By: Lydia Crawley The Parsons Advocate
Governmental Affairs Director for the West Virginia International Union of Painters and Allied Trades, David Bland presented employment options for residents and students in Tucker County to the Tucker County Commission on May 14th during the Commission’s regular session.
Included in Bland’s presentation were programs for veterans and students, as well as those who may want to retrain into a trade.
Trade Unions offer what Bland called the “Helmets to Hardhats Program” for veterans. According to Bland it is a direct hire program that allows veterans just getting out of the military to join apprenticeship programs.
Another program outlined by Bland was Job Corps, a federally funded program in Charleston for youth. According to the Job Corps website, the program offers youths 16 to 24 training in over 100 areas at over 120 campuses nationwide in 10 in-demand industries. Job Corps has been in existence for over 60 years and provides free housing, meals, basic medical care and a living allowance. Eligible youths must meet age and income requirements as well as citizenship, residency, DACA or other approved status requirements, background requirements and be ready and motivated to succeed, according to the site.
“While they are in the program, they get them their drivers license, their GED, their diploma and when they complete the program, at the Job Corps, its a direct entry into the IUPAT Apprenticeship Program or the Carpenters Union Program,” Bland said.
The IUPAT has a training facility in Weston and represents four main trades: painting, dry wall finishing, glazing (glass installation) and sign and display workers, Bland said. Bland invited the Commissioners to visit and tour the facility.
“We are the only tank painting training center in the country,” Bland said.
Bland said that tank painting is a very dangerous profession and deaths are common. Besides the inherent dangers of the job itself, Bland said that there is a problem with bad paint jobs being completed on tanks. The center in Weston seeks to teach students how to safely and professionally complete the tasks.
Bland said that the IUPAT welcomes women in the union. According to Bland, studies have shown that women tend to be neater and have a greater attention to detail than men.
“Women, in fact, a lot of times, have a better attention to detail so they make great painters and dry wall finishers because they are neater and pay more attention to detail better, often times than men, not always,” Bland said. “But why I’m saying that is, we welcome women into our union and we don’t discriminate.”
Starting pay, according to Bland averages between $16 to $18 an hour with bridge rate at around $34 an hour.
