Training the Next Generation

Bonamici touts apprenticeship win in new law

Clean energy projects taking advantage of tax credits will have to pay prevailing wage and employ apprentices.

Utility line workers compete at Lineman Rodeo

The contest tests utility line workers for speed, safety and trade skills, and raises money for the Oregon Burn Center.

Grant from Google to support women in the trades

Oregon Tradeswomen, the nonprofit that supports women entering the building trades, received $150,000 in grant funding from Google.

Bricklayers Local 1 apprentices place in Western Region contest

Bricklayers Local 1 apprentices are some of the best in the West, according to the 2022 Western region apprenticeship contest.

Portland Sheet Metal Institute holds apprentice competition

Sheet Metal Institute in Portland was the host this month of the 2022 Northwest Regional Sheet Metal Apprentice Competition.

Apprentice competitions return

In their first competition in two years, UA Local 290 apprentices showed demonstrated their fitting, plumbing, welding and HVAC skills.

Biden cabinet official visits Portland NECA-IBEW training center

U.S. Labor Secretary Marty Walsh, a former Boston building trades union leader, wants more women in the trades.

Apprenticeship is catching on

A new union program is skilling up behavioral health workers, and even lawyers are looking at apprenticeship as an alternative to the bar.

Want diversity in construction? Hire union

Local union apprenticeship programs have had much more success than non-union getting Black, Hispanic, and women workers into construction.

Operating Engineers recruit at the rodeo

Operating Engineers Local 701 became a sponsor of the Canby Rodeo this year, and set up its popular mobile simulator at the fair.

UA Local 290’s training facility welcomes Labor Secretary Walsh

On Aug. 10, U.S. Secretary of Labor Marty Walsh (center in suit) visited the Springfield training center of United Association of Plumbers and Steamfitters Local 290. To his right are Congressman Peter DeFazio and Local 290 business manager Lou Christian.

Journeyman card counts toward college credit

Mount Hood Community College has agreements with over a dozen union apprenticeship programs to award equivalent college credits.

Maybe shoulda Googled ‘rat contractor’?

Crestline, a heavy civil general contractor headquartered in The Dalles, doesn’t have a state-approved apprenticeship program.

New labor representation on Apprenticeship Council

Laborers Local 737 political assistant Danielle Garza joins several other unionists on the Oregon Apprenticeship and Training Council.

Subsidized child care helps parents enter building trades

For parents who want in to the building trades, finding childcare has been a hurdle. Now a Labor’s Community Service Agency program is making a difference.

STARS banquet canceled, Painters still receive bonuses they earned

Part of a program to field the best-trained workforce in the industry, Local 10 members get bonuses for skill advancement and safety classes they take.

Bricklayers Local 1 apprentices compete

The annual contest in bricklaying, tilesetting, marble, and pointer/cleaner/caulker requires participants to build a project from a blueprint in five hours.

New construction tech debuts at Local 701’s Canby facility

For a week in early March, journeymen and apprentices in Operating Engineers Local 701 got hands on with a new breed of high-tech heavy equipment.

Oregon Tradeswomen is moving to Gresham

On Jan. 10, the group will move into a newly renovated 8,300-square-foot space, part of the 5.5-acre Rockwood Rising development.

Building trades sounds alarm on DOL apprenticeship proposal

In June, the U.S. Department of Labor proposed to give private organizations free rein to create new watered-down standards and self-certify subpar apprenticeship programs.

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