Apprenticeship Today

From the President’s Desk

My first order of business is to thank Jimmy Wright for all his hard work as an instructor at the brick school. It seems that Jimmy is going to relocate to the green state of Washington to be closer to family members. We all want to wish him the best of luck. Jimmy will be dearly missed.

On September 8th we kick off the new school year with full attendance at all schools, I hope. I will remind you again that in order to get your wage increases you have to get those all important school hours. The work situation seems to be going well. The out of work list is small so it looks like a great summer for one and all.

On Saturday July 21st we had our first, and hopefully annual, “BAC Family Picnic” at Marine World/Africa USA in Vallejo. It was great to see so many members and their families all in one area enjoying lunch. There were about 600 people in attendance. The weather was great, warm, with an afternoon breeze just to keep it comfortable. I enjoyed seeing members as well as their wives and children. It was nice to see so many of our BAC crafts together in one place. We hope that everyone had a great time and we can continue this tradition. None of this would have been possible without the hard work and loving care of our office staff, Bev, Dori, and Lani. A big thanks to all three and to Operating Engineers , Ron Poff, with his table of free goodies. I hope you all helped yourselves to one or two of each.

In 1998, when I first became President of BAC Local 3, I had the honor, along with my father Ed Miranda and Pat Cannavan, to present a 75 year service award to Hilton Swenson. On July 2, 2001 Brother Swenson passed away. He was over a hundred years of age. I will always remember Hilton because he gave me a copy of his Apprentice Indenture papers that are still on the wall in my office.

Hilton became a member of the BAC in Chicago Illinois August 11, 1923 at the age of seventeen. In his indenturing paper work his employer, John Olson, was known as his said master. "The said apprentice was to attend a technical evening school acceptable to the Joint Arbitration Board not less than two hours each evening, for at least four evenings a week, During the months of January, February, March, April, November and December, each year of the apprentice term, and to be taught to read and write and the ground rules of arithmetic. He was also not to contract marriage during the said term, nor frequent saloons, tippling rooms or places of gambling, but in all things behave as a faithful apprentice ought to during the said term,” we’ve come a long way.

When we visited Hilton in 1998 he was still “as sharp as a tack” and could recall stories of the union’s past. In closing, he will always be remembered as a brother and a member in good standing.

News from the Apprentice Office

Summertime is a busy time in and around the Apprentice Office. We continue to take applications daily between the hours of 8:30 am. until 11:30 am. If you know of a promising prospect please have them give us a call.

The summer months also allow us to make a self assessment of our programs. The things we don’t like we are able to change and the things that did work well we try to improve. We also take some time to review the data compiled throughout the school year.

The Division of Apprenticeship Standards (DAS) is the State organization which oversees the operation of our apprenticeship programs. According to their recommendations we should be replacing one thirtieth of our journeymen each year through apprenticeship. We seem to be exceeding this recommendation with the exception of our brick program. Our active journeyman bricklayers fluctuates in the neighborhood of four hundred and fifty. This past school year we had nine apprentices complete our program and be certified as Journeyman Bricklayers. This number falls short of the DAS recommendation by six journeymen. If we look at the age groups of our current members, we become even more concerned. Between the age of twenty through thirty four we have approximately 60 bricklayers. If we look at the thirty five to fifty four year age group we see about 300 journeymen and if we look further to the fifty five to seventy four year olds we have nearly 70 members who are at or near retirement.

The need for more bricklayers is obvious. One of our challenges is in the retention of the apprentices that we recruit, still another is the fact that we have some contractors who are not doing their part to train and in some cases to employ our apprentices.

The survival and enhancement of our craft is the responsibility of each of us. We must work together to meet this challenge.

Recently Certified Journeypersons

Marble Finishers
Danny Alvarez
Hector Barrera

Bricklayers
Adem Junuzovic

PCC
Kelly Kimble
David Taupau

Congratulations to each of you for choosing a respected and rewarding craft.

On the Horizon

Talk of a main training facility is not something new for BAC 3 members. However there is reason to be encouraged. BAC local 3 along with joint apprentice committee members from Tile, Brick, PCC and Marble began a series of meetings last month to discuss the needs of the various interests. An important concern was to select an area that would be centrally located to the majority of the apprentices. A decision was made to research land costs and availability in the area in and around Livermore.

We hope to purchase an adequate piece of land and design and build a facility that will suit our needs. Our intent is to construct a main building which will house the Union office, apprentice office, and three classrooms which could be opened up for Union meetings. The various crafts would share the classroom space and also have separate designated areas for hands on training.

It appears that the reality of this project is only a matter of time in view of the optimism and creativity of these committee members. I will keep you informed of our progress.

2001 Western States Brick and Tile Contest

On Friday, May 25 twenty two apprentice bricklayers arrived in Portland, Oregon. Each of these apprentices had earned the privilege to compete in this prestigious contest by qualifying in their local’s contest. Local Unions from Washington, Idaho, Oregon, Northern and Southern California, Nevada and Colorado were represented. Local 1 Oregon hosted this year’s contest. The project was a decorative brick base with a two course arch. The contestants were allowed five and a half hours.

It was very encouraging to see the dedication and diligence of the contestants. This competition allows the apprentices to get a glimpse of apprentices from other areas and measure their talents and training against each other.

Apprentices from Local 3 were Miguel Cabrera, Calvin Chess, Tony Franchi, Matt Kirkes, Ariel Melero, Jack Pimentel, Brian Richey and Jerry Turley. Congratulations to each of them for putting forth their best efforts on a very challenging project.

Special congratulations to the winner, Gustavo Ruvalcaba from Local 7 Colorado and Laszlo Pataki Jr. from Local 1 Oregon who finished in second place. They both did an impressive job completing their projects.

The 2002 Western States Contest will be hosted by Local 4 California. Watch for the date and location in future issues.

Words of Wisdom

In today’s news, the numbers of people that we hear of are so vast that our minds cannot comprehend them. Phillip M. Harter, a medical doctor at Stanford’s School of Medicine attempted to figure out what our earth would look like, if it was shrunk into a village of just 100 people/ with all the human ratios existing in the world still remaining. This is what he found.

57 would be Asian/ 21 would be European/ 14 would be from the Western Hemisphere/ 18 would be African. 52 would be female/ 48 would be male. 70 would be non-white/ 30 would be white. 70 would be non-Christian/ 30 would be Christian. 89 would be heterosexual/ 11 would be homosexual.

6 people would possess 59 per cent of the entire world’s wealth and all six would be from the United States. 38 would live in substandard housing. 33 would be unable to read. 24 would suffer from malnutrition. 1 would be near death. One would be pregnant. 1 would have a college education. 1 would own a computer.

The Slippery Rock Gazette gave this anonymous interpretation:
Think of it this way. If you live in a good home, have plenty to eat and can read, you are a member of a very select group. And if you have a good house, food, can read and have a computer, you are among the very elite. If you have never experienced the danger of battle, the loneliness of imprisonment, the agony of torture or the pangs of starvation…. you are ahead of 500 million people in the world. If you can attend a church meeting without fear of harassment, arrest, torture, or death….you are fortunate, more than 3 billion people in the world can’t.

If you have food in the refrigerator, clothes on your back, a roof overhead and a place to sleep…. You are richer than 75% of this world. If you have money in the bank, in your wallet, and spare change in a dish someplace…. You are among the top 8% of the world’s wealthy. We should all take a look at our good fortune. We are blessed to be members of an industry that will provide us with the opportunity to work and retire with a certain amount of comfort. That we live in a country, even with all of it’s problems, is still way ahead of what’s in second place. Have a good day and count your blessings.

Don Sullivan