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Each year during National Apprenticeship Week, SMART celebrates the life-changing power of a union apprenticeship — from stellar pay and benefits to lifelong solidarity and fulfilling career paths.

Dee Lee, a second-year Local 85 apprentice out of Atlanta, Ga., has already plunged head-first into life as a union sheet metal worker — from working in the field at Warner Bros. Studios to organizing multi-trade charity projects. Learn more in her SMART Women’s Committee National Apprenticeship Week spotlight:

Are you active in trade-related activities?

I am very active in trade-related activities. I have gone to career fairs and organizing events with my local organizer, I have volunteered, and I even hosted my own SMART Army event, the Unions Unite project. Unions Unite is the new, annual, all-local volunteer event I organized in Atlanta involving multiple union trades, the Georgia Building Trades Commission, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, and the Union Sportsmen’s Alliance. We all came together to install a new courtesy dock at the Blockhouse Boat Ramp in Cartersville, Ga.

What’s one tool you can’t live without?

The one tool I can’t live without is my notebook and pen! It helps me stay organized and keep track of the things I need to keep track of.

What do you find frustrating about your job/trade?

I’d say the most frustrating part is coworkers that are stuck in their ways, or stuck in “the old ways.” It makes it hard to be a woman sometimes. It feels a lot like I have to work twice as hard to earn half as much respect.

What’s the coolest job you’ve worked on?

The coolest job I was on was my first jobsite in the field, Warner Bros Studios. It was really cool to see the studios and the campus, and find out how much I already knew before I got out there.

Each year during National Apprenticeship Week, SMART celebrates the life-changing power of a union apprenticeship — from stellar pay and benefits to lifelong solidarity and fulfilling career paths.

First-year Local 206 (San Diego, Calif.) apprentice Brandi Hartung has only just started her sheet metal career, but she already has a concrete goal of becoming a foreman one day. Read more in her SMART Women’s Committee National Apprenticeship Week 2024 spotlight.

What unique strengths do you bring to your trade?

Problem solving and adaptability.

What do you love to do when you are not at work?

Spend time with my family and go for walks at the park.

What are your goals in the future?

My goals are to be a foreman one day.

What do you find frustrating about your job/trade?

The math and trying to figure out bend allowances.

What’s the coolest job you’ve worked on?

Soldering mechanical pads.

Why sheet metal?

I was interested in getting into the trades; my friend was already doing sheet metal, so he told me about it. It sounded like a good trade to get into, so I joined!

Best advice you’ve gotten as an apprentice?

Be open to learning something new every day.

What do you think about Tradeswomen Build Nations?

I love seeing more women in the trades and programs that help with our solidarity.

Each year during National Apprenticeship Week, SMART celebrates the life-changing power of a union apprenticeship — from stellar pay and benefits to lifelong solidarity and fulfilling career paths.

The SMART Women’s Committee is highlighting female apprentices as part of National Apprenticeship Week 2024. That includes third-year Local 85 (Atlanta, Ga.) apprentice Zenobia Clark, who says she loves her current job “because I can show my daughter my daily grit and endurance.”

What do you love to do when you are not at work?

Nature trips, writing, spiritual pursuits and family.

Best advice you got as an apprentice?

Learn all that you can.

Best advice you have for an apprentice?

Be aware and steady.

What’s the coolest job you’ve worked on?

The one I work on now is the coolest, because I can show my daughter my daily grit and endurance.

What surprised you about your trade?

The endurance and adaptability necessary.

What do you think about Tradeswomen Build Nations?

I love to see women there that go through the exact same situations as me. I feel stronger for the year after experiencing this support.

Each year during National Apprenticeship Week, SMART celebrates the life-changing power of a union apprenticeship — from stellar pay and benefits to lifelong solidarity and fulfilling career paths.

As part of the SMART Women’s Committee’s National Apprenticeship Week spotlight series, Local 17 (Boston, Mass.) sister Areesa Willie, a fourth-year apprentice, talks about how much she enjoys learning new things in the sheet metal trade (and getting paid to do it).

What unique strengths do you bring to your trade?

I try my best to bring positivity to my jobsite. I like to keep spirits up at work. I’m not perfect at it and sometimes I need a little uplifting myself, but I want everyone I work with to realize they matter and what they do inside and outside of work matters. I’m also sober, and I am very open about that. I want anyone that needs help for themselves or a friend/family member to feel comfortable asking for help. We all deserve to be happy, healthy and free.

What do you love to do when you are not at work?

Spending time with my daughter is my favorite thing to do; hiking, getting lunch or coffee with friends, cozying up under the covers and watching a good movie, spending time with my animals and reading.

What are your goals in the future?

I want to learn and understand my trade fully. My goal is to become a mechanic and help others learn and aspire to do things the right way. I also want to be a representative of recovery for my union. I want to help others get the help that they need with no judgements, no stigma.

What do you find surprising about your job/trade?

I was surprised that I was actually not terrible at it and how much I enjoy learning new things about it. I didn’t realize that I would be so passionate about it.

Each year during National Apprenticeship Week, SMART celebrates the life-changing power of a union apprenticeship — from stellar pay and benefits to lifelong solidarity and fulfilling career paths.

The SMART Women’s Committee is spotlighting female apprentices as part of National Apprenticeship Week 2024. And in St. Louis, second-year apprentice Lily May Gibson is getting her career off to a strong start, helping found the first Local 36 Women’s Committee and doing her part to bring more sisters into our trade.

What unique strengths do you bring to your trade?

