By Richard Bermack
Contributing Writer and Photographer
Sprinkler fitters install systems that protect lives and property by putting out fires, activating alarms, and notifying the fire department. The systems they install must work in a variety of environments and circumstances. The systems not only Why, after all these years, are only 2 percent of workers in the building trades women, and what to do about it, were the major issues raised at this year’s Women Building California conference in Oakland. The same topic may have been raised each year, but this year promises to be different. Secretary of Labor Hilda Solis sent one of her top guns, Patricia Shiu, director of the Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs, to deliver a message: The federal government is here to help.
“There’s a new sheriff in town,” Shiu told the audience. “We want to ensure that affirmative action really means something... We are looking at the regulations to ascertain all the ways we can strengthen them, to ensure that your working conditions are free of harassment, free of retaliation, and allow you to be promoted and work in a non-discriminating work environment.” And then, perhaps in reference to the past administration’s lack of action, she added: “But without enforcement, a regulation doesn’t mean anything. I am committed to enforcing the law.” Referring to her distinguished career as a civil rights lawyer, Shiu repeated her commitment to enforcement, drawing cheers from the audience.
Shiu intends to use the power of her office to increase the number of women in the trades by pressuring federal contractors, who control 22 percent of construction jobs, to hire more women. Many of the contractors want to do the right thing, she stated, but during the past 8 years of the Bush administration, they got no support. The new administration recognizes the need to foster women entering the trades and to provide linkage for employers to hire them.
One of the agency’s first tasks is rebuilding itself. “We lost 30 percent of our funding and 25 percent of our staff,” Shiu stated. She then reached out to the audience: “We have 200 new jobs at the OCCP, and it would be wonderful to have some of you join our ranks to insure that our compliance officers and the people in the OCCP team come from the same background as the people in our cases.”
Other conference speakers included Assemblymember Joan Buchanan; Meg Vasey of Tradeswomen, Inc; Rita Magner, Sheet Metal Workers Local 104; Susan Eisenberg, author and artist; Bob Balgenorth, State Building Trades Council; Assemblymember Fiona Ma; Sue Doro, writer; and Raquel Smith, spoken-word artist.
The 9th Annual Women Building California conference was sponsored by the State Building and Construction Trades Council of California, in collaboration with Tradeswomen, Inc., an Oakland-based tradeswomen advocacy organization.
While a few international unions sponsor women’s conferences for the women in their craft, this is the only conference in the nation that brings together women from all building trades crafts.
Held at the Oakland Marriott on May 15-16, the conference brought together 335 journey-level tradeswomen, apprentices, pre-apprentices and advocates, mostly from California but also from Oregon, Washington, Nevada, Texas, and the Washington, D.C. area.
The event showcased tradeswomen’s art, poetry, spoken word, and music, and included workshops on building skills to help women survive and thrive in the trades, and developing leadership to help women advance on the job and in their unions.
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 Irma Medina
Job Corps Pre-Apprentice, Green Technology, Richmond Hills
I’m learning about ecology, pollution, and maintaining the world in a better style than we are doing right now. At this point we are doing carpentry, but I’ve elected to continue on in electrical so I can install solar panels. I want to do something positive for the community and to help others and help the planet.
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 Petina Perkins
Carpenter
I’ve worked nine years as a journeymen. I worked on the Bay Bridge, 50 feet up in the air. That gets your adrenaline going. Right now it is slow, but I’m surviving. To get work these days you have to market yourself. I go to different job sites, talk to people, give them my resume, or fax it to employers. This conference has been great for networking.
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 Patricia Shiu
Director of the Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs, US Department of Labor
We need to take advantage of this historic moment to really work together collaboratively and put differences aside. We have an administration that values work, and values workers, and values unions, and values working families in all their diversity.
I think that if you know you are not going be welcomed in an industry or workplace, you tend not to go there. We need to change that; we need to change the culture. We need to make sure that this work is valued. The work these women do is critical for the country. They build roads; they build highways; they build schools; they build bridges.
The work you do is what you do during most of your waking hours. And if you don’t believe in what you do and it doesn’t give you a lot of satisfaction, then that is pretty sad.
I want to make sure that everybody under my jurisdiction really wants to get up and go to work and has a job that pays a decent wage that gets them benefits and gives them a sense of satisfaction and gives a sense of being a part of something bigger. That is what I propose to do.
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 Vivian Price
Labor Studies Professor, Dominguez Hills CSU, former Electrician
A political activist and union organizer, Price worked on assembly lines in electronics, auto, and pharmaceuticals. After being laid off for organizing, she decided she wanted a skill that would give her job security, so she became an electrician. She is presently collecting material for a digital history of tradeswomen. For information or to donate material, visit the project’s website, www.tradeswomenarchives.com.
When I was an electrician, one of the male electricians said to me that women have made the trade better for men. A lot of the men were embarrassed to say, “We want toilet paper in the bathroom. We want to be able to wash our hands after we use the bathroom.” And women spoke up about those things and it made it better for everybody.
