OTI Graduates
The Journey of a Female Locomotive Engineer
Huffing and puffing along, a 7,000 foot freight train curves gracefully around the Columbia River Gorge. Jessica Hassler, locomotive engineer extraordinaire with BNSF Railway, looks out the side-view mirror of the cab at the 16,000 tons she has been vigilantly guiding for hundreds of miles. She feels pride welling up inside her as she safely and smoothly handles the power of this great machine.
Jessica has been a Locomotive Engineer for 7 years now and has been with the railroad as a whole for 10 years. Before her foray into the world of locomotives, Jessica was a creative ‘jack-of-all-trades’. Armed with a Bachelor’s of Fine Arts in Illustration, she supported herself by doing freelance work. She was contracted by advertisers and restaurants to draw for them, but the work wasn’t conducive to ensuring a stable future; the market for creatives in Portland was, and continues to be, saturated. Jessica also opened up her own food truck, but after 3 years, decided that being an entrepreneur was not for her if she wanted to have job-security, health insurance, and to one day own a home.
She heard from a friend that BNSF Railway was looking for switchmen and conductors and that the work was well compensated and Union protected. In 2008, she took a chance and applied to BNSF Railway. She was hired as a switchman/conductor and worked for 6 months before getting furloughed. The furlough, while incredibly inconvenient, was a perfect segue into Oregon Tradeswomen’s Trades and Apprenticeship Career Class (TACC).
Jessica was at a loss as what to do until someone pointed her in the direction of Oregon Tradeswomen. Growing up in North Dakota, Jessica never considered the skilled trades or blue-collar work an option, as it was mostly men who filled those jobs, but going through Oregon Tradeswomen’s pre-apprenticeship training program, a whole new world opened up for her. During the summer of 2009 when Jessica was enrolled in TACC, she developed an interest in becoming a lineman with Bonneville Power Administration. One of the most valuable things she experienced during Oregon Tradeswomen’s class was the opportunity to learn math in a way that made sense to her. Jessica never saw math and numbers as things that came easily to her, but in TACC, math was broken down in a way that she could access. TACC was also a supportive environment where she felt like she could ask as many questions as she needed about anything.
Soon after graduation from TACC, BNSF ended Jessica’s furlough and she decided to go back and work as a switchman. Even though she didn’t go on to pursue the electrical trade, Jessica reflects on her time in the TACC program fondly, saying that: “Oregon Tradeswomen picked me up when I didn’t know what to do. It helped me realize that even if the railroad didn’t work out, there were other options in store for me.”
And so, it was “Take Two” for Jessica. Hired on as a switchman, she switched cars, serviced local industries, and built trains for departure to their next destinations. Working on the railroad can be a very challenging job. While not for everyone, it is a place for someone who thrives on variety. You are on the railroad’s whim as you are on-call 24/7 and Jessica says that it is up to you to make the best of worst of it. Jessica made the best of it and after three years working on the ground, she took the promotion to become a Locomotive Engineer.
Throughout her time at BNSF Railway, the men that she worked with were nothing but welcoming and genuinely thrilled to have a woman join the crew. When she just got hired on, she was fearful of harassment or hazing, but instead she felt respected by the men who were all so generous to teach and share their tips and tricks. The men on her crew understood that she was their teammate and that if she succeeds, they succeed. Jessica calls them the family of men she never expected to have. There is irony in how Jessica found support, success, and a sense of equality at the railroad, a place people don’t expect women to work. BNSF does have a very strict harassment policy, but Jessica recounts that in her case, the culture has been so positive that it never needed to be enforced. Even ten years ago things were much harder for women on the railroad, but since then, the culture has evolved for the better.
To the women who are curious about joining BNSF, Jessica Hassler says, “Just do it! Be open and be brave. Drop the attitude and the ego and go into it knowing nothing with nothing to prove. Believe you can do it and allow yourself to learn it.”
10 years with BNSF Railway has flown by for Jessica and she has all that she once dreamed of: a rewarding job that offers great benefits, belonging to thee BLET Union, owning a home, owning a car, and she has the economic stability she always dreamed about. She even met her life partner through her job with BNSF.
So what does the future look like? Jessica can see herself sticking with it for another 20 years followed by happy retirement. As long as she can sustain the lifestyle, there is no reason not to go all the way to retirement.
Life may not always end up how you thought it would, but sometimes the reality you end up with is even better than anything you could have imagined. It is important to take things in stride and keep your options open. Who knows, you might discover something life-changing like Jessica did!
Excitement Over Oregon Tradeswomen’s Annual Picnic and All Class Reunion!
