Women Run Work!

As a kid I loved teeter totters –– the playful shift of ups and downs. There’s a rhythm, laughter. Even the meanest tricks on them were pretty harmless. As a grown-up, I can appreciate the hands-on learning. The math and physics kids figure out instinctively: the heavier person moves in so the two are balanced.

Talking about the history and experiences of tradeswomen has the same challenge: finding the balance of delight and routine and terror that feels fair and accurate. My eyes tend to roll backwards when the conversation is limited to successful pilot projects, but not whether they were replicated. Or how many women graduated pre-apprenticeship training, but not whether they were placed in apprenticeships — and fairly trained and graduated to journeylevel careers. Obviously with women only 2.3% of the construction workforce there’s a lot that requires concerned attention and activism.

But the goal is, of course, the satisfaction of skilled work and successful careers being available without discrimination. It’s important to celebrate the experiences that help us see that possibility. So, with the On Equal Terms installation going to New York City this fall (September 22 – October 20, 2013 at the Clemente on Manhattan’s Lower East Side!), I’m adding a new element–– Women Run Work –– to the always-shifting exhibit.

I figure that a lot must have gone right when we see a woman lead the work on a jobsite. She’s being trusted to manage a crew and manage business. Someone believes that she will get the job done right and on budget — enough to take a risk on that. I figure there were people earlier in her career who saw to it that she was well-trained, and mentored her. And maybe a good union rep or lawyer who advocated to make sure she wasn’t unfairly passed over . . . maybe a supervisor or owner who recognized talent . . .  or??? Probably different for each woman. But when a woman runs work, it likely represents a lot that’s worth celebrating.

The first responses have been heartening. I found out that high voltage electrician Wanda Davis supervises “two of the hydroelectric generation projects that produce power for Seattle” — how cool is that!!! And I’ve been interested to learn who women credit for their chance.

If you’ve run work, or know a tradeswoman who has, please fill out this form and send it in. I’ll include it in On Equal Terms. I’ll also be adding a Women Run Work page to the blog (as balance to We Remember).

I’d be glad to hear any comments on this. I know some women have told me, No one ever asked me to be foreman. Or, explained why they turned down the offer, when they were asked. And, like Diane Maurer explains in We’ll Call You If We Need You, a woman successfully running a job doesn’t always carry the same benefits as for a man. I’m curious about all that, too. But let’s also celebrate that Women Run Work!

Walking the Walk: IBEW District 6 & Portland, OR

District 6 IBEW
photos © Tracy K.Tolbert, 2012. Tracy is President of IBEW Local 352 in Lansing, MI. Thanks, Tracy!

I’ve been feeling encouraged . . .

IBEW DISTRICT 6
Wow! Until I arrived in Green Bay, WI for the IBEW District 6 Progress Meeting, I was unaware that District 6 (Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Minnesota & Wisconsin) was first to hold annual women’s conferences, started under then-District 6 VP Jim Conway. I was deeply honored to have the opportunity to address their 29th (yes!!!) consecutive Women’s Conference, and impressed by the seriousness of the conversation. The hotel had a golf course and casino, but business managers, reps and District and IO officials were all at the Women’s Conference, convened by the awesome District 6 VP Lonnie Stephenson. I loved listening to 5 women tell their Herstories, like Carmon Ellis, who spoke about being a diesel mechanic and President-Business Manager of Local 1865, the first woman to follow her family’s tradition of railroad work, while we watched images of her great-grandfather at work.

So much impressed me! The large number of women in leadership positions and women’s visibility at the Progress Meeting were clear results of respectful relationships built over decades. Each participant received a copy of We’ll Call You If We Need You. I was moved by the many thoughtful comments and conversations that generated.

Some questions that came up:
Given the discrepancy between the percentage of women in the military vs. construction jobs, how can Helmet to Hardhats better represent women veterans and bring them into union construction careers (one BA asked why he’s always sent men)?
In circumstances where discrimination/sexual harassment cases are more challenging for a local to handle, and systems or good intentions break down, what expertise and leadership can the District bring to the situation, so that fairness and the union’s reputation aren’t compromised?
Looking forward to what District 6 will achieve at their 30!

