Back Fence PDX & Tradeswomen Stories
OTI is really excited for the Tradeswomen Leadership Institute (TLI) this year! The show last year, My Walk Has Never Been Average, had such a great response (sold out 400 tickets) that we wanted to build on that momentum. With this in mind, we partnered with Back Fence PDX, an amazing, nationally recognized live storytelling series. Indeed, you read that correctly, LIVE storytelling! On Friday, September 25, 2015 five tradeswomen will put aside their hardhats and brave the stage to tell true, poignant, funny, and revealing stories about their lives and experiences as women in the trades. Back Fence PDX Producers B. Frayn Masters and Mindy Nettifee will graciously be coaching the storytellers and hosting the live show!
The live storytelling event will take place at DISJECTA – 8371 N Interstate Ave, Portland, OR. The door will open at 6:30 pm with drinks and snacks available for purchase. Stories will begin at 7:30 pm. Please keep in mind that we have much more limited seating than last year and we expect that these tickets are going to sell out quickly! You can purchase them now for $15 per ticket.
Great! Now that you have your tickets, you can RSVP and share this event from Facebook. Thank you for your support! We can’t wait to see you there!
**If you are a tradeswomen, register for TLI and your ticket is included!
Meet OTI TACC Graduate, Melissa Mazurek:
Melissa was just 22 years old when she enrolled in Oregon Tradeswomen, Inc.’s Trades and Apprenticeship Career Class (TACC) – a pre-apprenticeship program preparing women for success in the building, construction, mechanical, and utility trades. She was born and raised in Grand Rapids, Michigan which is on the west side of the state, not too far from Lake Michigan. Here is her story:
I left home at 18, and after traveling all over the country and working seasonal jobs in Montana, I met my current partner, and about 3 and a half years ago, by chance, ended up staying in Portland.
Before starting my training at OTI last year, I was unemployed. I worked a few odd jobs here and there .. farmer’s markets, bakeries, and did farm work in Montana each year. I was homeless off and on. A lot of it had to do with not being satisfied with where I was and what I was doing. I was moving around too much and ended up completely broke more often than not. The seasonal farm work I had done in Montana each year provided me with a little bit of savings, but I couldn’t find a full time job that paid well and held my interest. OTI’s pre-apprenticeship program and the people I met while going through the class helped me realize that the jobs I had dreamed about being able to get were actually possible.
I learned about OTI’s class from a couple of friends who told me about either going through the program or having a partner who did. I wasn’t sure if I was going to go through with it at first. It seemed so intimidating to walk into a classroom again after years of avoiding it to learn something I was completely unfamiliar with. I was a little afraid of failing (isn’t everyone?), and thought, ‘What if I do this and it doesn’t work out either?‘ Luckily, I have some people in my life who are very supportive, and they talked me into it. I’m pretty damn glad they did.
During my time with OTI, the biggest thing I noticed were the changes within myself. I felt timid and unsure about the class and everything when I started. At the end, everything had completely changed. My classmates and instructors had gotten me so excited about the new opportunities that lay ahead, and I felt more confident and stronger than ever. I finally had some idea of where I wanted my work/career to go. Plus, we did all those killer fitness training work outs, and after getting through those, I think we all felt like we could accomplish anything!
I started at Gunderson, LLC, a part of the Greenbrier Companies. Currently, I’m a fitter welder. When I began training in September of 2014, they started me out at $12.60 an hour. After a month of training and passing some weld tests, they bumped me up to $16.80 an hour, and I am now earning $18.65 an hour! And I will receive another raise after I am here for a year.
The best thing about welding is how extremely satisfying it feels to lay out beautiful, strong welds. It’s a really fun trade! I’m also slightly competitive and work in a pretty fast paced, production environment, so I like to time myself and see what I can do to be faster and still pump out high quality parts. I really love the fitting aspect of it too, all the measuring and putting things perfectly in place. I’ve always liked detailed jobs. At Gunderson, we get to make parts for train cars/ whole train cars, and I’m sort of a nerd for trains, so it’s cool to be a part of producing them.
Moving ahead, I’d really like to learn more welding processes, get some certifications, and explore other areas of production. I’m at the very beginning of this journey and know I still have a lot to learn. In the back of my mind I’ve always wanted to work for myself, so that’s also something I’d like to work up to over the next few years.
Two years ago, I would have never imagined being able to accomplish what I have in the past year. It’s crazy how much has happened! OTI really gave me a lot of confidence and is such a valuable resource and support system. I honestly don’t think I could have done all of this so quickly on my own and am incredibly grateful for what OTI has taught me and helped me with.
