Program exposes unemployed to blue-collar world
Steve Jones got the best Christmas present of all: a job with a chance to trade up.
Jones started Dec. 20 as a welder at an iron fabrication business in Marietta. He's earning $13 an hour, with the promise of a $2-an-hour raise in a month.
"I'm doing good," said the 48-year-old, who hopes later to enroll in the Mechanical Trades Institute run by the United Association of Plumbers and Pipefitters. It put $800,000 into developing a training school to turn out certified welders for union jobs across the state. Those jobs can pay close to $30 an hour.
Jones learned about the apprentice program through a new job-training initiative, Georgia Trade-Up. It is a new nonprofit, work-force development program that seeks to help the unemployed in poor neighborhoods, often ones who have a record of drug use and arrests, get a GED diploma and learn a blue-collar skill.
“I had some background issues from when I was younger," said Jones, who had arrests for assault and drug trafficking in the 1980s. "I was coming up against a lot of obstacles for a long time. I couldn’t get an interview. I couldn’t even get a callback.”
Jones said he has been clean of illegal drugs for seven years. He supported himself primarily by running car detailing shops, but he wanted a skill that could lead to a decent income.
Georgia Trade-Up is partnering with the Atlanta-North Georgia Building & Construction Trades Council, a consortium of unions -- masons, plumbers, electricians, insulators, sheet-metal workers, heavy-equipment operators and laborers -- to introduce the blue-collar crafts. In the six-week course, students do introductory work in several crafts.
Then, once they find a craft they think they could do well, they can apply for a union apprentice program they will work as apprentices while going through the training school, usually over a three-year period. So far about 18 have been placed in apprenticeships and 40 more trainees are expected to complete the Georgia Trade-Up training in January.
"We've taken several Trade-Up people over the past year," said Keith Thomas, the council's business manager. "One local [union], the cement masons, has taken six to eight people and put them to work."
Tony Westly, the business manager for the masonry union, said he is willing to take a chance on people even if they have convictions that might keep them off certain jobs that require background checks. He said schools have done young people a disservice in cutting vocational courses, which he believes might have helped academically challenged youths who got in trouble with the law.
"I think everybody ought to have an opportunity to make a change in their life," he said "These guys who have a criminal record, now they probably aren't going to be able to work on a Georgia power plant, but they can work on a high-rise."
"I go to these high schools, and the teacher will ask all the students who got a college scholarship to raise their hands. I always wonder, what about the kids who aren't college material? Who is looking out for them?"
Don Sabbarese, director of the Kennesaw State University Econometric Center, said electrical, welding and plumbing jobs pay well.
"Some of these guys make $27 an hour -- they should have people falling over each other trying to get into these programs," he said. "The state should be putting more money into vocational school programs. There is a real need for plumbers and electricians and carpenters. Why wouldn't we want to train people in these areas where they can make a decent living?"
Thomas said the local union apprentice programs are buying into both Georgia Trade-Up and Youthbuild, a program that seeks to channel young people from poor neighborhoods into blue-collar trades. Unions see it as a source of new members, he said. "I don't want to give anybody false hope because if they don't meet the qualifications they're not going to enter into an apprenticeship, but I think it will work," he said.
Deborah Scott, who started Georgia Trade-up, said the program does drug testing and educational and employment counseling. It also advises trainees how to get convictions expunged to ensure they will be employable.
"We want to instill a value of hard work," she said. "These are the only high-paying jobs with benefits that are not going to be exported. You can take the skill anywhere."
But even if Trade-Up participants are qualified to get into apprentice programs, which are funded by union dues to ensure that members have the skills to compete for major construction jobs, the economy could still derail those plans. Apprentice programs only take applicants when jobs are available, so they've had fewer spots in recent years.
Economists say Georgia construction -- even the big commercial jobs that employ union labor -- isn't likely to pick up much in the next two years. Unions cite the power plants and some federal government jobs as bright spots, but those jobs might not be available to newcomers.
"There are some large projects, and for the individuals who get hired on, those are great," said Roger Tutterow, an economist with Mercer University. "But the amount of work coming out of the private sector in 2011 will be limited. The office developments are on the sideline next year and probably into 2012.”
Jones said he hopes he will eventually qualify for a power-plant job, but even if such a job is out of reach, he hopes to become a skilled pipe fitter and welder. He credits Georgia Trade-Up for exposing him to the blue-collar world.
"Georgia Trade-up gives you an opportunity to learn a trade, and that is something nobody can take from you," he said. "They are offering some of the best training from unions right here in Georgia. You get to work on the job while you're learning. You can't beat that type of experience."
