My name is Nickole. I'm 41 years old and I am a member of the Laborers Local 754 located in Rockland County. I'm a laborer, which consists of many different things. The work we do depends on the work site and what they need you to do. I can do anything from traffic control flagging to getting in trenches, digging, and using other equipment. I'm very new to the union. This is my second year in the apprenticeship and I really like it. The apprenticeship can range from two to four years. You're supposed to do a certain amount of classroom hours and then you also have to complete a certain number of work hours before you graduate into a journeyman.
This apprenticeship revitalized me. I'm an autism mom and I had been at home for many years taking care of my family when I got this opportunity. When I was looking to start working again, I called a friend who suggested that I try the laborers apprenticeship. I decided I would try it out. I applied and was offered the apprenticeship. I'm about a year away from graduating because I've been moving full steam ahead. When I'm not working, I'm up here taking classes and when I'm not up here taking classes, I'm working. I should be journeyman probably in another year.
My husband is a member of CWA, so I knew that it would be a good thing to get into the union. A union can be a family and if you are active in your union that can benefit you. I like it because I'm still meeting a lot of people, networking, and I'm a part of something now.
It feels good to be a part of the union. The benefit of being in a union is that instead of you having to go out and look for work, they find it for you. As long as there's work out there, they can find it for you and get you back to work. Sometimes jobs don't last long. You might be sent to a job for a week or so and then you're laid off and you’ve got to find a new job. The union keeps you working as much as they can. You also do get benefits like health insurance for you and your family. They also have pensions and vacation pay. Every union is different in terms of what they do for their workers.
Over the last few months, I've been flagging for a company. A lot of people hate flagging, especially the men. They hate that job because it is tough. You're standing in one place all day. It's different when you're out there working, doing manual labor because it makes the time go by faster. You're busy. It's cold, you're staying warm by moving around. When you're just flagging, you're standing in one spot for eight hours. I went in feeling negative about flagging, but I made it my own. When I get out there, I'm very professional. I'm directing traffic and I have people coming up to me waving, giving me things. It's a nice thing. It's all about perspective. For me now, I'm okay with it. I don't mind. I'm happy to go to work every morning. I deal with the cold by wearing layers and layers of clothes. I never wear a coat because I didn't want to be too bulky and have it get in the way of me having to work. I just wear a lot of layers. You've got to make sure you have good gloves because your hands are the first thing that freezes. Good gloves, hat, cover your ears, sometimes you need to cover your face too.
It can be challenging to be a woman because this was definitely a man's career for years. I know that women can do it too, but it's predominantly men in this field. Sometimes just being a woman on a job can just be a distraction to the men. You don't have to do anything, just be there. Or sometimes they might look at you and doubt your abilities. If you’re serious about this job you have to work a little harder to prove to the people you're working with that you're not just a girl. I want people to know that I'm a coworker and I'm here to work. Once you make it known that you're ready to get dirty and you're ready to work, the men will respect you. I haven't had any problems so far because I'm a hard worker. At first when they look at you, they don't see that. But when I'm getting in the trenches and picking up heavy stuff, they see that I do work. My advice to women seriously considering this career is to go for it and get ready to work hard. Just as hard as the men you're working with, if not harder. You have to prove yourself in order to get the respect from your coworkers.
The companies I’ve worked for call me an excellent worker. As an apprentice you have to have a blue book from the Department of Labor. You have to fill it out with all the times you work and then you have to get it signed by the supervisor you were working with. They have a comments section on the bottom where they can rate your work as good, fair, poor, or excellent. So far, I've gotten nothing but good and excellent marks. I still have companies that might call me once in a while to ask if I need work. That feels good. Being able to network is important. You got to have some kind of personality. If you keep to yourself all the time nobody's going to look to tell you anything, including the things you need to know. You won't find out anything. So, you got to be a little outgoing. You got to know how to talk. Being a woman around all the men, you got to find some kind of common ground or something. For me, it's easy because I've been around men for most of my life. I was a tomboy growing up and I've always hung out with the guys. I'll walk in the room and I'm already making jokes.
I like that I'm not stuck in one place. I like that there's always a journey waiting around the corner. You could be doing something for a while and then you wind up going somewhere else and doing something totally different. You don't get bored. It's not like a day in an office job where you're at the computer every day. You do so many different things as a laborer. It's an adventure and you never know what's next. You never know what can come next.
A lot of people don’t understand why union members sometimes go on strike. Some people might feel like union members are spoiled or just want things a certain way. What people have to understand is that union members risk their lives and work hard every day to feed their families. It's a very dangerous job from working with heavy machinery to working as a flagger in traffic. A lot of people in a union work hard to support their family and they're just trying to make sure that they can keep doing what they have to do. I think that sometimes people don't understand that.
I have two kids; one is 19 and the other is 14. My 19-year-old son is autistic, non-verbal. Going to work can be a little relief when you're dealing with that. It creates a little free space in your mind. It makes me work harder for my family. At this point, I’m 41 years old and thinking about the big picture in terms of my future. I’d like to own my own construction company one day. As a female company owner, that would present a lot of opportunities.
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A photography project of Workforce Development Institute - Shining a spotlight on women emerging in the union workforce.
