As Business Manager of the Boston Plumbers Union, and a member for over thirty years, I have never known of a woman member that did not get paid what their male counterparts made.
We all went through an apprenticeship together, worked our way up through the business together, became duly licensed by the state together. All the way through apprenticeship and on to becoming a journeyman there was pay parity. Yes, it’s because we belong to a union.
Over those thirty plus years the ranks of women have continued to grow especially over the past ten years. Yes, the pay structure has been around in a male dominated industry for many years but as women have become more and more commonplace in the industry there was never any thought to pay women anything less than what the contract provided or what the men made.
At a recent meeting with some of the women of Local 12 we talked about many issues but the one issue that never came up is pay equity. I was compelled to write this because there is no media outlet that seems to want to let anyone know that parts of the labor movement is paying dividends for all working people.
Needless to say that the Building Trades can be a misunderstood entity at times, we have always tried our best to be sure that its equal pay for equal work. The reasoning being, that we all came into this together trained and moved up together. Pretty basic concept I think.
So on this years Equal Pay Day, for those that find this thing kind of important, not only do the Union Plumbers in the Boston area make the same pay so do all of our counterparts throughout the rest of the Boston Building Trades.
This week, November 14th through 20th 2016 is National Apprenticeship Week. At Plumbers Local 12 in Boston every week is apprenticeship week. There is no better trained plumbers in eastern Massachusetts than the ones at Local 12.
Layout class led by Instructor Darren MacDonald
Just this week in our day school program we have first year, second year, and third year apprentices doing everything from academic classes to shop classes. Classes from Use and Care of tools, Plumbing Code as well training in the latest layout and co ordination technologies have been going on every day.
Local 12 Instructor Gregg Peterson, teaching Use and Care of Tools
Plumbers Local 12 has almost 200 apprentices in our apprenticeship program working in shops that range in size from 2 employees to some that have in excess of 300 plumbers and apprentices. It is imperative that we supply the most highly skilled and well rounded mechanics in the industry to support our contractors.
Apprenticeship is a proven method of skills training that goes back hundreds of years. The plumbing trade is no different. Our apprentices do 1200 hours of training in our program almost double what the Massachusetts laws require for training. “All of this training pays off for us because when an apprentice does an apprenticeship here they are embarking on a journey that will require them to be the best” says Rick Carter Local 12 Training Director.
First year apprentices brazing in the shop, led by Instructor Joe Kyne
“Plumbing is a career” says Harry Brett, Business Manager of the Boston Plumbers Union, “we do not provide jobs we provide careers and a rock solid foundation is the success to that career”. So as the nation recognizes Apprenticeship Week we at Local 12 live it every week and are committed to continue the fine tradition of Apprenticeship.
As I write this blog applications to Plumbers Local 12’s apprenticeship program have just concluded. This year we have over four hundred applicants vying for approximately thirty positions. This flies in the face of what I hear is a shortage of people people entering the plumbing business in Massachusetts.
Maybe there is a difference between a job in plumbing and a career in plumbing. Local 12 has always given all applicants an interview and one thing we hear from them is that people are looking for a career. A place where they will be able to get health insurance and accrue retirement benefits during and after their career is done.
Maybe its the training that Local 12 provides apprentices as well as journeymen throughout their careers that provide them them many opportunities to work for the different contractors while maintaining the highest pay and best benefits in the industry.
Local 12 is a proud membership organization that wants its members to succeed all during their careers as plumbers. With at least sixty percent of Americans with almost no savings (according to an article in Boston Agent Magazine by Tom Ricci) these applicants have figured out that union benefits are a good thing and applying to the union training program is the way to go. No wonder over four hundred people have applied.
The Olympics coming to Boston? Well I hope so. Now before people get mad I want them because I love everything about Boston and want the City to be on a pedestal. Even if that means nine years of planning for two weeks of games.
Yes, we had a terrible winter that exposed some of the shortcomings of the antiquated MBTA, but seven feet of snow in a month, come on for its age it did pretty good. But like the misery brought on by the weather it also brought out a lot of negativity that got directed right at the Olympic bid.
First off I am not an employee of Boston 2024, but I am a Union Leader. I am also one that has not yet attended any of the public hearings. I do want good jobs for my members as well as everyone else that I think the games will bring. I really want it for other reasons.
