According to local law 196 in NYC workers are required to complete a certain amount of safety training hours. SST Online Training Courses will satisfy the requirement for general and specialized electives and prescribed courses needed to obtain a Supervisor SST card.
I am a 42 year union carpenter from Arizona and after reading your article I experienced all of the issues you listed during the first few years of my apprenticeship today I sign sponsorship letters for others (the catch 22 in your Article) as my skills improved I no longer was tasked with the undesirable jobs and began to be treated with more respect by my peers the indoctrination spoke of is how the union protects the brotherhood from members who would get trained and then leave taking the skills they learned and becoming non union and undercutting his former union brothers it is unfortunate that someone who is a minority might take this treatment as racist especially in a union where all share the same pAy and benifits
This is an overall wide issue here in the states. Washington is one of them. The construction sites stay white and they do not allow people of color to join most of the time they get turned away. The job sites are full of white men you will see your one or two minority on the sites. This is how they still control the job force. White men having the power to control who works and who doesn’t. Then they look down on the people of color who can not make it because they can not pay bills because they can not get a JOB to pay!! No opportunity, no real chance or change anywhere. Why do they hate our colors so much!? Why can’t they stand to see it here grow and flourish?? It’s all passed down generational hate.
My father was a union carpenter > foreman > superintendent. He claimed that union trained carpenters were on average better than carpenters who came from Europe with its guild history. He said the best apprentice he ever had was a young black guy. Apprentices received a lower hourly rate than journeymen carpenters but the one day of carpentry school they received weekly all through their four year apprenticeship was paid at the same hourly rate. When his star apprentice made journeyman, he sometimes failed to show up at work after a feckless work record as an apprentice. My father warned him. The warning went unheeded so my father fired him. My father was very disappointed and felt let down. He blamed it on the demand for diversity hires. Upon making journeyman, his former apprentice had his choice of job opportunities to meet quotas elsewhere so he no longer had to be toe the line. I too was offered a carpentry apprenticeship from a different general contractor based on my record as a union laborer. I was honored but chose a different route in life. From my perspective, back then, white journeymen almost considered the hiring of their sons or nephews as a job perk. When Lyndon Johnson paid off my father’s local union with a million dollars to hire some black apprentices without anything to show for it except hiring some black apprentices, it was considered a betrayal by the union’s existing workers. That was 50 years ago and is history. However, has this website ever written a similar article questioning what percentage of med school students are M.D.‘s children or what percentage of newly ordained Episcopal priests are black? It is hypocritical if the upper middle class is not expected to give up its privilege while demanding that the lower middle class do so.
There has been efforts on this topic, from the 1993 Cox and Foster study on occupational licensing, to the 2015 study by the White House on licensing on how licensing barriers create complications in employment to many of the vulnerable low income and ethnic groups throughout the country. Many of these studies have shown that even in the most justified cause of licensing, almost all can be applied with a less restrictive system and one that reflects greater diversity. Removing unnecessary licensing restrictions on trades like construction, which is already the case in states like Maine, Texas, or Ohio, can eliminate the disparities in ethnic representation. What is good news is that the Feds recently created a task force under the Consumer Protection Department to combat unduly restrictive occupational licensing laws that injure consumers and businesses. Hopefully with greater recognition and support in this issue, with champions like the Institute for Justice, Mercatus Center, Mises Institute, and The economic Liberty task force, more influence can help turn the tide against discriminative and anticompetitive state policy on businesses and professions and increase opportunities, jobs, and innovation for Americas ethnic communities. The best thing we can do as a community is continue to voice concerns to both state and federal departments, and to actively advocate for change in state policies regarding licensing and employment to expand opportunity. Using any of the study’s given by the institutions above, Institute for Justice or Economic Liberty Task Force can help residents and businesses educate their state policy makers on the national trends and concerns involving licensing, unions, and construction.
Let’s make a list and report all potential discriminatory incidents. Let’s get our own data base and compare 401ks, hours worked annually and length of time on jobs. The whole point of the union is to represent workers -members specifically. It’s not just the employers but the unions themselve. This isaue isn’t about one its about all and every time they are allowed to continue these practices they become stronger and over time they win again and again. We give up, get depressed and atop trying, applying and are solenced. Enough. Post anonymous teamwork makes the dreamwork. Share this article. Ask this journalist to keep the atory alive. Be a list keeper. Post on indeed. Send in your stories and make a difference. They are supposed to represent. There are failure to representaws.
COMMENTS
BY Bill Brown
ON July 30, 2021 01:50 PM
According to local law 196 in NYC workers are required to complete a certain amount of safety training hours. SST Online Training Courses will satisfy the requirement for general and specialized electives and prescribed courses needed to obtain a Supervisor SST card.
