Amber Cunningham, 22 years old
3rd year apprentice, IBEW Local 910
I grew up in a very union strong family, so being in the union has just been second nature to me. I’m actually a fourth-generation union member and have had family members that have been union mine workers, members of the united autoworkers, members of IBEW 1249, and now I’m a member of IBEW 910. My dad played a major role in influencing me to join a union. When I took HVAC in high school, we had a small electrical portion and I realized that I really like this work. My dad suggested that I apply for the IBEW apprenticeship program. I wouldn’t be where I am today without my dad’s guidance.
After high school, I enrolled in a one-year electrical construction maintenance certificate program at SUNY Canton that helps prepare you for the apprenticeship program.
Throughout the certificate program we participated in hands on labs along with schoolwork and that’s kind of what the apprenticeship is like now. During the apprenticeship, we work 40 hours a week and then we go to school 2 nights a week. While I attended SUNY Canton, I took the IBEW apprenticeship aptitude test. I passed the test, went in for the interview, and was put on the list for the apprenticeship. After I finished my one year at college, I got the call saying that I was accepted into the apprenticeship program.
I like my job because I get to work in so many different places and on so many different projects. You get to see a whole project come together and know that you helped make that happen. I guess any person that is in the construction field gets to do that, but I feel like being an electrician is cool because you get to make dark into light. It’s awesome being a union member because after becoming a journeyman, you can go on to work anywhere in the country. I’ve met journeymen that have worked in Hawaii, Puerto Rico, and all over the United States. You never know what project you’re going to work on being in the trade. You see all these amazing works of art and you take for granted that there are tradesmen that built that.
As a result of being a union member, I have been financially independent from my parents since I was 19 years old. I’ve been able to buy my own car and could afford to buy my own house when I was 21 years old.
Being financially independent was important to me because my dad raised me to believe that I should be able to take care of myself. I’m happy to be able to buy the things I’ve always wanted without having to depend on somebody else. If I went to college, those accomplishments would have been postponed. I only went to college for one year and it cost $8,000.00. I can only imagine the cost of attending a 4-year college and staying in a dorm room. The great thing about the apprenticeship is that you are getting paid to learn. Whereas in college, you have to pay to learn to hopefully find a job in your field. Choosing this career path has allowed me to live the life I’m living now.
I believe in the morals, values, and ethics that the union teaches you, especially brotherhood and sisterhood. At the end of the day, the union has your back whereas a non-union company has no loyalty to you. You can be replaced just like that. As a union member, you have rights that people have fought for you to have for many years. Without unions there wouldn’t be as many laws protecting working people. Unions have fought to allow women to work in the field, for equal opportunity laws, child labor laws, 40-hours work weeks, benefits packages, health care, retirement, and so much more.
I’ve only been laid off once as an apprentice, but I wasn’t worried because I knew that is was only a temporary layoff and I would eventually have work. In the meantime, I was able to support myself with unemployment insurance benefits that I had earned. With just the unemployment checks to support myself, I was still earning as much as my friends who were working 40 hours a week at a fast food place.
I think that being a woman in the union shows young girls that we can do anything that a man can do.
I know people my grandparents age who believe that women shouldn’t do any heavy lifting and should be in desk jobs or at home raising children. I find it humbling when women of all ages tell me that it’s cool that I work in this field and they start to realize that maybe they can do this stuff too. I feel like a lot of women are scared to enter a career in the trades because they’re scared to be harassed or mistreated, but I’ve honestly never had that kind of experience at work. I’ve worked with a lot of different journeymen in different stages of their careers and they’ve all treated me like a sister, a daughter, or a granddaughter. As long as you show them respect, they’re going to teach you everything they know and they’re going to enjoy working with you. I have had some of my best times working with the guys.
My advice to a young woman looking to join a trades union would be: don’t be scared. They can never take away the knowledge or the skills you learn in this trade.
Don’t be afraid to better yourself. Don’t be scared because you think that you might not be as strong or as smart as the boys, because you might surprise yourself. Just by taking that first step towards an apprenticeship, you’ve already come further than you expected. There are so many opportunities going through an apprenticeship that will open so many doors. If you’re somebody that likes to travel and you don’t see yourself staying in your hometown forever, being a union member with a union ticket will allow you to travel across the country. You’ll be able to make a living where you can support yourself and your family, with or without a man.
I would encourage young people thinking about joining this type of career to go for it. I’ve known so many people in their 30s and 40s who tried going to college or working other jobs and they wish that they had started their apprenticeships when they were younger. There are so many different things you can branch off and do after you finish the apprenticeship. You can be a project manager, a general foreman, you can become the union vice president or a union business agent. You can open your own supply house and distribute the equipment we need. You can even open your own company, which is a phenomenal thing to do. There are so many guys that sat in the same classrooms I sit in and they have gone on to open multi-million-dollar shops.
I want people to know tradesmen are not dumb people. Many people with college degrees feel that we’re stupid or that we don’t know what we’re doing. I have met people that have just graduated high school and haven’t done a day at college who are probably smarter than people give them credit for. As electricians, a lot of people think that all we do is wire outlets into the light switch, but there’s a lot more to it than that. There’s so much stuff that goes on behind closed doors that the public doesn’t see that goes into being a tradesman. I’ve had to be up at 4:30 in the morning to drive 2 hours to work one way and then go to school later that night. I’m not saying that white collar workers don’t necessarily have to do stuff like that, but ours is more manual, physical labor that wears on your body. Just give us more credit than how we look. We might look dirty when we go into the store, but it’s because we’ve worked hard all day. I used to go home and change before I went into a store because I didn’t want to be judged by the public, but now I don’t care. I’ll go into work and then into the store all dirty.
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A photography project of Workforce Development Institute - Shining a spotlight on women emerging in the union workforce.