PORTLAND, OREGON
Thanks to the leadership of Oregon Tradeswomen’s Network and their partners, Portland passed groundbreaking legislation. Check out the details of the Portland Community Benefits Agreement. It establishes guidelines for city construction that link a commitment to building union with a commitment to women and minority hiring goals and encourages contractors to diversify their core workforce. I’m particularly impressed that the 9% goals for women apply BOTH to apprentices AND journeylevel: an important precedent that I hope OFCCP will adopt. I’ll be raising the Portland model when I speak next week in the Twin Cities. I’m curious and hopeful to see both what success Portland really can achieve, and what ripple effect this can create in other parts of the country.

So much is at stake in next Tuesday’s election. I hope everyone votes at least once!

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ALARM!! ALERT!!! . . . or, (yawn, shrug) Oh, well . . .

No one expects people trapped in a crashed car to extricate themselves. Others rush to help. Or call for trained rescuers. The 2.3% of women in construction trades could use a hand, too!

There’s bold honesty in the 2010 IBEW Women’s Conference Caucus Report that applies across the building trades and similar occupations:
“Women experience real discrimination every day, including enduring hostile work environments, unequal work assignments, and/or lack of career advancement so it should come as no surprise that discrimination is one of the primary reasons why women abandon their career and the IBEW.”

Aren’t construction workers as smart and resourceful as architects and engineers? And as capable of change?

Discrimination directly threatens an individual’s finances and safety and sometimes their life. But the ripple of harm from each incident extends much farther. Affecting their family, friends, community, co-workers, union.

When an equipment failure or human error puts lives at stake –– an aircraft, a power plant, an oil spill –– common sense says DON’T IGNORE IT. Figure out what went wrong. And then fix or replace –– not just that one, but any like it. Prevention is always the best strategy.

So why do the same stories of discrimination and violence repeat in the construction industry over 34 years? Why no national alarm or prevention system?

On Labor Day, let’s remind ourselves: human rights and labor movement success are inseparable.

On Equal Terms / MSU Museum Feb. 5 – May 13

    Stella set off by truck mid-January for Michigan, with her diamond hardhat and bathroom shack, and sporting a new flannel shirt in MSU green under her Carhartt coveralls. I arrived two weeks later, greeted at the airport by John Beck, director of Our Daily Work / Our Daily Lives, co-sponsor of the exhibition at the Michigan State University Museum Main Gallery. A terrific student crew worked on the week-long installation.

The larger space allowed me to expand and add several new elements that heighten focus on institutional issues, including We Remember: tiles, memorabilia and history of tradeswomen whose deaths were work-related. Thanks to the many labor leaders and tradeswomen — Wisconsin, California, Washington, Ohio, Massachusetts, New York, British Columbia — who suggested names and helped with research and the emotional processing of some of the more difficult stories. I’ve added a We Remember page to this blog.

The highlights of course were the events, and the chance to meet and learn from Michigan tradeswomen and other activists from the building trade unions and the UAW. A poetry reading in Lansing was hosted by Ann Francis as a tribute to local tradeswomen (posted on youtube by peaced: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OkDOV3DgOdM). At the opening reception, tradeswomen from Boston, Detroit, Lansing and Cleveland gathered in the coffee break area.

On Equal Terms exhibits in East Lansing, MI, until May 13. Both Museum Director Gary Morgan and John Beck are glad for the gallery to be used as backdrop for discussions and events, or to host tours. Contact: beckj@msu.edu.

Remembering Robin Johnson

At last May’s Seattle Women in Trades Fair, Vanessa Downing’s mom sat at a table filled with tributes to her daughter, who was killed June 24, 2010. Just a few months short of completing her apprenticeship with Operating Engineers Local 302, Vanessa was hit by a barge crane while welding on the Seattle waterfront.

As everyone was packing up, I was given Vanessa’s welding suit to add to the On Equal Terms installation. I had no idea what I could do. But I took the responsibility seriously, knowing how admired and beloved Vanessa was across many communities –– from Peace for the Streets by Kids from the Streets, to the Washington State Apprenticeship and Training Council. Even while going through her apprenticeship and moving from being homeless to homeowner, Vanessa remained close to the street community she’d been part of in Seattle’s University District, bringing others into apprenticeships.

