California District Council Competitors Rusty Secody, Paul Aroian, and Roger Ramirez
International Apprenticeship Competition
The International Apprenticeship Competition was held in September at the Houston Local 84 Training Center. Our District Council Competitors, Paul Aroian, Roger Ramirez, (both from Local 433 in La Palma) and Rusty Secody from Local 75 in Phoenix, all did a fine job of representing our district council. The competition was intense as the best of the best competed for great prizes and bragging rights.
Native American Gladiator Training
The California District Council has conducted three training classes in cooperation with the Navajo Tribe. Tribal members completed five weeks of ten hour per day class held at the Phoenix University of Iron location. Graduates were offered jobs at various locations in Arizona, Nevada, and Northern California.
WOMEN'S WELDING
Congratulations to the the women that have recently completed the Ironworkers Women Gladiator Training Class in Benicia California! These women are now employed with Union contractors doing work in tha Bay area. All of these women have sucessfully completed a three month "gladiator" class on their own time prior to entering the apprenticeship.
WOMEN GLADIATORS and THE GOLDEN GATE BRIDGE
BENICIA, Calif. (KGO) -- The Golden Gate Bridge's 75th anniversary is coming up this weekend. A lot has changed since it was built, but ironworkers are still key in bridge construction. The bridge workers of tomorrow are being trained in the Bay Area. Some of them are women.
Ironworkers consider themselves the Marines of the building trades. If that's so, then the Field Ironworkers Apprenticeship and Training Center in Benicia, also known as the University of Iron, is boot camp.
"Basket weaving and pottery's a lot of fun, but that's not what we do at the training center," apprenticeship director Dick Zampa, Jr. said. "It's welding, rigging, reinforcing, post-tensioning, architectural work and everything related to the ironworker trade."