I can MiG, Stick and TIG weld. I can weld aluminum, stainless steel, copper, titanium, etc. I have a very strong work ethic and always willing to learn new things! I’m strong in leadership roles as well.

What do you love to do when you are not at work?

When I’m not at work, I sit in my shop at home and weld. I also enjoy racing, hunting, fishing, taking care of my farm and being involved in volunteer work in my community!

Tool you can’t live without?

Hands down would be my welpers. It’s a pair of pliers meant for MIG welding.

What are your goals in the future?

I’m one of the founders of the first women’s committee in Local 36. Some of my goals are to help grow our women’s committee, be able to travel out of the country to weld, and help other women and younger generations understand that trades are a wonderful route to go. I’d also love to learn laser welding in the future!

While many teenagers were figuring out what classes to take the next school year, Emilee Och was making plans to be a union welder. As a student in the School to Apprenticeship Program, her aspirations were complemented with training while she was still in high school, and she earned apprentice wages throughout the process.

The School to Apprenticeship Program, known also as an apprentice readiness program, or ARP, provides a pathway for high school seniors to get a head start on their careers in the trades. Och was a student at Apollo Career Center when she was introduced to the program by Eugene Frazier, now-retired training coordinator for Local 24 (central Ohio).

Elements of the School to Apprenticeship Program have dated back to the late 1980’s, and high school seniors were added to the program around 2013. The program was officially formulized in the state of Ohio in 2021, said Tony Stephens, training coordinator for Local 24 in Dayton.

As a student in the program, Och became a pre-apprentice at age 16, between her junior and senior year of high school, and she was a first-year apprentice during her senior year.

This summer, Och, 22, graduated from the apprentice program in Dayton, Ohio, and received an award recognizing her as the highest achieving apprentice, the Eugene Frazier II Award — named for the coordinator who introduced her to the program — along with perfect attendance. Och is the first woman to receive this recognition.

The program is the equivalent of high school students taking college classes for dual credit, she said.

“I knew I wanted to go union, for sure, but what I really liked is I could join right then and there and go to school at the same time,” Och added. From her home in Lima, Ohio, it was nearly a 90-minute drive, and she still managed to be the first apprentice since 2016 to achieve perfect attendance. “I was definitely keeping track of that, for sure. It was hard to make sure I was there every week, but I was pretty dedicated to it. I knew it would be worth it in the end, and it would be a good career for me.”

The School to Apprenticeship Program, and ARPs in general, ease high school students into adulthood with a varied schedule. Students attend school for two weeks, then work in the field for two weeks during the day while attending apprenticeship courses at Local 24’s training center in the evenings. The program allows them to retain their high school identities — playing football, participating in band and choir, attending senior trips — while jumpstarting their careers.

“It’s not full time. We have a much better retention with the School to Apprenticeship Program students than with any other program,” Stephens said. “We will retain 80%, if not more, in comparison to the 50% of apprentices we bring in by traditional means. It’s almost as constant as gravity. It’s been true since I was an apprentice.”

Och went from tinkering in the garage with her father as a child to working in the sheet metal shop at Smith-Boughan Mechanical in Lima. Her next goal is to become a foreperson.

“[The program] makes you feel more comfortable, helps you get the basics down so you know what you’re getting into,” she said. “It gives you a sense of responsibility. You have to be to work on time. You have to be prepared. It gives you a sense of commitment. I definitely think it was a good path for me, for sure.”

Local 36 (St. Louis) sheet metal worker-turned-signatory contractor Rochelle Bonty was recognized by the Missouri Women in Trades (MOWIT) in early April, when she earned an honorable mention in MOWIT’s 2022 Contractor of the Year category. Bonty, the first Black woman in the Local 36 apprenticeship program, started her business — RMB Mechanical — in 2020.

“I wanted to open my own business for my family, for the industry, because the number of MBE/WBE [minority business enterprise/woman business enterprise] businesses are few, and for others who look like me, so they can be inspired to do the same,” Bonty told the Labor Tribune. “It’s hard, but others need to see it’s not impossible.”

Bonty entered the sheet metal trade out of a love for working with her hands and the desire to create something out of nothing; “I enjoy seeing the process of renovation and preserving the history of the city I grew up in,” she said. In 2020, that love for her craft spurred her to take the next step in her career. She had been working at Ball Park Village for Clay Piping Systems when the pandemic started — she was laid off, and although she returned to her previous employer, she began researching the process of starting one’s own business. Given the emphasis the pandemic has placed on indoor air quality, she immediately thought of HVAC duct cleaning.

“For me, that was the simplest thing to start and I didn’t need as much money as opposed to taking on a major HVAC contract,” she told the Tribune. “I started making calls to businesses and asking if they needed their air ducts cleaned.”

After contacting the St. Louis Development Corporation, they offered her a grant for air duct cleaning.

“That was my first contract,” she added.

Since then, Bonty’s trailblazing career has moved forward at breakneck speed. She recently became the first Black woman to serve on the board of SMACNA St. Louis, and she has aimed to inspire more women and high school graduates to join the trades via her work as a member of the National Association of Women in Construction (NAWIC) St. Louis chapter and as a St. Louis Building Union Diversity (BUD) program mentor. Such efforts are especially significant as SMART aims to strengthen our union by organizing, recruiting and retaining workers from across all backgrounds.

“I wasn’t sure if I could [have a career in the trades], but I did,” she said. “I hope to be an example for others so they can overcome their doubts and fears and do things uncommon in the construction industry.”