On Sunday, August 12, 2018, from 11:00 am – 2:00 pm, Oregon Tradeswomen is hosting our Annual Picnic at Creston Park in Southeast Portland, complete with food, games, camaraderie, and fun!
This year, the picnic will also serve as an all-class reunion where we hope to see dozens of tradeswomen who went through our Trades and Apprenticeship Career Class show up to represent! The class with the highest percentage of alum at the picnic will win a prize. There will be more opportunities for competition and prizes as we will be holding a cornhole contest where the top two winners will win a pair of Portland Thorns tickets!
We want to take a moment to shout out Las Primas, a fantastic woman-owned business, for catering our event with delectable Peruvian cuisine (We are so excited to indulge in their home-style churros)! An additional thank you goes out to IBEW’s Credit Union for preparing a picnic themed gift basket for the event!
The Annual Picnic is going to be a spectacular opportunity to come reconnect with classmates, network with tradeswomen, indulge in a splendid meal, and win prizes!
We hope to see you on Sunday, August 12th at Creston Park from 11:00 am to 2:00 pm!
BIKETOWN: Champions for a Diverse, Representative Workforce
Oregon Tradeswomen is grateful to BIKETOWN for their partnership and commitment to a diverse, representative workforce. We’re also thankful that they loaned us a small fleet of Biketown bikes for Oregon Tradeswomen staff to use at our annual Career Fair! The bikes were incredibly helpful to our staff and added quite a pop of color to the event!
Oregon Tradeswomen served on an advisory panel prior to Biketown’s launch in 2016, and since then, Biketown has employed five Oregon Tradeswomen pre-aprenticeship class graduates: Max Beyelia, Alex Styner, Cassandra Czubachowski, Anna Beck, and Heather Hogate.
Dorothy Mitchell, Biketown’s General Manager, was “forward thinking about Biketown staff, and from the ground up, built a vision for how the staff would look, how hiring would happen, and she was very thoughtful about who she worked with to connect with and hire employees”, explained Tom Rousculp, Marketing Manager for Biketown. “Dorothy focused on working with a few organizations, including Oregon Tradeswomen. She wanted to have a representative staff for the whole organization”.
Dorothy said, “Oregon Tradeswomen grads have exceeded our hopes and expectations from day one. OT grads come to us with the right skills and attitude to hit the ground quickly doing the hard work of keeping a bike share program running. They have been among our most dependable employees, and we value the diversity they add to our operation as we work to make bike share more equitable from the inside out.”
Alex and Max were promoted into leadership positions, at Biketown, and Max and Anna have been with Biketown since its launch in July of 2016. Max commented that: “Biketown has a primarily female leadership team and goes at great length to promote an equitable and diverse workforce. I could not speak more highly of their integrity as a partner to our community.”
Thank you again, Biketown for your incredible partnership! We applaud your work and the good you do for our community!
Oregon Tradeswomen Grads Working for Living Room Realty
Recently, Living Room Realty was searching to fill a brand new in-house Maintenance Coordinator position and out of the 7 women who applied, two stood out above the rest: Ash Jimenez, an Oregon Tradeswomen graduate, and Kathleen George, were so well received that Living Room Realty created a whole other maintenance position in order to keep them both!
Ash, whom Sarah remembered from the tradeswomen fashion show at Oregon Tradeswomen’s Annual Career Fair, took the role of Maintenance Coordinator and Kathleen, an experienced general contractor of 20 years and the owner of her own painting business, is their new Maintenance Manager.
Ash Jimenez at Oregon Tradeswomen’s “Build With Us: A Blue Collar Gala”
Living Room Realty is a female owned and almost all female-staffed local company that is committed to giving back to the community. Their owner, Jenelle Isaacson, and her Executive Assistant Sarah McBee met when they served together on the Board of Directors for the Rock and Roll Camp for Girls and are involved in a variety of philanthropic endeavors around Portland.
Living Room Realty’s commitment to giving back to the community shines through in their work: they have a designated charitable giving fund called The Loving Room Fund that benefits three nonprofits for the year. The fund is currently committed to helping:
- P:ear, a nonprofit that creatively mentors homeless youth.
- Urban Gleaners, an organization that is dedicated to reducing waste by rescuing edible surplus food that would otherwise be thrown away and donating it to hungry children and their families.
- Oregon Wild, a nonprofit that works to protect and restore Oregon’s wildlife, wild-lands, and waters.
We want to extend very well deserved congratulations to Ash and Kathleen as they embark on this new journey! BIG thanks to Living Room Realty for their support of Oregon Tradeswomen and the communities that make Oregon a wonderful place to live.