One, it is a great city, by the way I don’t live in the city but have spent most of life in it. This city has been on an upward swing for some years and I don’t think we have even got real momentum yet. As a matter of fact I feel that Boston was a city that changed little over the previous one hundred plus years. It has been roughly over the past twenty or so that things have taken off.
Infrastructure upgrades over this time has been huge, some unknown or unnoticed but yet instrumental in the growth of not only Boston, but the whole Metro area. The Big Dig, Water Supply Upgrades, Waste Water Treatment Facilities, Logan Airport Expansion among others has helped to bring development to areas that could not be built before. The Convention Center has put Fan Pier on the map.
As someone in construction of course I think all of this is great and I can tell you that there were people that we very vocal about probably all of these projects. But after they were done the common good has outweighed the negatives. Yes I certainly have been a proponent of some jobs that certainly did not work out for the best interest of me and were killed or changed for the right reasons.
The No Olympics group out there bring an important element to the conversation. It is groups like this that will force change along the way and I encourage them to push forward. In the end though, I want the games here.
I heard Mayor Walsh speak about the fact that there has been no Master plan for the City since 1963. That is too bad because development and progress in general may or may not have had a sense of direction. I commend him for starting the process again. As a plan takes shape there will no doubt be a great focus on the needed infrastructure upgrades. As the conversation goes it will be these subjects that will get more interest than things such as open space, etc. Maybe rightfully so.
With that being said since we live in Boston some of those upgrades are coming with or with out the games. This is where I think the games are a positive for the city. If through a plan the citizens agree that certain trains and roads need to be fixed over the next twenty five years then lets use the games to push the changes here sooner than later. Have the games become the catalyst for the things we need.
I have heard that traffic will be a nightmare, it already is a nightmare. The T is running at capacity, time for a changed system. We have been living in a state of change in Boston for many years and the major changes we have invested in are only going to benefit those younger than us. The games put a time frame on changes that need to be done and in maybe a romantic way, an end or at least a break from this state of change.
I would love for the world to tune in for that month in 2024 and think wow what a beautiful city. I would love for people from around the world to come to Boston and walk this city as a venue like none other. I would love all Bostonians to welcome and enjoy the changes that the Games brought to the city not just as a sporting event but also as a deadline for the needs of the future.
I love the idea of Boston 2024, I respect the people of NO Boston 2024 for bringing out the hard and uncomfortable questions but as someone who sees this as a glass half full I say, Let the Games Begin.
Tonight I am going with my wife to the opening of the Edward M. Kennedy Institute in Dorchester. When I was thinking about writing something I thought back to when the Senator passed away and some of the impressions I had of the time.
As a guy who grew up in a politically involved family Ted Kennedy was already at the top as the Senator from MA. As a matter of fact the Senator was elected the year I was born in 1962. But it was what came out about the Senator after he died that reaffirmed to me what Congress should be about.
All of the members of Congress that spoke about the Senator said a lot of the same things. That outside of being on one side of an issue he genuinely cared about his colleagues and their staff. I remember hearing from Senator Hatch that as much as they fought for position he was always a friend. Shouldn’t that be at least some of the way in Washington. Wouldn’t all Americans be better of if it wasn’t a game of kill or be killed.
I know that he at times frustrated a lot of his own side hear in MA on occasion but maybe it was the cost of compromise for something better for the country as a whole. To really see him in action just you tube “Ted Kennedy Minimum Wage” it is one of the funniest, passionate,and caring clips of him.
I had the chance to be seated with him at a business lunch and he came back to his seat after his remark and asked us “well what do think” about his remarks. I said to him it was great. He promptly looked and replied “Well I could have used some applause with the unemployment comments”. He then laughed and talked to us plumbers and electricians like he was from the neighborhood.
One thing is for sure about him and his family. They probably never had to work but they spent their careers trying to empower many who had none and quite frankly it lives on today. I guess caring is what comes to mind and thats what I will be thinking about tonight at the event.
In my position over the last 15 years I have come to appreciate the man who knew how to work the art of the game.
no media outlet that seems to want to let anyone know that parts of the labor movement is paying dividends for all working people.
Pipes and Wrenches 