More than 400 high school girls visited the IBEW Local 103 campus in Dorchester last Wednesday (Nov. 13) for the Massachusetts Girls in Trades (MA GIT) Eastern Conference and Career Fair to learn about professions in construction trades unions. 

MA GIT, founded in 2015, encourages women and girls to pursue high-paying, highly-skilled jobs in the building industry.  Throughout the morning, the students heard from strong, female role models, including the first female president of the Massachusetts AFL-CIO, Chrissy Lynch. 

“I think women can do any job that a man can,” said Lynch. “It is important to me that as we look to grow the labor movement, we’re diversifying it at the same time, and we’re giving women and people of color opportunities to get into these life-changing careers. Events like this are really key to making that happen.” 

Massachusetts AFL-CIO represents more than 800 local unions in serving as the unified voice of all organized workers in the Commonwealth. “Half of our members are women, and we really want to have you join our ranks,” Lynch told the students. 

The teens were reminded that the trades are not only an alternative path to college but also a gateway to the middle class. Starting wages for union construction are $18-$22 an hour and reach $35-$55 an hour over a two-to-five-year apprenticeship. 

“Juniors and seniors are starting to think about what they are going to do in a year or two years when they graduate high school. There’s pressure to go to an exorbitantly high-cost four-year degree. It’s not the only option,” Lynch told The Reporter. “We want to make sure they know about these as potential opportunities.”

Choosing a debt-free path to a career is something union member Alex Colonna said she wished she had done as a younger person. 

“Unfortunately, when I was growing up it was, we had to go to college and financially that wasn’t a good option for me,” Colonna said. “When I did go, I ended up having to drop out about halfway through because the economy had tanked, and I couldn’t pull out loans anymore. I ended up leaving without graduating and still wound up with all that debt.”

Colonna worked in the food industry until a friend persuaded her to learn a trade instead. 

“He said ‘Alex, you work too hard for as little money as you do and you’re not going to grow where you are. You should join the apprentice [program] where they’re going to really respect and appreciate you.’”

Colonna, who went on to become a union painter, and wants other girls to know that they can do the same. 

“I’m here today to try and encourage and bring light to construction as a viable option for something to do after high school or as a young adult. It doesn’t always necessarily have to be college,” said Colonna, now an organizer at Painters and Allied Trades District Council #35. 

Joining the union allowed Colonna to pay off her loans and get out of debt. At last Wednesday’s event, she shared her experience with hundreds of girls and reminded them that “construction is always going to be here.” 

She added: “You can always change your career despite what the world may tell you. I did food for eight years and at 24, I became an apprentice. This might not be their first choice, it could be their second, third, or fourth. Sometimes it needs to be your fourth choice so you can really appreciate exactly what a good thing is.” 

Lauren Jones, the state’s Secretary of Labor and Workforce Development, also offered remarks at the event. 

“Far too often when I have the chance to hear from adult learners, they often say, ‘I wish I knew about this sooner, I wished I learned about this in high school’ and then I think about organizations like MA GIT that bring young girls together to gain that exposure, so you don’t miss that moment,” she said. 

Some of the students who attended the event are now certain that they belong in the trades. Maura Cleary and Kiele Sarnie, 17-year-old seniors at Blackstone Valley Regional Vocational Technical High School, joined the MA GIT student leadership club at their school and are now school and state officers. At the yearly career fair, they got to meet hundreds of girls with dreams like their own. 

“I entered my trade and I felt like I was going to be alone,” said Sarnie who is in the construction technology program. “Now I look around this room and I think ‘I’m not alone,’ it’s amazing. It’s a community, it's family, it’s empowering.”

Cleary added, “I thought going into automotive technology, I was going to be the only woman in there. Turns out there are four other girls in there and we’ve gotten so many more girls to enter our shop. Seeing [the career fair] just shows how many women do want to go into the trades and how the door is opening.”

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