Oregon Tradeswomen Honored With PCC Community Partner Award
Last night, Oregon Tradeswomen was honored with Portland Community College’s (PCC) first ever community partner award for a partnership with a non-profit organization.
PCC recognized three categories of partnership: non-profit, small business, and large business. At the dinner, PCC President Mark Mitsui introduced us, spoke about our partnership, and how we were one of their strongest employers who guide curriculum and give the support that allows PCC to educate and train a skilled workforce. President Mitsui then introduced the small business partner, Rebecca (Gillenwater) Smith of Blessing Landscape. As soon as they introduced her she professed, “I’m also a grad of Oregon Tradeswomen!” and the whole room cheered with excitement!
Rebecca (Gillenwater) Smith went through our pre-apprenticeship training program in 2009 and also graduated from PCC’s landscaping program. She worked in the field for a number of years and is now the landscape designer for PCC and has helped them win awards for their sustainability practices!
It was a thrilling convergence. Rebecca wanted to re-engage with Oregon Tradeswomen: she is actively looking to recruit Oregon Tradeswomen pre-apprenticeship graduates for her company and has been wanting to come and speak to students in our classes.
We are so humbled by this recognition and are also thrilled to see how our grads are positively impacting the community! Thank you PCC and keep up the good work, Rebecca!
Women Build Nations 2017
This past October, a few of Oregon Tradeswomen’s finest flew to The Windy City of Chicago to attend Women Build Nations, a conference for tradeswomen to address industry issues and to learn from each other. More than 1,500 women from all over the US and the world to talk about their trade, to network and connect with other tradeswomen.
Women of all ages, skill levels, and trades had the opportunity to check out a wide variety of workshops such as:
- Anti-Oppression 101: Building Solidarity by Breaking Down Bigotry
- Tradeswomen’s History: Learning From the Past to Change the Future
- Rising to a Leadership Role in the Union: Examples and Advice
- Overcoming Imposter Syndrome: Letting Go of Feeling Like a ‘Fraud’
Oregon Tradeswomen pre-apprenticeship graduate and Journeyman Laborer, Vanessa Enos, and Isis Harris, IBEW, both received “Emerging Tradeswomen Leaders” scholarships to attend the conference and also had the honor of speaking on a tradeswomen panel, “Perspectives from the Field.” Lori Baumann, Journeyman Laborer, Liuna Field Representative, and Oregon Tradeswomen Board Member came to represent Laborers Local 737.
Other friends of Oregon Tradeswomen, Donna Hammond and Bridget Quinn from IBEW Local 48, spoke on a panel focused on recruitment and outreach of women and people of color.
This conference spoke to the needs of women in the trades and truly fostered a space where tradeswomen could be themselves and feel a camaraderie with other women who are having many of the same experiences in their careers. When only 3% of all trades positions nationwide are filled by women, the existence of an event, for tradeswomen, by tradeswomen is of utmost importance.
Thank you Chicago Women in Trades for organizing Women Build Nations 2017, and we can’t wait to see you all next year in Seattle!
OTI Alumnae Spotlight: Aisley Deymonaz
Congratulations to Oregon Tradeswomen graduate, Aisley Deymonaz for winning an award at the Lineman Rodeo for the second time this year!
In Salt Lake City Aisley got 2nd place in the “mystery” rope splicing event. In Denver Aisley got 1st place in the “hurt man rescue” as well as 3rd place in another “mystery” rope event!” Way to go, Aisley!
Announcing the Maven Scholarship Fund
Moxie and Moss Workwear (20% off)!
Moxie and Moss Workwear is a line of apparel that is made for working women by working women. They have been field testing their signature work pant – the ‘Maven’ – with tradeswomen around the U.S. for the past year, and development is based on feedback from working women, including OTI carpenters, Mercy and Britt, pictured above. You can see more photos of them – and other tradeswomen testing out the pants – on the Moxie and Moss blog. Moxie and Moss are dedicated partners of OTI, and are proud to contribute 5% of their sales to the OTI Maven Scholarship Fund.
Moxie and Moss plans to have a whole line of workwear for women. They are launching their business with a pre-order sale, their own version of a Kickstarter, with delivery of the pants in September. By pre-ordering now, you are helping start a company that delivers on both form and function for women. The success of this pre-sale will enable them to grow their brand and product offering. Use discount code OTI20 for 20% off through the end of July at: www.moxieandmoss.com
Alumnae Spotlight: Lisa Davis
Lisa Davis has lived an incredibly full life for her short 34 years on this earth! She was born in New Mexico and completed most of her school years in California and Texas before moving back to California to attend UC Davis, where she would eventually earn her Bachelors of Science in Microbiology.