BY Casper Boyer
ON January 16, 2022 11:20 AM
I am a 42 year union carpenter from Arizona and after reading your article I experienced all of the issues you listed during the first few years of my apprenticeship today I sign sponsorship letters for others (the catch 22 in your Article) as my skills improved I no longer was tasked with the undesirable jobs and began to be treated with more respect by my peers the indoctrination spoke of is how the union protects the brotherhood from members who would get trained and then leave taking the skills they learned and becoming non union and undercutting his former union brothers it is unfortunate that someone who is a minority might take this treatment as racist especially in a union where all share the same pAy and benifits
BY Jacque
ON February 11, 2022 07:56 AM
This is an overall wide issue here in the states. Washington is one of them. The construction sites stay white and they do not allow people of color to join most of the time they get turned away. The job sites are full of white men you will see your one or two minority on the sites. This is how they still control the job force. White men having the power to control who works and who doesn’t. Then they look down on the people of color who can not make it because they can not pay bills because they can not get a JOB to pay!! No opportunity, no real chance or change anywhere. Why do they hate our colors so much!? Why can’t they stand to see it here grow and flourish?? It’s all passed down generational hate.
BY Raheem Rahman
ON June 6, 2022 11:02 AM
Black people let’s change this fast and now
BY Ky
ON October 5, 2022 12:51 PM
I think we need to make this a national thing. Currently happening in Indiana.
BY Ullr
ON July 1, 2023 11:47 AM
My father was a union carpenter > foreman > superintendent. He claimed that union trained carpenters were on average better than carpenters who came from Europe with its guild history. He said the best apprentice he ever had was a young black guy. Apprentices received a lower hourly rate than journeymen carpenters but the one day of carpentry school they received weekly all through their four year apprenticeship was paid at the same hourly rate. When his star apprentice made journeyman, he sometimes failed to show up at work after a feckless work record as an apprentice. My father warned him. The warning went unheeded so my father fired him. My father was very disappointed and felt let down. He blamed it on the demand for diversity hires. Upon making journeyman, his former apprentice had his choice of job opportunities to meet quotas elsewhere so he no longer had to be toe the line. I too was offered a carpentry apprenticeship from a different general contractor based on my record as a union laborer. I was honored but chose a different route in life. From my perspective, back then, white journeymen almost considered the hiring of their sons or nephews as a job perk. When Lyndon Johnson paid off my father’s local union with a million dollars to hire some black apprentices without anything to show for it except hiring some black apprentices, it was considered a betrayal by the union’s existing workers. That was 50 years ago and is history. However, has this website ever written a similar article questioning what percentage of med school students are M.D.‘s children or what percentage of newly ordained Episcopal priests are black? It is hypocritical if the upper middle class is not expected to give up its privilege while demanding that the lower middle class do so.
BY Flamez
ON August 28, 2023 08:04 AM
There has been efforts on this topic, from the 1993 Cox and Foster study on occupational licensing, to the 2015 study by the White House on licensing on how licensing barriers create complications in employment to many of the vulnerable low income and ethnic groups throughout the country. Many of these studies have shown that even in the most justified cause of licensing, almost all can be applied with a less restrictive system and one that reflects greater diversity. Removing unnecessary licensing restrictions on trades like construction, which is already the case in states like Maine, Texas, or Ohio, can eliminate the disparities in ethnic representation. What is good news is that the Feds recently created a task force under the Consumer Protection Department to combat unduly restrictive occupational licensing laws that injure consumers and businesses. Hopefully with greater recognition and support in this issue, with champions like the Institute for Justice, Mercatus Center, Mises Institute, and The economic Liberty task force, more influence can help turn the tide against discriminative and anticompetitive state policy on businesses and professions and increase opportunities, jobs, and innovation for Americas ethnic communities. The best thing we can do as a community is continue to voice concerns to both state and federal departments, and to actively advocate for change in state policies regarding licensing and employment to expand opportunity. Using any of the study’s given by the institutions above, Institute for Justice or Economic Liberty Task Force can help residents and businesses educate their state policy makers on the national trends and concerns involving licensing, unions, and construction.
BY M J J
ON November 8, 2025 01:25 AM
Let’s make a list and report all potential discriminatory incidents. Let’s get our own data base and compare 401ks, hours worked annually and length of time on jobs. The whole point of the union is to represent workers -members specifically. It’s not just the employers but the unions themselve. This isaue isn’t about one its about all and every time they are allowed to continue these practices they become stronger and over time they win again and again. We give up, get depressed and atop trying, applying and are solenced. Enough. Post anonymous teamwork makes the dreamwork. Share this article. Ask this journalist to keep the atory alive. Be a list keeper. Post on indeed. Send in your stories and make a difference. They are supposed to represent. There are failure to representaws.