May 6 to hear stories of mental health and addiction from fellow trades workers — and a professional athlete.
“Substance use and mental health conditions affect our industry like no other,” Oregon State Building Trades Council executive secretary Robert Camarillo told attendees. “We are being beat up out there. It’s affecting us every day.”
Construction workers have high rates of alcoholism and fatal drug overdoses. Nationally, the suicide rate for construction workers is four times higher than the general population.
At least 13 members of IBEW Local 48 have died by suicide in the past five years, said Local 48 Business Manager Garth Bachman.
Laborers Local 737 organizer Lori Baumann told the audience about her heavy drinking, which began after high school. When she started using drugs, she descended quickly into addiction and lost her job and housing. After moving to Portland in 2008, a friend took her to her first 12-step meeting. She has been sober ever since. Baumann joined the Oregon Tradeswomen pre-apprenticeship program in 2009 and went on to join the Laborers.
“The same principles that keep me sober keep me solid in my trade,” Baumann said. “This is where I learned to work in the field, one day at a time, one step at a time … copy the people who are doing things right, keep showing up, be grateful, do my best, ask for help, learn from the best, and work like my life depended on it.”
Ana Rigsby, a recruiting and outreach coordinator with UA Local 669, said she was motivated to stop drinking in early 2022 before her youngest daughter was born, after a conversation with a fellow sprinkler fitter on the job.
Rigsby said to deal with heartache without returning to the bar, she had to lean on the people closest to her.
“You’ve got big shoulders,” Rigsby said. “You can carry the load, but every once in a while you’ve got to let those shoulders down and let somebody else pick you up.”
Former NFL tight end Darren Waller has been sober since 2017, and retired in 2024 after eight seasons. Waller drew parallels between a career in football and the construction trades — hard labor, long days, and pride in the work.
“As tough and as reliable as we need to be, and know that our performance is required day in and day out, there’s something in us that wants to hide any level of pain that we feel and continue to show up,” Waller said.
Waller said recovery can be uncomfortable. After shoving down insecurities and emotions with drugs and alcohol, he was told in a recovery meeting to share a journal entry with the group.
“I’d rather run across the middle of the field and get laid out by three people than share (a journal entry) in a room with eight other people,” Waller said. “But to finally spit out what was written on my paper for the first time, I felt a sense of ease come in, felt a sense of relaxation,” Waller said.
Several local unions, including IBEW Local 48, host recovery meetings for members. Baumann, the Laborers organizer, encouraged all union trades workers — not just Laborers — to attend recovery meetings hosted at Laborers Local 737 every Monday at 6 p.m.