Whether it was relearning my shop math, helping me find connections to learn about welding, or literally sending my resume to an employer and helping me get an interview, OTI has been there. Things felt a little hopeless before I went through the pre-apprenticeship program. Now I have a job that I love, my own apartment and a little extra income to use to enjoy doing things I couldn’t be doing otherwise. It’s awesome!
If I were to give any advice to other women considering pursing an apprenticeship and a career in the trades is to do it! Plain and simple. Some days are really going to suck and you might want to quit, while others are exhilarating and fun. It can be frustrating, but it’s totally worth it in the end. What you learn and what you challenge yourself to do will only make you stronger.
Oh, and I would also recommend that you get lots of sleep, eat well, and exercise often! Saying please, thank you and staying calm in tough work situations will get you a long way with all of your coworkers. Also, never be afraid to ask for help, it shows that you have the desire and will to learn.
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Check out the Public Service Announcement Bank of America developed about OTI’s Women in Metals & Manufacturing program which features Melissa!
Published: Friday, August 7, 2015
Out in the Union: A Labor History of Queer America
(Pictured from the left: Connie Ashbrook, Miriam Frank, Madelyn Elder)
We frequently find our dear Executive Director Connie Ashbrook out and about in the media – TV Interviews and Magazine Articles. We also know that the incredible Madelyn Elder is Northwest famous in the labor community, only recently stepping down as president of CWA before starting work full time for OTI as our Chief Financial Officer (We are so lucky!). Rarely do we find both of these incredible women featured in one place! Yet, this is exactly what you get in Miriam Frank’s Out in the Union: A Labor History of Queer America.
On Thursday August 6, the Q Center hosted Frank for a reading from the book. To appeal to her audience, she shared quotes and stories from Portland area activists. During a passage featuring Elder, there was laughter as she realized everything (including a small bit of scandal!) that she had shared during the interview. It was at this time that the audience discovered that Elder and Ashbrook had been interviewed in 1995 – making their quotes deliciously new to them as well! Frank, clearly fond of many of the attendees, casually interacted with the audience and invited them to comment and build on stories they had shared for the book – creating an atmosphere of community and camaraderie.
If you want a little taste right now, here are a couple of short quotes:
“Connie Ashbrook came out at work in the early 1990s. The ultraconservative Oregon Citizens Alliance (OCA) proposed Measure 9 (1992) … to mandate the firing of LGBT workers…Although the elevator construction industry was nobody’s target, Ashbrook came out at work merely by displaying a “No on 9″ bumper sticker on her lunch box. She told her union business agent that the measure would harm her personally.” (pg. 27)
“I don’t think the New York guys were interested in the gay thing at all but they were pissed at the local leadership, and they saw it as a union democracy issue. Then there were two gay men who came, telephone operators. And then some white male installers showed up, guys from Seattle, with their crew cuts. They were going, “Where’s the gays?” And there I am with my little hand raised. It was frightening to get up and talk about gay rights.” (Elder, pg 88)
For those of us who advocate for Queer Rights and Workers’ Rights OR those who just want to know what role Labor Advocates played in the Queer Movement – this book is for you. And Miriam Frank wrote this as oral histories, so you have a chance to get to know advocates who pushed the movement forward. Plus, it is a great way to get to know both Connie and Madelyn a little better – from their own voices 20 years ago. If you buy the book from Amazon, remember that you can do a little good for OTI at the same time, and support us with Amazon Smile.
OTI Grows with help from Advantis Credit Union
In July, Oregon Tradeswomen was invited to participate as a semi-finalist in the GROW: The Advantis Community Fund social media contest and as a result, was awarded a $5,000 grant!
The fund is a $50,000 grant designed to provide nonprofit and service organizations with financial resources to address a wide range of needs and tackle challenges in the community, one project at a time. Oregon Tradeswomen, and six additional non-profits, received a portion of the grant. OTI received $5,000 to provide low-income women with “Ready to Work” safety gear, including measuring tapes, hard hats, safety glasses, rain gear, gloves, tool belts, and bus passes. This will prepare our pre-apprenticeship students for employment in high-wage construction trades careers as well as transportation assistance for access to job interviews and job sites.
Congratulations to the other recipients on their awards: Children’s Book Bank, Raphael House, SnowCap Community Charities, Store to Door, and Feral Cat Coalition of Oregon.
A big thanks to Advantis for inviting OTI to participate in a fun campaign and awarding OTI with this generous grant!
Scholarship Fund Supporter: Metro
Oregon Tradeswomen, Inc. thanks Metro Regional Government for its support as a Pathways to Success scholarship fund contributor!
