Apprenticeship Today

News from the Apprenticeship Office

Travel Checks

We pay travel to apprentices living beyond a 35 mile radius from their respective school. Apprentices must receive full credit for classes attended to be eligible for travel reimbursement. Travel checks for the second half of the 2005/06 school year were mailed on June 28. If you did not receive a check and think you should have please contact the apprentice office.

Pay Increases

The term of apprenticeship varies with each of our crafts. Bricklayers require four years to complete the program, Marble Masons and PCC, three years and Marble Finishers, two years. Each apprentice receives pay increases as they meet certain requirements.

For example a bricklayer apprentice, who begins work on August 4, 2006 with no previous experience, will start at 40% of the journeyman wage rate. In order to advance to second period (47.5 %), the apprentice must meet certain requirements. He must work for six months and accrue 750 hours of work experience, or “on the job training” (OJT). He must also attend school on Saturdays and accrue 63 school hours or “related supplemental instruction” (RSI).

When the apprentice has met these requirements, it is his responsibility to notify the apprentice office, with a “Re-Rate Request” form. These forms are available to the apprentices at each class.

The apprentice office will approve or deny the request based on our tracking system. By using the sign-in sheets from school we are able to keep current RSI hours. OJT hours are tracked using reports from Allied Administrators. There is generally a two month lapse between hours worked and hours reported. We accept the apprentice’s Blue Books to credit OJT for the lag months in order to assure timely pay increases, since, for example hours worked in September will not be reported until the end of November.

The Apprentice Office, upon approval of the “Re-Rate Request” will send an “Apprentice Performance Appraisal” form to the contractor. After evaluating the apprentice, the contractor should return the completed form to the apprenticeship office. We will send a copy of the evaluation to the apprentice, who should view it as constructive criticism.

If an apprentice does not receive the increase after following the previous steps, he should contact the apprentice office, and we will research the matter.

For bricklayers each increase requires six months of work experience, 750 hours OJT and 63 hours RSI. The apprentice must meet these requirements for each increase. To reach journeyman status he must accrue 6000 hours OJT and 504 hours RSI. The program is typically completed in four years.

Applications

We take applications at the apprentice Office in Oakland each week day between the hours of 8:30 am and 11:30 am. Applicants should bring their High School Diploma or equivalent. If you know of someone interested in joining one of our training programs, ask them to contact the Apprentice Office, 510-553-0991.

If you see a new apprentice on your jobsite, ask if he has registered with the Apprenticeship Office, if not, ask him to contact us.

Recently Certified Journeymen

Bricklayers

Raul Ramos
Mike Hennessy
Uriah Moe
Arthur Oceguera
Maiten Tellechea

PCC

Oscar Carreno

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

School Begins September 9, 2006

Classes will begin on 9 September at our Bricklayer, PCC, and Marble schools in Pleasanton, Fresno and San Francisco. Classes begin at 8:00 am and end at 3:30 pm at Pleasanton and Fresno, and 2:30 pm at San Francisco. Lunch is from 11:30 until 12:00. Hard hats and safety glasses are now required to be worn while in the hands-on work areas at all of our training facilities.

Schedules for the 2006-2007 school year were mailed last month to registered apprentices and the contractors who employ them. If you did not receive your schedule, contact the apprentice office and we will send you one. Schedules can also be found on this web site.

School attendance is required in order to complete our apprenticeship programs. We will continue to observe a stringent disciplinary policy regarding attendance. In cases of emergency, apprentices should contact the Apprenticeship Office.

Back Page

The Bricklayer

The history of masonry began some 10,000 years ago when ancient man began to use sun-dried bricks. The Great Wall of China, visible from space, was built more than two thousand years ago and contains nearly four billion bricks. The Newbold-White House, one of the oldest brick houses in the United States, was built near Hertford, North Carolina in 1730, two years before our first president, George Washington, was born. Another example of the longevity of masonry is the Lewis Store in Fredericksburg, Virginia. Built in 1749, the Lewis Store is the oldest retail building in America. The first brick building in California was built in 1847 at 351 Decatur Street in Monterey.

Since these early brick buildings, bricklayers have built a countless multitude of masonry structures. We see them in cities, towns, and throughout the countryside, pictured in books, on television and in movies. These buildings are lasting tributes to the skilled craftsmen who built them.

We are now witnessing the next generation of bricklayers, as young apprentices exhibit their talents, skills and training learned from proud union craftsmen. Their teachers, today’s Keepers of the Craft are living examples of the work ethic, standards of excellence, and intelligence of the craft that they learned from their predecessors.

As today’s apprentices become more accomplished with the language of the craft and the techniques of masonry, they are becoming more than bricklayers, they are being initiated into history. They are the ones who will carry the history of masonry forward to future generations of bricklayers, who too will choose to live skillful and productive lives.

Zack Lambert