(LAKE VIEW, NEW YORK) – You would have thought the cluster of High School Students that WNYLaborToday.com observed were at an amusement park as they ooohed and aaahed while proclaiming “I want to do that” and “What about this over here?”

It didn’t matter if their eyes were transfixed on a student wearing a harness who was being repelled down a scaffold or elevated high above the ground while perched in a scissors lift, they were excited to be at International Union of Operating Engineers (IUOE)’s sprawling, 400-acre Training Facility in Lake View, located just south of Buffalo, to take part in the two-day Western New York Construction Career Days event - which was slated to draw a record 1,300 High School Students from as many as 37 individual schools located across the eight counties of Western New York and from as far away as the City of Rochester.

The 2018 version of Construction Career Days (which took a two-year break after 10 consecutive years before resuming in 2017) was already deemed a success on Wednesday (October 3rd) by its organizers, who spoke to WNYLaborToday.com about the increasing pressure to begin to find those new Construction Workers of tomorrow as more and more older Trades Workers get ready to retire and hang up their tools for the last time.

“We here at the Operating Engineers Union are looking to take on (100) new Apprentices in each of the next several years because the ‘average age’ (of their Membership) is anywhere from (45 to 50).  If some of these kids get in when they’re (18), they can work (25 to 30) years and ‘retire early with a great pension,’” IUOE Local 17 Training Fund Administrative Manager James Smolinski, Jr. - who also serves as Co-Chair of the Construction Career Days Steering Committee - told WNYLaborToday.com.

Gary Bernardo, who serves as Co-Chair of the Construction Career Days Steering Committee and is an Executive Board Member of Laborers Local 210, told Your On-Line Labor Newspaper: “We’ll be looking at a ‘big hit’ (Unionized Construction Workers) when the ‘Baby Boomers’ start to retire.  When that happens, it will be a ‘mass exodus.’  ‘That’s why we’re doing this.’”

And it seems as though the long-term efforts of the Buffalo Building & Construction Trades Council - whose 18 Member Unions participate in the WNY Construction Career Days Event - are making some serious headway, especially when it comes to educating High School Guidance Counselors of the opportunities in the Unionized Trades, where after their Apprenticeship Training, a Journeyperson can make around $50 to $55 an hour and yearly in excess of $90,000.

“They were ‘happy to see us,’” Bernardo said of the High School Counselors.  “But we’ve got to give these kids ‘something to see and do.’  ‘You can’t just sit there and talk to them and show them a video.’  ‘You’ll lose them in minutes.’  We did some research too and found that ‘only (30%) of those who graduate from a four-year college ‘immediately find employment, and that many face ($40,000) in college debt with no career in sight.’  We tell those counselors, ‘Who’s going to build buildings, build roads - repair them?  ‘How do you think we’re going to get this done?’”

Buffalo Building & Construction Trades Council President Paul Brown also was on hand for opening day of Construction Career Days, telling Your On-Line Labor Newspaper the Unionized Trades are stepping up their efforts to attract more Minority Workers with the City of Buffalo’s help - targeting zip codes in Buffalo’s major poverty zones. 

“Look - ‘pushing college isn’t for everyone.’  There are ‘many different avenues of work out there.’  ‘Our effort with the city is working’ and were getting about fifty-percent (of those who go on to complete the Apprenticeship Program), ‘which is pretty high.’  But you have to be (18 years of age), have a driver’s license, your own transportation and pass a drug test,” Brown said.

Those students attending the Construction Career Days event this week were exposed to a number of hands-on experiences, from repelling down a scaffold, bending electrical piping, driving and operating small backhoes and bulldozers and a number of virtual offerings, including painting and welding - all under the watchful eyes of extremely-trained Building Trades Representatives, including a number of seasoned Retirees. 

All in all, there was much to see and do.

Gary McCracken, a 25-year Member of the Operating Engineers who’s now retired and has volunteered his services to help out at 12 Construction Career Days, told WNYLaborToday.com: “I hear it from people who say their kids or cousins ‘have come through’ Construction Career Day.  I’m here because I ‘enjoy doing it’ and because ‘everything is hands-on’ (for the students to try).  And when I talk with them, I spread the word about ‘all’ the Trades – ‘not just ours.’”

But it also takes money, donations of equipment and gas and volunteers to make the event go, and the Western New York Construction Career Days Organization got welcome news from the Workforce Development Institute, a Statewide non-profit that uses its expertise to fund projects that build skills and also strengthen employers’ ability to hire and promote Workers.

The WDI has provided the Construction Career Days Group with $20,000 in each of the last two years and Mike LaBerta, WDI’s Western New York Regional Director, made it known that WDI plans to provide the 2019 Career Days Event with yet another $20,000.

“We ‘need to get the greatest impact for the money that is being spent’ and with (1,300) students exposed - ‘it becomes even more powerful.’  ‘The balance is here.’  This is ‘not a fluff’ program,” he said.

John Magney from the Maxwell Murphy Law Firm, who serves on the Western New York Construction Career Days Board of Directors, told WNYLaborToday.com: “These kids ‘need to know what a viable career this is, what an opportunity this is.’  ‘It’s just that they’ve never been talked to (about it).’  ‘Too many people think’ this is a ‘Goodfellows Club, where you have to know someone to get in.’  What we get back from (the kids) is, ‘We never knew.’

Also involved in the Western New York Construction Career Days Event was long-time ally - the Construction Industry Employers Association, an area professional organization representing a variety of contractors - and several participating educational institutions, including Alfred State University, BOCES and Erie Community College.

In an open letter featured in its event program, CIEA Executive Vice President James Logan wrote to the attending students: On behalf of the Western New York Building Industry - the Union General Contractors and the Specialty Contractors that this association represents - I hope you will take advantage of the opportunities provided to you today and seriously consider our industry as your industry of choice.

The Buffalo Building Trades’ affiliated Member Unions Include: Boilermakers Local 7 of Orchard Park; Bricklayers Local 3 of Buffalo; Carpenters Local 276 of Cheektowaga; Cement Masons Local 111 of North Tonawanda; International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 41 of Orchard Park; Elevator Constructors Local 14 of Cheektowaga; Heat & Frost Insulators Local 4 of West Seneca;  Ironworkers Local 6 of West Seneca; Laborers Local 210 of Cheektowaga; Millwrights Local 1163 of Western New York; IUOE Local 17; International Union of Painters & Allied Trades (IUPAT)/Painters District Council 4 of Cheektowaga; Plasterers Local 9 of North Tonawanda; U.A. Plumbers & Steamfitters Local 22 of Orchard Park; Roofers Local 74 of Cheektowaga; Sheet Metal Workers Local 71 of Buffalo; U.A. Road Sprinklerfitters Local 669 of Buffalo; and Teamsters Local 449 of Buffalo.

All but the Plumbers Union took part in this year’s WNY Construction Career Days Event.

Photos that appear in this Labor News Report were taken by WNYLaborToday.com.