During college, Lisa’s goal was to become a surgeon and she did very well as a pre-med student, even receiving a coveted surgical internship at Baylor University in Texas. She moved to Portland, OR with the intention of attending medical school at OHSU, but reevaluated her goals upon her arrival and decided that she wanted to take her life in a different direction.
During her undergraduate studies, Lisa worked as a mechanic at a bowling alley, which helped her realize the similarities between humans and machines (when it comes to diagnosing and fixing the problem) and the satisfaction she got from working with machines. Once she moved to Portland, she worked for 2 years as a perfusion assistant, helping monitor the medical equipment that keeps patients hearts and lungs working during surgeries. This was an incredibly grueling, on-call position that often had Lisa working 20+ hours at a time and ultimately led her to leave due to burn out. After leaving this position she decided to move to Hawaii for a year where she held a myriad of positions – including trades related work.
She moved back to Portland in 2008, during the height of the Great Recession. Due to many lay-offs and the general nature of the labor market at that time, she struggled to find steady work. At one point in this time period, she held 3 part time jobs and was still unable to afford housing, which caused her to have no other option but to live in her truck with her partner until she could find more steady work.
Lisa eventually secured a position that allowed her to revisit her work as a Bowling Alley Mechanic. Unfortunately, as the only woman on the team of mechanics, she experienced a lot of misogyny and chose to leave this position due to the hardships she experienced. At this point, Lisa was downtrodden; feeling as though there was no place for women who were drawn to trades work. She sat down at her computer and typed “what can women do in the trades?” into her Google search bar and Oregon Tradeswomen, Inc.’s website popped up! From this moment the rest is history. Lisa quickly enrolled in OTI’s Trades and Apprenticeship Career Class (TACC) in 2008 at the age of 26.
During her time in TACC, Lisa fell in love with metal. OTI was able to help her take this love and narrow it down down into a viable career in the sheet metal trade. Lisa loves the industry for the breadth and depth it offers and for the fact that she would be entering a career that allowed her to do something different every day. After TACC, her OTI career counselor helped her secure funding in order to attend Clackamas Community College so she could increase her skills in welding and machining which would allow her to be more competitive in her chosen field.
Lisa applied for a Sheet Metal Apprenticeship but had to wait almost 2 years to be accepted due to the scarcity of jobs during the Great Recession. Three months after her acceptance into the apprenticeship, she found a place with General Sheet Metal and primarily worked on architectural sheet metal, HVAC duct installation, and shop fabrication for her first couple years. Around this time General Sheet Metal decided to start their own service department and tapped Lisa’s shoulder to audition for their new Service Apprenticeship.
Lisa ended up doing both apprenticeships at the same time – completing the requirements for her Building Trades apprenticeship by day and dedicated her nights and weekends to specialized service classes. After she journeyed out, Lisa continued to work for General Sheet Metal and quickly moved into a foreman role. Within only a year of working at the Journeyman level, Lisa was recruited by the Sheet Metal Institute to develop and implement a Service Apprenticeship, like the one she had gone above and beyond for in her own apprenticeship.
Lisa comes from a long line of educators and felt drawn to teaching herself. Nowadays, she is providing guidance and mentorship to more than 200 new apprentices a year. Due in part to her enthusiasm for the role of women in the sheet metal industry, 7% of her students are women. This figure is higher than many other trades, though still has room for improvement. She is also teaching and doing some consulting work for the International Training Institute (ITI) and is participating in an exciting task force to write a book regarding the important work of the sheet metal industry. Not only does Lisa love her job but it PAYS! She makes about $43.75/hour which is just about 4 times greater than her highest pre-trades wage of $12.50/hour.
When asked what advice she has for other women looking to enter the trades Lisa confidently replied; “Our society has us convinced that we can’t do it. Not only are they wrong but we are wrong for believing it! Do it! Try it! Never limit yourself and never stop learning!”
Lisa is thrilled to have found herself in a dynamic career that allows her to use her hands and teach others a valuable skill. As for future plans? Lisa plans to continue learning as much as she can in this world and will see where that takes her. She plans to take a breath in 5 years or so to strategize about her next move. We are so glad to have Lisa in our community! Check her out in our Apprenticeship 101 video!
OTI Alumnae Spotlight: Meet Lori Bauman!
Lori at the 2016 Women in Trades Career Fair
Forty five year old Lori Bauman is a brilliant tradeswomen, vegetarian, animal lover, gardener, and above all, a skilled story teller. She was born in the deserts of California and moved around a lot as a child, settling in Atlanta, GA for the bulk of her early adulthood. She remembers her time in Georgia fondly but also shared that living in the South as a Queer woman proved difficult at times. She also noted that Georgia was the last place she lived before making the decision to change her lifestyle and get sober.