The scholarship fund program supports the impactful work of our Pathways to Success program, namely, our Trades and Apprenticeship Career Class (TACC).
The TAC class program offers a focus on apprenticeship through a 7-week, state-certified, pre-apprenticeship training class that helps women prepare for a high skill, high wage career in the blue-collar professions in construction, manufacturing and the utility trades. Class sessions occur four times a year.
TACC covers key elements that lead to a successful outcome for students as well as teaching the grit, perseverance, and timeliness skills that also contribute to professional readiness: basic math and measurement, job safety in addition to construction culture, using hand and power tools, and physical fitness training. All of this is included with the 30 hours of hands-on training experience working with professional tradeswomen.
Thanks again to Metro for its generous contribution. If you would like to learn more about the scholarship fund, please see our Pathways to Success Scholarship Fund page for all the details or send an email inquiry to Dennise (at) tradeswomen.net.
Call to Action: Tell Congress You Support Funding WANTO
The Women in Apprenticeship and Non-Traditional Occupations (WANTO) Act is a small pool of money that organizations like Oregon Tradeswomen rely on to run pre-apprenticeship classes for women. WANTO appropriations amounted to less than $2 million over the last two years, but the program’s impact on women’s economic security is colossal. With the support of this crucial funding source, WANTO grantees (including Oregon Tradeswomen) have helped thousands of women access meaningful careers in male-dominated industries with quality, family-supporting wages. Regions where WANTO-funded organizations work have more than twice the national average of women employed in construction trades. WANTO works!
Oregon Tradeswomen needs your help: The federal budget under currently under consideration by Congress provides zero dollars for WANTO. But with your help, we can change that and get WANTO back in the budget. We need your voice for our message to be heard in Congress.
The best way to support Oregon Tradeswomen’s efforts to keep WANTO alive is to contact your elected representatives and tell them how vital WANTO is to women in the trades. We’ve made it easy – you can write to your representative with the simple template linked below. (Make sure to read through and personalize your message.) Support tradeswomen, support OTI, and support our sister organizations around the nation. Tell Congress that programs that work should be expanded, not cut out of the budget. Fund WANTO, WANTO works!
The Commission on Equitable Contracting and Purchasing
The first meeting of the Commission on Equitable Contracting and Purchasing, formed to increase utilization of minorities and women-owned businesses in City of Portland contracting, and increase inclusion of minorities and women in the workforce on City-funded projects was held on July 30, 2015.
The nine Commissioners: Marcela Alcantar, Michael Burch, Andrew Colas, Herb Fricke, Vicqui Guevara, Tony Jones, Rosa Martinez, Andrew McGough, and Maurice Rahming, represented a wide spectrum of minority and women-owned business and workforce interests.
Mayor Hales expressed his enthusiastic support for the Commission. As he witnessed their oath of office, he said, “This oath goes with real power and reflects the seriousness and heft of what you are about here – about real change to help make this a City of opportunities for more people.”
OTI is thrilled with the establishment of this commission and looks forward to hearing more about the results of their work.
Links of Interest:
Ordinance that established the Commission
List of Commissioners and their affiliations
Oregon Tradeswomen, Women’s Bureau Hold Roundtable on Female Retention in Trades
From top left: Steve Simms, Lili Hoag, Larry S. Williams, John Gardener, Connie Ashbrook, Betty Lock, Paloma Sparks, Meghan Moyer, Pat Daniels, Tiffany Thompson, Sara Gourley
Portland-region workforce development organizations were honored to host Women’s Bureau Region X Regional Administrator Betty Lock this week for a roundtable discussion on retention of women in trades apprenticeships. The group came together to discuss a persistent and vexing problem in the construction industry: A full 65 percent of women fail to complete their apprenticeships, a rate substantially higher than men’s termination rate of 35 percent.
The robust discussion was informed by experts in the field from the Oregon Bureau of Labor and Industries, Worksystems, Inc., the Northwest College of Construction, Constructing Hope, Family Forward Oregon, and Oregon Tradeswomen, Inc., who convened the meeting. Among the factors that contribute to the disparity in retention rates discussed by the group were jobsites and employers that remain hostile toward women, the fact that tradeswomen are dispatched to fewer work hours than their male apprentice counterparts, and the continued lack of supportive services that are tailored to the specific needs of workers in the construction industry.