A lot more men were open to women in the trades, but now that the times are rough, I think they’re trying to chase us out. We need fairness in employment to makes it better for everybody. I’m afraid the economic downturn will bring out prejudice because of survival.
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 Lynn Shaw, PhD
Professor of Electrical Technology, formerly worked as a Miner, Steel Worker, Longshore Worker, and Journey-Level Electrician
I believe there is occupational apartheid; there is a definite line between what is considered men’s jobs in what is considered women’s jobs. It is an unspoken part of our system. Young people choose their jobs based on the latest TV show. One of my secret ambitions is to write a screenplay for a sitcom or a drama about women in the trades. After all the CSI shows, everyone wanted be a crime scene investigator.
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 Victoria Hamlin
Alameda County Public Works Water Resource Inspector
SEIU 1021
These are tough times for public employees. We need our allies and to give each other moral support. You have to get angry, and not at yourself. A bunch of us took a day off from work and went up to Sacramento. We sat in those people’s offices and made them listen to us. Get involved. It’s better than just sitting there and letting them kick you around.
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 Charlene Emmons, Laura Nimr, and Kelly Ramirez
Iron Workers Local 378
Charlene: It’s hard work, but I love it. It is something I feel very proud of doing, and it’s good money and benefits. You go home feeling great. You don’t need to work out in a gym afterwards, that’s for sure. I wouldn’t do anything else. And the guys give me a lot of respect.
What would it take to get more women in the trades?
They need to send recruiters to places like battered women’s shelters, welfare-to-work programs, high schools job corps, and a lot of places where there are single moms. I think a lot of women are intimidated because it’s a man’s field. There are a lot more men, and it’s a hard trade. But it doesn’t take a college education. It just takes strength and determination and a good sense of work ethics.
Laura: I’ve been an iron worker for 26 years. It was very difficult when I first got in. The number of women in the trade hasn’t changed too much, but the attitude has. Men actually treat women a little better than they used to. There is more awareness now. But it’s still really hard. Some guys don’t really want you there.
I always wanted to be in the trades. I like competing with the guys. I do rebar, which is very hard work, but once your body is in shape, it’s the mental part that is the hardest.But it’s difficult competing against the younger ones. You’ve been doing it longer, but they are way fitter. That’s why I go to the gym every day to keep it up. I’m in a band and write protest songs in Spanish. My mom was a peace activist.
Kelly, Apprentice: What would it take to get more women in the trades?
All they have to do is see my lifestyle. I don’t live high on the hog, but I live comfortably. I’m having so much fun at the conference. Listening to my older sisters and hearing about what they’ve experienced. I look up to them.
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 Hannah Sarvasy,
Yumayra Ortiz, and Elizabeth Zaza-Gonzalez
California Conservation Corps
Hannah: We offer a job training program for youth 18 to 24. The Corps is one of the main channels for women to become park rangers or to get jobs in forestry. There are a lot of women in high positions in the Conservation Corps.
Yumayra: We get to build trails in the state parks. It’s fun. I like doing hard work and getting dirty. I’m the only girl in my crew, but the guys are supportive, even though we don’t always click. I’m looking forward to learning how to use a chain saw.
Elizabeth: I joined the program to get a scholarship to do veterinarian work as a career, but I’m open minded, and forestry or carpentry might be an option. It’s hard work, but at the end of the day you look back at what you’ve done and it’s like a masterpiece. People are going to be walking on the trails you created and really appreciate it.
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 Ronald Lewis and Chantel Denise Lewis
IBEW Local 6
One focus of the conference was how to survive the hard times. IBEW Local 6 member Chantel Denise Lewis facilitated a workshop on survival tips, where participants shared suggestions on how to save money and survive in hard times. They talked about everything from buying bulk food to making use of food pantries to clothing swaps and union benevolent funds.
Chantel and her husband, Ronald, are both electricians. They met in the IBEW Local 6 apprenticeship program 14 years ago and have been active union members ever since. They have both been out of work for two years. What’s been their secret for surviving the downturn?
Chantel: It’s difficult, but we can get through anything if we keep talking. We have communicated through all the times when money is really tight and there is nothing to do but argue, but we still got through it. And we’re still together. We also treat ourselves every now and then, like going to the movies. Otherwise, why keep going on?
Ronald: I’m absolutely convinced that there is a bounce back coming. We need to do what we’ve tried to do these last couple years, and that is to stay positive and realize that if we hang on, we will be rewarded at the end. And we’re not alone.
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 Deja Tolerson
Job Corps Pre-Apprentice
The conference has made me think about my future more. I’ve always been interested in electrical work, and a lot of women at the conference encouraged me to go further.
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 Alisha Murdock
Job Corps Pre-Apprentice
The conference has been really inspiring. It reminded me of why I wanted to get into the construction trade. I get along with everyone and don’t have any trouble with the guys, but sometimes they try to push extra work on me. But it’s fun.
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