When the Michigan State University Museum decided to exhibit On Equal Terms in their Main Gallery –– a large space –– it was an opportunity to expand some of the elements and add two new ones. Prompted by Vanessa’s welding suit, I am creating a tribute to tradeswomen whose deaths were work-related. Those like Vanessa and Kat Engnell of Seattle, who died in workplace accidents; like Carlyal Gittens, a leader in Vancouver’s tradeswomen community who committed suicide; and like Local 7 Ironworker Kathy Leonard of Boston who was murdered.

Please let me know of tradeswomen who should be added, even if you have only a fragment of a story. And please spread the word.

I’ve started going back to people who mentioned a death, to learn names, dates and details. One fragment was of a woman ironworker from Kenosha. I’d been told about her death on a trip to Milwaukee in January, 1999 (January –- I remember crying, my face hurt so much from the cold!). I contacted Marge Wood in Madison with the pieces of information that I’d put into a poem, “Remembering the Fire at Triangle Shirtwaist.” Marge asked the apprenticeship and labor communities in Wisconsin; and ironworker Gayann Wilkinson from Boston joined in. Soon there were eight of us searching.

First responses questioned whether such an incident had ever happened; and then Nancy Hoffman Emons came forward with her name, Robin Johnson; and then newspaper accounts were found. We learned that Robin Johnson, 37, was a pre-apprentice ironworker, with less than a month’s experience, when she was killed in the Kenosha County town of Prairie Creek, Wisconsin, September 24, 1996. She fell from the roof while installing roof decking on a windy day, leaving her husband and two children. As Ken Moore of the Wisconsin Bureau of Apprenticeship Standards explained, she was hard to find at first, because she hadn’t been in the trade long enough to have signed Ironworker apprentice papers on file. Back then, the Ironworkers “tried out” a pre-apprentice for a month and then decided whether to formalize the individual’s apprenticeship and grant one month’s credit — a practice no longer allowed.

The Michigan State University Museum is a Smithsonian Institution affiliate, so it feels particularly important that the exhibition there honors tradeswomen whose deaths were work-related, and recognizes the impact their deaths had on the tradeswomen community. The pattern of deaths reveals how much efforts to open the construction industry shares in common with other civil rights efforts.

Some of what I’ve stumbled into is harsher and more complicated and more painful than I’d anticipated. I feel almost as though — in a very familiar building — I've stumbled into a whole new room I didn't know existed.

Please add in your memories of tradeswomen we’ve lost. And, if you can, please join me at the On Equal Terms opening reception in East Lansing, MI, February 5, 2012.

But . . . WHO’S COUNTING?

There was a recent kerfluffle of emails about women working at the World Trade Center site –– the most high-profile construction project in the country. According to a September 2011 CNN Money video, “The hammer girls rebuilding Ground Zero”, only 30 women worked there “surrounded by 3300 men.” WHOA!?! Doing the math, women held fewer than 1% of the construction jobs at the World Trade Center.

How can this be?!? As early as 2002, meetings were being held about the reconstruction of Ground Zero, and how to ensure that women would be fairly represented. Mayor Bloomberg’s Construction Opportunity Commission issued initiatives that included ten percent women in apprenticeship classes. What other site could possibly send a stronger message about the heart and hopes of the nation?

While it’s wonderful to watch a video that profiles and celebrates carpenter Josefina Calcano, electrician Patrice Morgan, and sheet metal worker Leah Rivera, the piece made 1% seem normal –– rather than outrageous. Nontraditional Employment for Women, one of the NYC organizations that’s worked hard to open access, has questioned whether CNN’s numbers are accurate, or maybe apply to only one of the towers –– but so far no one’s pointed to any other stats. Or, where to find them. I’ll gladly include corrections in a future blog –– but right now, it’s 1%.

Bad news is better than no news.

Whatever the stats are –- for jobs across the country –– let’s get them out in the open where they can be discussed. We can only work forward with transparency of information. I’ve added a link to an article that my mother clipped and sent me from the Cleveland Plain Dealer back in 1994, that I recently found. Back then, Hard Hatted Women was able to get the monthly stats on the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame published in the city’s major newspaper. The assumptions of September’s CNN video represent quite a backslide from the PD article published more than fifteen years earlier.

