Anna Martin needed a fresh start, one she felt she couldn’t get in her role in customer service. She took a pre-apprenticeship class and fell in love with ironworking. When she took her journeyman’s exam, she had the highest score of 27 people — and she was the only woman. Her fresh start in construction has led to fresh starts for dozens of other women. Martin is now a pre-apprenticeship program instructor for Oregon’s Union Pre-Apprenticeship Construction Training program (U-PACT).
U-PACT offers a 12-week training course to women in custody at the Coffee Creek Correctional Facility. Participants earn their OSHA 10 card and receive training in three trades: ironworking, bricklaying and cement masonry. They also receive life-skills training to prepare them for a future outside of prison. Graduates receive preferred entry into their chosen apprenticeship program and receive tools, tool belts and helmets at no cost, as well as a boot allowance.
“It’s amazing,” Martin said. “When we do initial interviews, you can tell they’re defeated. Then you spend 12 weeks with them, teaching them skills and boosting their self-confidence. We treat them like they are human beings. ... I tell the girls on their first day in class with me that we all have a past. We all have a history. Whatever their past is, it has no impact on their present and their future. ... I’ve got women that have graduated the program who are out in the field. They’re buying their first car ever; they have a two-bedroom apartment. These are things they’ve never had before.”
Martin studied journalism, which has enabled her to craft grant proposals for U-PACT totaling $875,000 in awards for the program.
“I always wanted to write the great American novel, but that’s clearly not my path,” she said. “But I’ll be damned if I didn’t write a few grant proposals. Apparently, mixing up the alphabet a few times got us some money.”
Martin is also a Certified Welding Inspector (CWI), one of four in her union and the only woman in the role. Taking the course to become a CWI was like “learning a completely new language,” she said.
She credits the relationships she has built within her union, Ironworkers Local 29, to advancing her career. Two mentors, Vicki O’Leary and Lachelle Pierce, have helped Martin through tough days. Pierce encouraged Martin through her apprenticeship when Martin felt like giving up.
“I would call her crying, saying, ‘I can’t do this! It’s so brutal!’ She’d remind me that I was a tough woman, and I was an ironworker,” Martin said.
Martin said there’s a great deal of underestimation of women in construction, halting some women from joining the profession — but she sees the atmosphere improving.
“It’s 1,000 times better than it was, and it’s happening a lot quicker than I thought it would. It’s quite a bit more accepting,” she said. “It’s still rough; there’s still that passive-aggressive sexual harassment, but there are more good company owners, superintendents and [union leadership] that address it.”
For companies wanting to hire and retain women in the construction space, Martin advises them to look to programs such as U-PACT for new apprentices. The other big piece is to provide solid mentorship connections, whether within the company or helping to find that connection within the wider community.
“You need to have good, solid mentorship, someone you can call and rage-vent to, who will just listen, someone who will help you problem-solve and help guide you,” she said.
Martin shares her contact information with any new apprentices, regardless of gender, when she meets them, offering herself as a mentor. For the graduates of U-PACT, she makes sure they know they can call her when they are released, and she keeps her ear to the ground for good opportunities.
“If I see opportunities, I’ll pass them along to people I think would benefit from them,” she said. Most recently, this meant alerting a new journeyman that an instructor position was opening in U-PACT for a men’s prison. He made the switch and will begin leading pre-apprenticeship classes when the course opens.
