Apprenticeships key to a strong future

By Kevin Ferreira
Executive Director, Sacramento-Sierra’s BCTC

It will come as no surprise to most of you that construction continues to boom in Sacramento. Our Building Trades members are in high demand for projects both public and private, and our workers have no lack of opportunities.

That is terrific news, and I am proud of the work we are doing here at the Sacramento-Sierra’s Building and Construction Trades Council to ensure our unions stay strong now and in the future.

A big part of that effort is ensuring that we have enough members to meet the demand. Building is going to continue to be a strong industry for years to come, even decades to come. We need to make sure we have the workforce to meet that need. We also need to make sure that our workforce of the future is diverse and inclusive, representing the communities where we live and work.

We are meeting that challenge through our apprenticeship and pre-apprenticeship programs, which are more robust than ever. In just the past few months, we have done some exciting events and launched new efforts to ensure that we grow our ranks in ways that are smart and meaningful.

Statewide, we are already seeing that commitment pay off. Of the more than 85,000 individuals currently enrolled or graduated from a union-affiliated apprenticeship program between 2008 and 2018, more than two-thirds have come from communities of color, and that proportion is growing, according to the State Building Trades.

And our state government is helping to support those efforts. In March, The California Department of Industrial Relations (DIR) and its Division of Apprenticeship Standards (DAS) announced $25 million in funds to increase opportunities in the construction industry for women, non-binary and underserved communities by covering the cost of childcare and bolstering outreach.

As Kevin Brown, our director of pre-apprenticeships, put it during our recent St. Patrick’s Day job fair, “We want to go into these underserved communities that typically and historically have been left behind in the construction industry.”

That fair brought out hundreds of potential union members to meet with many of the Building Trades. Close to 1,000 students from across the Sacramento County Unified School District visited the fair. There, they had hands-on opportunities to help build tiny homes, use a variety of tools, and even try on virtual reality headsets that gave them a glimpse of what life is like on the job.

I couldn’t be prouder or more excited to see so many young people explore the wonderful Building Trades. We in the industry know the Trades are a pathway not to jobs, but to careers that are satisfying and provide living wages. Helping the next generation to understand the value of what we do, and understand the value of unionization, is of the utmost importance and events like this are a key to achieving those goals.

We are also in the midst of organizing an apprenticeship drive for Thunder Valley Casino, which is owned by the United Auburn Indian Community. That includes many Miwuk and Maidu members, as well as other indigenous communities in the Sacramento region. We are conducting outreach to make sure our workforce opens opportunities to those indigenous communities. The Casino has been a tremendous partner to union labor, and we are pleased to take that partnership further by ensuring we create mutually beneficial relationships for the future.

I am heartened to see so many people explore the Building Trades, and I know their participation in the construction industry will keep our union strong, for all of us.