With new federal regs due out in November, public perception of what’s normal is important. We need to counter the notion that things are okay or, as good as can be expected. Now is the time to be open about barriers.

August 2011 marked a third of a century (!) since the April 1978 regs that opened construction jobs to women. In just a few years we’ll celebrate the half-century anniversary of the 1964 Civil Rights Act that outlawed discrimination in the workplace.

Hold the sparklers! ­–– let’s celebrate with straight talk and accurate, public accounting. Acknowledging the problems would be a welcome sign of a commitment to creating real solutions.

If someone’s willing to COUNT AND TELL . . . 4 things I’m curious to know:

1. What percentage of women who graduate apprenticeships are working steadily 3 years after reaching journeylevel (are women making it into the core workforce: real careers)?

2. Do women lineworkers have longer apprenticeships than men? I’ve been surprised that so many linewomen I’ve talked to –– who seem awfully smart to me! –– have been held back for reasons that sound pretty vague.

3. Do showcase jobs work as models? Does the percentage of women working in the area actually rise –– or are all the women just put there? AND if so, is that percentage maintained 18 months later? Do model projects trigger change or hide a flatline?

4. By checking hours counted toward pension benefits, how do the careers of women compare with men from their apprenticeship class?

What are you curious about?

ALERT!!! New affirmative action regs are due from the Department of Labor in November (I’ll publish them on this site). Only a 30-day response time is expected. LET’S BE PREPARED! The On Equal Terms Project participates in the National Tradeswomen’s Task Force. Please join the conversation — use or adapt this draft letter to gather tradeswomen and allies in your area to discuss what you think is important to make regulations EFFECTIVE. Response letters to the DOL will COUNT and WILL BE COUNTED.

JOB or CAREER??? . . . the NEW OFCCP REGS

I still remember a few questions from my April 1978 interview to become an apprentice electrician in Boston.

“What does it mean that you’re from Cleveland?” Seven stern-faced men waited for a response. My mind raced, but I didn’t have a clue what I should say about growing up in Cleveland! Billy Swanson, my future apprenticeship director whose bluntness was already familiar to me, stepped in.

When I’d called five months earlier to find out about apprenticeship, he’d told me, “The unions don’t want you. The contractors don’t want you. We’ll call you if we need you.” When President Carter issued the affirmative action Executive Orders, I got a call from Billy to come in for an interview that same month.

He translated the committee’s question: “Are you an Indians fan or a Red Sox fan?” The answer was obvious –– forgive me Jimmy Piersall and Rocky Colavito!!!

Another question, “Do you understand this is a career, not a job?” –– also easy. Why else would someone go through a four-year apprenticeship, 40-hours/week of hard work and two nights a week of classes?! I was there for a career.

Though I think it was sincere at the time, from 30 years forward looking back, that question has a sting. The way our history has played out, it’s really women who should ask the industry, What’s being offered, a job or a career?

Most women don’t know that apprenticeships are not always regulated to offer everyone the full range of on-the-job experience to reach journeylevel well-qualified. That often there are two tracks: one for the contractor’s core workforce and one for short-term cheap labor. Merit seems less a factor than connections, and whether or not a person is thought to “fit in” (be a lot like everyone who’s already there) or have other vague qualities that are easy smokescreens for discrimination. Ironworker Gayann Wilkinson advises apprentices to go in with a Plan A and a Plan A.

A problem of having affirmative action monitoring (what little there is) focus on mega-projects, is that big jobs have more rote work. Female apprentices are often relegated –– not to ‘easy’ or ‘clean’ jobs –– but often to the heaviest, dirtiest or dullest tasks common to huge jobsites. As I recently heard a woman pipefitter disclose about her classmates who had spent their apprenticeships coring holes, “They’re not really employable as journeywomen.”

Early on I thought it was about having the right attitude. Important, of course! But I’ve come to think it’s largely about luck. The luck of having an ally who has some power and is willing to act on your behalf. And not having someone with power who unfairly blocks you: prevents you from learning a crucial skill, moving to the next pay grade, or receiving your journeycard. There needs to be a better system, with oversights and recourse. Leaders –– union officials and contractors –– need to be those strong allies that speak out for fairness.

