Thursday, July 05, 2007


Jul. 3, 2007 (McClatchy-Tribune Regional News delivered by Newstex) --
Tom Stocke, 42, worked for nearly a decade as a mechanic at a New Stanton glass plant until it shut down last year. Alan Tretinik, 43, has a college degree and worked as a retail manager until he, too, was laid off last year. And Debbi Spotts, 49, recently lost her job at a mortgage closing company.

And as of Saturday afternoon, they're now apprentice ironworkers.

The three were drawn to Iron Workers Local 3 through an aggressive recruiting campaign launched last year by a union desperate to fill the need of a region suddenly booming with new commercial, residential and power industry construction. They joined 92 other budding ironworkers Saturday who were completing their final training class before they could start work as official apprentices.

'An apprentice is no longer 18 to 22 years old,' said Jim Gallik, apprenticeship coordinator for Iron Workers Local 3. 'We're not only attracting just new students out of high school. We're actually putting to work a lot of displaced workers from other blue collar jobs.'

For decades, the few new apprentices taken on were recruited primarily through word of mouth. 'It was a boys' club,' said Mr. Gallik, 'but no more.'

Faced with both impending retirements of baby boomers, as well as dozens of massive construction projects such as The Meadows casino, the new Children's Hospital building and a new power plant in Robinson, Washington County, the union was having trouble finding enough workers -- despite a starting wage for apprentices of $16.02 per hour that jumps to $29.13 after the completion of a three-year program.

So last fall, Iron Workers Local 3 blew its doors wide open.

The union shelled out several hundred thousand dollars in an unorthodox marketing campaign, contracting with the Blattner-Brunner advertising agency for crisply designed billboards reading, 'We don't go to the office. We build it,' strategically placed around the region, as well as radio and Internet advertisements.

Within weeks of the campaign's debut, the union was flooded with hundreds of applications -- so many that the union set up a special phone line just to deal with questions.

Some of those applicants were people such as Mr. Stocke, the out-of-work glass worker, whose son also is planning to be an ironworker apprentice.

'I never thought I'd be starting over,' Mr. Stocke said, his hand brushing through his gray-flecked hair. 'I was hoping to grow from where I was. But this is a good opportunity -- they start you out and retrain you.'

Also among the applicants was Michael Vuchinich, 29, of Aliquippa, who has spent the last 10 years working for the Laborers union. 'Since my second year in the Laborers, I'd wanted to be an ironworker,' he said. 'I've watched them, and I like what they've done -- it's a job that's real masculine.'

But Mr. Vuchinich assumed that the ironworkers weren't looking for new apprentices or that he would need to have connections to get chosen. When he heard about the marketing campaign, he applied -- then passed through a screening test, a series of interviews and a drug test before he was invited to be an apprentice.

The $16.02 that he'll make when he starts as an apprentice next week is actually about $3 less than what he currently makes as a laborer. But within a few years, he'll make about $10 per hour more than his previous salary.

'You put in 30 years as an ironworker, you'll be a millionaire,' he said.

But it isn't exactly easy money. By its nature, the job of an ironworker requires scaling I-beams, welding in awkward positions or scooting across beams hundreds of feet in the air -- sometimes in extreme weather conditions.

New safety standards make the job safer than it was decades ago, but there are still accidents. During the construction of the David L. Lawrence Convention Center in 2003, an ironworker was killed and two others were injured when a steel truss fell 70 feet to the ground.

Safety figures prominently in training classes such as the one held Saturday at the union training facility in the Strip District: Like bees scaling an iron honeycomb, apprentices repeatedly practiced hooking their harnesses onto metal cables that they had strung between the iron beams.

Instructors taught skills and corrected even the most minor of mistakes, from the best position for a wrench to hang on a tool belt to how to correctly coil a thick metal cable to the setting for the perfect flame on a welding torch.

This summer's apprentice class is more than twice the size of the one last June, and Mr. Gallik is planning to train another large group of apprentices in December. The ironworkers are still eagerly seeking applicants, who can apply at their Web site, www.iwlocal3.com, or by calling 866-297-4341.

The 95 apprentices who completed their training class yesterday also got their first crack at scaling an I-beam, an essential skill for ironworkers that work as 'connectors,' moving from floor to floor of a building under construction. Michael Hellmann, 20, of Ingram, wedged his calf into the I-beam as he'd been told to but had trouble sliding his size 13 boot up the 12-inch beam.

Undeterred, Mr. Hellmann, whose ironworker father persuaded him to sign up for the union after an injury ended his short stint in the Army, spoke enthusiastically about his new career.

'It's better than all the other jobs,' he said. 'It has a lot more meaning than flipping pizzas. After the job's complete, you can say, 'I helped do that.' '

'You can be a part of something,' added Edward Murawski, 22, who already has started waking up at 2:30 a.m. to drive from his home in Patton, Cambria County, to a condo project in Fox Chapel.

'It's like the billboard,' said Mr. Hellmann. 'We don't go to the office. We build it.'



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