Betty Lock hears from participants about challenges faced by female apprentices in the trades
Solutions offered by the group included emphasizing accountability and enforcement on projects that fail to meet diversity hiring targets, working with contractors and employers to stimulate demand for female workers, and tailoring supportive services to suit women working in the industry that have children. Many in attendance emphasized the importance of networking, noting that women and men of color are not being mentored into a network that guarantees them more access to the jobs that help them succeed in apprenticeship. Oregon Tradeswomen’s Advocacy Program Manager also offered a summary of its work on the Green Dot bystander intervention program, which could be employed on construction jobsites to reduce harassment of female and minority workers.
We look forward to continuing this discussion with our regional partners and the Department of Labor, as well as working together to refine and implement the best of these strategies in the future. Oregon Tradeswomen wishes to thank our regional partners, Betty Lock, and the Women’s Bureau for their commitment to women in the trades and for coming together to discuss this critical issue!
Congratulations to OTI’s Building Girls Summer Work Crew!
OTI is incredibly proud of the young women in our Building Girls Summer Work Crew who just finished up four weeks of learning to build! They constructed a large arbor at Nadaka Nature Park!
Photo captions: Building at Camp Westwind (left), Tylea stands in the hole she dug all by herself in preparation for the construction of an arbor (middle); Finished arbor (right).
OTI’s 2015 Building Girls Summer Work Crew graduated on July 9th and celebrated with cake and refreshments. Congratulations, everyone! We’re so proud of you and what you accomplished in only 4 weeks!
Guest Blog Post: Three Exceptional People… by Sapphire Sasha
Three Exceptional People Who Prove Women Can Thrive in Any Industry
It’s undeniable that there are some jobs and industries that many still consider to be unsuitable for women, and a few years ago, the STEM industry was one of them. Thanks to the unrelenting efforts of those who saw the potential women could have in these fields, we’ve certainly come a long way in the push for gender equality, and if this growing support for women in STEM industries is any indication of future trends, we should see support for women in the trades grow as well.
Of course, the fight is never easy, and on some days, tradeswomen may find themselves struggling against forces that would see them abandon their jobs and head for more “women-friendly” industries. If today is one of those days, just remember the following women who succeeded in industries others thought they couldn’t thrive in.
1. Jeri Ellsworth
Everyone knows that working in science and mechanical fields can be difficult for women, but simply learning the trades can prove to be a challenge as well. Jeri Ellsworth serves as an inspiration to any girl who’s ever found herself unable to get the support she needs to pursue her interests, having taught herself to program by reading a Commodore 64’s manuals. Her interest shifted to dirt-track race cars when she began driving them with her father, and she designed and assembled her own models and dropped out of high school to continue the business. In an interview with EE Times, she talks about how her interest in computers and engineering never waned, and how she didn’t take formal education in the field until her late 20s, when she attended Walla Walla College to study circuit design for about a year. In the following years, she would go on to develop gaming hardware and is now known for the development of castAR, a system that brings “3D holographic like projections in AR, fully immersive environments in VR”.
2. Kate Carter
Female athletes have certainly benefited from a more accommodating view in major sports, and with current fitness trends being the way they are, many women have also begun to take up running, be it for fitness, health or recreation. However, many still think that taking up hobbies such as running is impossible for women who want to take care of their families. Kate Carter is an amazing example of how women can juggle a family, a full-time job, and a running habit all at once. She is a Lifestyle editor for The Guardian, where she maintains the Running Blog, and in an interview with Tootsa, she says that it was motherhood that actually got her started on running, saying, “To be honest, I’d love to say I had some great inspirational moment – and I’ve certainly always loved watching running and athletics generally – but to be honest it was just practical! I was on maternity leave with my youngest daughter, wanted to get a bit fitter and healthier again, and running was the most efficient way to do that!” Kate runs six days a week and has even competed in the London marathon, and she’s seen as one of the foremost experts on running.
3. Col. Cynthia Tinkham
Perhaps the most male-dominated field is the military, and even as laws have relaxed and allowed women to join the army in service of their country, many still struggle to secure high-ranking positions, and sometimes even the respect of their colleagues. Col. Cynthia Tinkham, however, made history when she became the first woman to have major command in the Oklahoma Army National Guard last year, drawing a victory for women everywhere. However, she told KOCO.com that it wasn’t prestige that she was looking for when she joined the army. “I think it was always just that attraction to public service, I think I was always just geared that way,” she said. She’s been serving the army for over 25 years, and she sees herself serving for much longer. “I love my job. I love what I’m doing and I’ll stay as long as I can. Until it’s time, either I feel it’s time or it’s just time for me to move on and make way for other people,” she said.
Written by Sapphire Sasha
Exclusive for Oregon Tradeswomen, Inc.