Too many women who fight to get good training and make it through apprenticeships find discrimination in hiring and layoffs once they reach full rate. They don’t get a chance to work at their trade and to make the living they trained for. They drop out after a year or two because of unemployment at journeylevel.

OFCCP is developing new federal affirmative action regs, expected out this summer. They’ve been asked to include a separate goal for the employment of journeywomen. This will be critical.

The industry needs to keep the women they’ve trained to serve as role models, mentors, and advisors. And to deliver on a promise. When tradeswomen can retire with the same pensions as the men from their apprenticeship class, we’ll have proof of good faith effort.

Current affirmative action policies make it easy to employ female apprentices instead of journeywomen. That needs to change. Policies that fail to protect the careers of women who are already trained, are policies for short-term jobs masquerading as careers.

WE are ALL ADVOCATES!

Kudos to California’s amazing Debra Chaplan for organizing the First Women Build the Nation Conference! She gets the details down, listens while juggling, honestly cares about feedback, and makes it fun! Great finale! — tradeswomen with tools and voices joining the Community Women’s Orchestra! Always a delight to see Vicky Hamlin’s wonderful artwork that combines painting and photography and thanks, Vicky, for making frames to hang On Equal Terms banners. This is a coordinated community! Loved seeing Move the Decimal Point buttons worn everywhere, and 20 batons passed from pioneers to those who will continue to move tradeswomen forward on equal terms.

The one note that seemed off to me was the caucus session. While tradeswomen met by trade there was also a gathering for “advocates”. What our national policy priorities should be was under discussion. This seemed odd. Maybe the term “advocate” is part of the problem.

First, tradeswomen ARE advocates. Speaking up in their unions, on their worksites, to their political officials. Often at significant risk. There is no movement without that. The more politically knowledgeable tradeswomen are, the more strategically they can act.

Second, the term “advocates” clouds issues of power and interest. It’s clearer when people identify that they’re talking as executive director of a training program, as a union official, or as an unemployed journeylevel electrician. This is a labor issue. Our work shapes our point-of-view.

Third, our different perspectives give us different wisdom. We need all of our good brains! For example, setting affirmative hiring goals on mega-projects as one of 3 national priorities makes sense in many ways. But working tradeswomen know the hazards. Apprentices who only work on mega-projects can spend years doing rote work, and not get the chance to graduate as well-rounded and employable journeywomen.

I know there was a lot to squeeze into a short time, but next conference, let’s have tradeswomen at their own policy table. Maybe there could be a panel, arguing different points-of-view, then break-out sessions, and back to a plenary. I’m sure Debra will figure this out! Women who work in construction enjoy being raucous, but also know how to be disciplined and get a job done. Let’s forge a national consensus from the full community at the next conference. Let’s recognize that WE’RE ALL ADVOCATES.

SIDE TRIP. I also went to Portland and Seattle, where folks at Seattle City Light explained, it’s not all that rain — it’s having a regulated system and supports that helps more women succeed there. And things like a bathroom on the utility truck!!! Had to snap a photo! And of SCL lineworker Peggy Owens teaching hoisting skills at the 32nd (yes!!) annual Washington Women in Trades Career Fair at Seattle Center.

Set Your Directional Compass to “GETS IT”!

c. 2010 Dubuque Area Labor-Management Council. For copies of this terrific activities book contact Megan Starr: meganstarr@dalmc.net

We’re in a moment of opportunity. . . . We have a Department of Labor that wants to hear what tradeswomen think. We have benefit of both the “pioneers” (we’re still around!) and a new generation of outspoken leaders so we don’t need to repeat the past. There’s active public discussion about the economy and jobs that have a future. This weekend the AFL BCTD is –– for the first time! –– supporting a national tradeswomen’s conference. Let’s take this at face value, as serious interest from organized labor to address “the full and fair inclusion of women” into occupations where their numbers remain shockingly low. Lets get ourselves in sync and give MOVING FORWARD DRAMATICALLY our best shot!

