(LAKE VIEW, NEW YORK) – While it might not be at a Buffalo Bills game in Orchard Park (where Unionized Construction Workers are building a new NFL Stadium for the home team), ask Jim “Smoker” Smolinski where he would rather be, than right here, right now when it comes to the first week of October and he’ll answer: The annual Western New York Construction Career Days event, which will introduce more than 1,000 High School students from across the region to a potential future career in the Unionized Trades.

Smolinski serves as International Union of Operating Engineers (IUOE) Local 17’s Administrative Manager at the Union’s Training Facility in Lake View - where every one of the Construction Career Days events have been held in its history.

Ironically, Smolinski will be helping oversee the 17th annual event at Local 17’s sprawling 400-acre Training Facility in Lake View - located just south of Buffalo on Wednesday (October 1st) and Thursday (October 2nd), that have been put on by the individual Member Unions of the Buffalo Niagara Building & Construction Trades Council over the years.

Those attending high school students, young Men and Women, will participate in a variety of hands-on and virtual opportunities that just might catch their interest in one day becoming a Unionized Construction Worker here in Western New York.

“‘I’ve been here for every single one from its inception.’ ‘In fact, October (2nd) is my birthday and I will have spent every one of the seventeen at Construction Career days,’” said Smoker (Pictured Below, on the right, next to IUOE Local 17 Business Manager Bill Fekete) with a laugh as he reluctantly declined to reveal his age.

Asked if he ever envisioned Construction Career Days having the longevity it has had, Smolinski answered: “‘I didn’t back then (when it started), but once it happened it took off and I wasn’t surprised.’ It’s ‘crazy to think it has been so many years.’ There’s a lot of work do to put it on, but (the Trades) ‘has gotten so much positive feedback.’ There were a couple of years when we ‘didn’t do it’ (two years due to the COVID-19 Pandemic) that we had so many people asking ‘why we weren’t.’”

This year, the 21 individual Building Trades’ Unions are continuing to be focused on educating young people to the many, good-paying job opportunities that exist across the Unionized Trades, especially in light of a number of major projects that are occurring right now and coming in the next couple of years here in Western New York, most notably the nearby Bills’ Stadium, which now employs hundreds of Trades Workers in Orchard Park.

And, after years of pulling off successful Construction Career Days events, the Trades - including IUOE Local 17, are now seeing the results of their efforts.

“We put it on our Apprenticeship applications,” noted Smolinski of asking applicants whether or not they attended a Construction Career Days event in the past. “Other Trades tell me ‘they too are getting applicants who’ve come through.’ (The Trades) ‘have never put together a rundown’ (across all participating Unions) to get a figure, ‘but that’s maybe something we should do.’”

While work is very good right now in the Western New York Construction Industry, many Unionized Trades Workers are retiring on an annual basis, so there is a real need to replenish the area workforce by attracting young people to an array of tremendous job opportunities.

“‘Do we need to replenish our ranks?’ ‘Big time we do,’” Smolinski said. “We’ve ‘got to keep building our numbers through Apprentice training.’ That’s the ‘only way now since the Trades have really exhausted turning Non-Union Workers into Union-represented Workers.’”

“We ‘continually impress on the kids who attend the event that if they decide to work construction, they will get the training, health benefits and pension that comes with working Union,’” he continued. “‘In many cases, you don’t get health care and a pension - and if you get health care, you’re paying for it.’ ‘So, it’s important to stress with them that if you get on the Union side, you’ll get the benefits.’”

The Buffalo & Niagara County Building Construction and Trades Council includes: Boilermakers Local 7; Bricklayers Local 3; Carpenters Local 276; Cement Masons Local 111; Electrical Workers Local 41 and Local 237; Elevator Constructors Local 14; Heat & Frost Insulators Local 4; Ironworkers Local 6 and Local 9; Laborers Local 210 and Local 91; Millwrights Local 1163; Operating Engineers Local 17; Painters District Council 4; Plasterers Local 9; U.A. Plumbers & Steamfitters Local 22; Roofers Local 74; Sheet Metal Workers Local 71; U.A. Road Sprinklerfitters Local 669; and Teamsters Local 449.

WNYLaborToday.com File Photos.