Lori held a myriad of service industry jobs in her life and worked at a Starbucks as a barista for many years. In her quest for recovery, she transferred to Portland 8 years ago, where she got sober. While working at Starbucks, making $200 a week, Lori saw an ad for Oregon Tradeswomen and didn’t waste any time signing up. This day changed Lori’s life and began her lifelong love affair with supporting her fellow tradeswomen and diversifying the industry.
After graduating from OTI’s Trades and Apprenticeship Career Class (TACC) at the age of 35, Lori planned to pursue a career with the Laborers Union and entered the Laborers Boot camp. Lori entered the boot camp with 22 of her peers and made it to graduation as one of only 6 women who finished. She was confident that her ability to complete the boot camp was a positive indicator that she could make it in the industry but she was unable to find work due to the slow times of the great recession. As an alternative, Lori chose to enter an open shop sheet metal apprenticeship. During this time, Lori unfortunately endured unsafe working conditions and constant harassment and bullying from her male coworkers. On top of this, she felt pitted against her female peers on the job site as well, due to what she calls a survival tactic on the work site where women separate from each other in order to try and integrate into the male-dominant culture of the industry. Consequently, she felt very alone and was losing her drive to continue on in a field that was so hostile to women. She ended up getting laid off after about 6 months on the job and didn’t have any plans to return.
During this time Lori called Aida Aranda at the Laborers Union to ask if they had any work for her and was brought on as a Union Laborer Apprentice with a $6/hour pay raise. Her first job was on the Bonneville Dam, working almost entirely underground pouring concrete. Though her days often started at 4:00-5:00 in the morning and she was exhausted by the end of the work day, she noticed many differences from her previous job. Most importantly she felt much safer on the job site and was inducted into a different culture in which she was part of a family; though she still had to work very hard to prove herself on the job site to earn the respect she was given. After this job was completed, Lori went on to work on many bridges in Oregon spanning from The Dalles to the Portland Metro Area. She journeyed out while working on the Oregon City Bridge in 2012. During her best year as a laborer, she brought home nearly $71,000 dollars.
Lori on the job at the Oregon City Bridge, where she worked for about 22 months and journeyed out! Photo credit: Dawn Jones Redstone
Throughout her career as a Tradeswoman Lori has remained a great friend and supporter of OTI and has worked hard to connect with and support other local tradeswomen. Her deeply held belief that one must “lift as they climb” has been integral in her life in order to support other tradeswomen. In her words it is imperative that “women must always believe their fellow tradeswomen, have their backs, and be there for one another”.
About three years ago, Aida Aranda contacted Lori and asked her to apply for her position, which she was leaving, as an Apprenticeship Coordinator for the Laborers Training Center. Lori reported that she knocked the interview out of the park. Although she didn’t get this position, this interview and her positive ties with many people in the community, she was invited to several more interviews before landing her current position as a Field Representative for Liuna Local No. 737.In her role, she spends her days driving to various job sites to ensure that union contracts are being upheld, provides conflict mediation when necessary, and acts as an advocate for the workers on site. Lori works in a very inclusive office where she feels her voice is heard and respected and she loves the freedom her job affords. She also believes that she is in a position where she can help create tangible change in the culture of the union that she was unable to do working on the front lines as a laborer. Not only does Lori love her new job, but it also pays leaps and bounds higher than her highest pre-trades industry wage of $9/hour. She feels incredibly happy to have a sense of financial security higher than she ever imagined she would have without a college degree.
When asked what advice she has for future tradeswomen, Lori replied “Be sure that it’s what you want and then go hard and fast at it”. As for her future career plans, Lori wants to be the best at what she does as a Union Field Representative. She also wants to lead social change within and between unions and someday she would love to step into a leadership role within the union. She states that positive culture shifts are already happening within the leadership of the union and she hopes to help trickle these changes down to all members, so that everyone in the industry feels they are respected and safe on the job site no matter their race, gender, sexual orientation or nationality.
For Lori, her recovery from drug and alcohol abuse and being a tradeswoman are her two most passionately held identities. They give her a sense of a higher purpose and she spends as much time as she can giving back to fellow tradeswomen and people seeking their own recovery.
We are so excited to announce that Lori has recently accepted a seat on OTI’s Board of Directors! She states that she feels very lucky and honored to be invited to hold a seat on the board and intends to keep the seat warm for as long as she is able. We at OTI have no doubt that Lori will be a force to be reckoned with in the industry and we are incredibly proud that she started her journey with us!