No matter the circumstance, apprentices have just as much a voice as a journeyman. Union meetings are one of the most sacred places for our members and it is in our hall that we have the chance to hear from leadership and to make our own voices heard at the microphone.
Every year, the fifth-year apprentices gather on a Saturday for a comprehensive, labor-intensive, cumulative assessment. The day-long endeavor is comprised of different tests that span the entire apprenticeship from motor control to 3-way switching to advanced conduit bending.
It’s not easy being a first year. All of a sudden you are thrown from whatever job you had before you were indentured into a construction career that you’re told is going to change your life and offer you all the opportunity in the world if you just focus. True as that may be, it can be daunting for many, challenging for many still.
Being a member of a Union has a lot of moving parts. You must make sure your work continues a level of professionalism commensurate with our training, you have to make sure your brothers and sisters are protected and understand their rights, and, maybe most importantly, you must be a constant advocate for organized labor.
Ken Irwin, the JATC’s Assistant Training Coordinator, has recently received his 30-year pin for his IBEW Union membership.
A Union prides itself on how well its members can stick together through thick and thin. At myriad meetings throughout the country, hats are passed for tragedy, phones are called for commiseration, and local committees exist as a way for people to support members who have other things in common.
A word that may not be used often enough in reference to tradesmen is “grace.” There is an element to what we do as skilled labor that can only be described as grace, not just in the quality of the work we produce but about how we handle hardship and adversity on the jobsite.
Humility is an incredible asset in an apprentice. A person who is freshly introduced to our trade may find themselves swimming in all the new information. But with tenacity and hard work, even the greenest of apprentices can rise to become forces to be reckoned with.