So, how do we know forward from sideways or backwards or spin-in-circles? I’ve tried to think about what tradeswomen mean when we say, “Ignore them, they just don’t get it.” And, draw from that, our instincts for what’s worthwhile: what we need gatekeepers and our allies to “get”. I wrote down the points I consider when I’m listening to someone, and tested them out over dinner last Friday with some Boston tradeswomen. I’m counting on more feedback from the “Move the Decimal Point” workshop in Oakland. I hope you’ll weigh in, too!

6 “GETS IT” Points:

Women are Capable and Qualified: Remove the Obstacles!
If we just argue that jobs should be opened because women need the money, we give up our strongest claim, that women can do this work well when they’re given a fair chance. If we only talk about positive experiences, we’re not only in denial, but we’re contradicting the first point! We’re still at 2.5% of the workforce because of obstacles that need to be acknowledged and addressed! These ideas are inseparable. Normalizing women’s presence in the industry is 30 years overdue. We need our labor and government leaders to be outpoken and active.

Truth in Advertising!
This one hit lots of strong cords at dinner. Here’s a few. Be honest about the past record. Let women know how likely they are to be well-trained, graduate apprenticeship on time, be employed at journeylevel, be eligible for health benefits, advance, and retire with that good pension. Let them know how to improve their odds, and who they can count on as allies. And who not. Don’t call something a “pilot project” that there’s no money or intention to replicate. We need pathways that have oversight with consequences, that reach their destination, that don’t leave tradeswomen depending on luck.

Eyes on the Prize!
There are lots of good and useful things we can do. But let’s keep our agenda on “moving the decimal point”. Imagine how different other problems would be if women’s percentage of the workforce matched our interest and abilities!

Tradeswomen-Led and Grassroots-Accountable Joint Venture!
Tradeswomen need allies of all sorts — that’s obvious. But change needs to be led by and serve those who are affected. This is a labor issue.

Human Rights/Civil Rights/Solidarity!
This one hit a strong nerve at dinner, too (Boston has been ground zero of the new UBC women’s model and its “policy” plan — and we’d all been stung). Tradeswomen’s issues are strongest when placed within the larger context of human rights and civil rights. When tradeswomen’s issues are understood not only as women’s issues but high priority labor issues. When we move forward cross-trades, rather than one trade trying to beat out the others. When we reflect our full diversity. When we all stand alongside woman who are speaking up.

Stay Healthy/Have Fun!
Our first responsibility is to our own health and safety.

100th Anniversary, Triangle Factory Fire: March 25, 1911

Remembering the Fire at Triangle Shirtwaist

Roberto in Milwaukee sizes me up, then sidles over
sideways, like a crab, asks if I’ve
heard about the woman ironworker from Kenosha.
It’s no riddle. I read his eyes, pray he’ll go mute.
There are two versions to the story,
he says, placing the bait. I bite, he tells.
She was an apprentice, had two kids, fell from the steel
and died. They say it shows women can’t
handle the business, but
guys fall, too. He waits.

I ask for the other version, the one I see
itching at the soft flesh beneath his shell:
She asked for a safety harness,
foreman said she didn’t need one.

And Seattle, the buzz about the new linewomen? Eager
to impress means easy
to fatigue. Send her up and down, up and down, up
down up the pole. Soon her arms
will just

let

go. Or,

unbuckle her belt, let her test her wings.

When Labor, at century’s start,
bronzed those bales of flaming shirtwaist girls
cascading
out the ninth floor windows of Asch ––
was that not a covenant
that the sky would stop

dropping

women?

 

© Susan Eisenberg, 2006

 

On March 25, 1911, 146 garment workers, mostly women and girls, died in a fire at the non-union Triangle Shirtwaist Company located in the Asch Building on Manhattan’s Lower East Side. Because one stairway was in flames, the other exit door locked, and the fire escape collapsed when used, many workers jumped from the ninth floor to their deaths. The ILGWU was already fighting for safer conditions in sweatshops, most famously in the Uprising of the 20,000. Triangle workers had won concessions through that organizing, but not the right to be a union shop. While the shocking deaths at Triangle led to changes in building codes and labor legislation in New York, implementation and enforcement were lax. Sound familiar?

For more on this important labor history, Brigid O’Farrell recommends Cornell University’s Kheel Center website, updated for the 100th anniversary: http://www.ilr.cornell.edu/trianglefire/