Women Members Make Their Mark on BAC 150

JOURNAL: ISSUE 4 - 2015

Nine BAC tradeswomen attended the Convention, and joined IU officers for a working lunch on September 14th. From left, Leilani Omegna of Local 2 WA/ID/MT, Yolanda Overstreet of Local 21 IL, Laurie Harris of Local 3 CA, Michele Riley of Local 2 MI, Lily Calderon of Local 21 IL, Vanessa Casillas of Local 56 IL, BAC Executive Vice President Tim Driscoll, BAC Director of Community and Member Engagement Prairie Wells, IMTEF National Apprenticeship and Training Director Bob Arnold, IMI President Joan Calambokidis, and Magan Smith of Local 8 SE. Not pictured, Ruby Nieves of Local 1 NY and Brenda Cartino of Local 1 OR.

A concerted focus of BAC 150 was inclusion. From President James Boland’s opening remarks –   “We must look past the folks that look just like us” in order to recruit craftworkers and train leaders from under-represented but growing segments of the labor force such as ‘women, Latino, minority and LGBTQ workers’ – to guest speakers to workshops and finally, to delegates’ related actions on BAC 150’s closing day, the 2015 Convention firmly resolved that BAC’s members and leaders must better reflect the workforces of the communities where BAC craftworkers live and work.

That’s a tall order, but not an impossible one, when it comes to women in the skilled trades. Despite the fact that BAC sisters have worked alongside their BAC brothers for more than three decades, the number of women craftworkers in BAC and the skilled trades has failed to increase significantly. “That’s unacceptable,” says President Boland.

Delegates backed up that sentiment as well as President Boland’s urgent call on Day One of BAC 150 to diversify the Union’s membership and leadership ranks by adopting Resolution 32 (see page 10) and approving the Executive Board’s appointment of several women as At-Large Members to the BAC Executive Council, ensuring that women members will be represented at the Union’s highest levels; the new Council members are bricklayers Liliana Calderon of Local 21 Illinois, Ruby Nieves of Local 1 New York, and Angela Henderson of Local 2 Washington/Idaho/Montana.

Even before that historic decision, BAC sisters were breaking new ground at the Convention. Sister Calderon and Local 21 IL bricklayer Yolanda Overstreet were delegates of Administrative District Council 1 of Illinois and each served on Convention Committees. Seven BAC tradeswomen also attended the Convention as guests of the International, with one member appointed by the IU as a Convention Sergeant-at-Arms, another first.

Getting Started in the Trowel Trades

Lily Calderon worked in the video, carpentry and electrical fields before a training program for women introduced her to bricklaying nine years ago. “I was at the District Training Center and just fell in love with the trowel trades,” she says.

Yolanda Overstreet was a laborer and highway flagger who wanted something more. She entered the bricklayer apprentice program at Local 21 IL some 27 years ago and is happy she did. “I know people doing similar work who aren’t in the Union,” she says, “and for them there’s no reward or gratification. I have benefits, medical and dental, and I can look forward to a pension because I have the Union behind me.”

Brenda Cartino was the first woman bricklayer to journey out in Local 1 OR and continues to be a trailblazer as a traveling refractory bricklayer.  Appreciative and proud of her appointment to participate in the Convention as a Sergeant-at-Arms, the former Marine says she deeply values BAC and the connections she made with her BAC brothers and sisters in Baltimore.

Local 3 California PCC and bricklayer Laurie Harris has been a Union member for 28 years. Her grandfather and seven of her great-uncles were bricklayers, and masonry is in her blood. Harris was a teamster and cabinetmaker before finding her calling and rightful home at BAC.

Cement mason and PCC member Michele Riley of Local 2 Michigan was a UPS driver who was encouraged by a friend who is a bricklayer to give the Union a try. She joined BAC in 2002 and has never looked back.

Also attending BAC 150 were Vanessa Casillas of Local 56 IL, Ruby Nieves of Local 1 NY, Leilani Omegna of Local 2 WA/ID/MT and Magan Smith of Local 8 SE.