(LAKE VIEW, NEW YORK) – In one tent, a high school student wearing a hard hat pounded a nail into a two-by-four.  In another, sparks flew from a welding unit operated by a student wearing protective clothing.  And another wearing a harness was repelled down a scaffold by local Ironworkers.

Everywhere you looked at International Union of Operating Engineers (IUOE) Local 17’s sprawling, 400-acre site just outside Buffalo in Lake View, young people were heading to individual areas where the 18-Member Unions of the Buffalo Building & Construction Trades Council introduced them to their specific craft – from a virtual painting booth to climbing into and operating small bulldozers and amazingly-large cranes.

After a two-year hiatus, the Western New York Construction Career Days Event run by the Unionized Trades Council was back, attracting an overall 1,200 area high school students from the Counties of Erie, Niagara, Chautauqua, Allegany, Cattaraugus, Wyoming, Genesee and Orleans over its two days.

And with such a shortage of highly-skilled, trained and seasoned Tradespeople in the United States, the introductory and hands-on event hopefully opened a number of eyes of the young people who attended in terms of getting them to think about a good-paying career in the Unionized Construction Industry.

“It has run ‘really smooth,’” Carley Hill of the Union Concrete and Construction Corporation – one of several area Union Contractors involved in supporting and participating in the event - told WNYLaborToday.com after the first day ended.  “We started with a safety talk and ‘why it’s important to consider a career in the Trades.’  I asked: ‘Where are the Construction Workers of tomorrow coming from?’ Then I said to (the assembled students), ‘Maybe some of them are sitting here right now.’  Maybe that will ‘get some of them thinking about their future’ after they got to see what it was all about.’”

With natural disasters recently occurring in Texas, Florida and now, Puerto Rico – where the infrastructure and housing has literally been wiped off the map - the dire need to replenish the workforce in the Construction Trades is of paramount importance. 

Here in Western New York – more than 26% of the current workforce is expected to retire this decade. 

With that said, the predicted job growth for the Building Trades is 17% from now until the year 2024 – and the goal of the Buffalo Building Trades Council is to be able to continue its Western New York Construction Career Days event, whose purpose is to expose young people to these tremendous careers.  

According to Building Trades Reps, statistics compiled a couple of years ago showed 53% of Skilled Trades Workers were age 45 and older, while another 18.6% were between the ages of 55 and 64.

And – the average hourly wage/benefits package for a Union-represented Trades Construction Worker ranges from the upper $40s to as much as $65 to $70 – which is an attractive selling point to the young students, Buffalo Building Trades Officials noted.

During their visit, the students experienced a concrete pour, replica bridge construction, bricklaying, operation of heavy highway equipment, copper pipe sweating, burning, and welding, painting, form setting, glass cutting, indoor job fair and simulators - all under the watchful eyes of retired IUOE Members and Trades Representatives, who volunteered their time to take part in the event.

And it didn’t take long to get positive feedback from the group, IUOE Local 17 Training Fund Administrative Manager James Smolinski, Jr. told WNYLaborToday.com: “I had a teacher from Franklinville (from Cattaraugus County in the Southern Tier) tell me: ‘Thank you so much – it was eye-opening.’”

The Buffalo Trades had taken a two-year break after a 12-year run with the Construction Career Days event, but decided to restart the successful offering after “continuous calls from the high schools who wanted the event to resume,” Construction Career Days Board of Trustee Member Gary Bernardo of Laborers Local 210 told Your On-Line Labor Newspaper.

“It’s ‘good to be back and doing it again this year,’” said Bernardo, who along with Smolinski and a group of about 100 volunteers were at the IUOE Training Site bright and early while it was still dark and the stars were out at 4:30 a.m. Wednesday (October 4th) to get ready to welcome the students.

Also involved was long-time ally - the Construction Exchange of Buffalo & WNY Incorporated, a local organization that represents a variety of construction contractors - and several participating educational institutions, including Alfred State University, BOCES and Erie Community College.

The Buffalo Building Trades’ affiliated Member Unions Include: Boilermakers Local 7 of Orchard Park; Bricklayers & Allied Craftsworkers Local 3 of Buffalo; Northeast Regional Council of 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.

WNYLaborToday.com Editor’s Note: For More On Western New York Construction Career Days, visit www.constructioncareerdays.org.  And For More, Read WNYLaborToday.com’s September 18th Labor News Report, Headlined: It’s Baaack! After A Two-Year Break - WNY Construction Career Days Returns. All Photos That Appear In This Labor News Report Were Taken By WNYLaborToday.com.