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Washington Electricians Team Up with Group Serving the Hungry

 

August 23, 2012

 

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Dave McCord, a 25-year member of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, shares two passions—riding bicycles and changing lives by offering young workers a secure future through his job as director of the Joint Apprenticeship and Training Committee for Washington, D.C., Local 26, based in Lanham, Md.


In April, McCord—who bikes more than 4,000 miles per year—joined other electricians and union-organized contractors on a bike ride in Southern Maryland to benefit End Hunger in Calvert County.  The six-year-old nonprofit organization partners with churches, schools, businesses and other organizations to fulfill a mission described as “not only feeding people but getting to the root causes of local hunger and helping equip people to self-sufficiency.”

Returning to his office after the weekend ride on Calvert’s pastoral back roads, alongside 535 participants, McCord brought back informational fliers on poverty and hunger in Calvert, one of the nation’s wealthiest counties. He said:

When I told my assistant director, Ralph Neidert, about the ride, he told me there wasn’t anyone hungry in Calvert.

But, after reading statistics on poverty in Calvert County and personal stories of community residents in financial difficulty, says McCord:

Ralph was stunned.  He told me, ‘I couldn’t stand by and let my grandchildren go to school hungry and I can’t stand by and watch this happen to others. We need to do something.’

So McCord and Neidert called leaders of the Calvert County nonprofit and offered the local union’s help to provide electrical training to residents and put them on a path to good jobs.  

On July 23, 29 residents of Calvert County and bordering counties, St. Mary’s and Charles, showed up for the first electrical training class at the Calvert County Career Center.

Taught two nights a week by full-time Local 26 instructor Bill Murphy and retiree Dennis Mooney, the classes rotate between electrical theory and hands-on exercises—like bending electrical pipe. The union’s goal, says McCord, is to quickly prepare applicants to go to work for signatory union contractors as residential electrician trainees and give them the tools to help them apply for the five-year apprenticeship program later on. In addition to basic electrical training, applicants take CPR, first aid and safety training classes required under the Occupational Safety and Health Act.

Mary LaBorie, the life-skills program manager at End Hunger in Calvert County who helped plan the partnership, says the interest level in training was so high that some residents had to be turned away. She says:

Local 26 was so wonderful to come down to Calvert County, Some of our residents had been trying to get into training programs but didn’t have suitable transportation.  The electrical trade is a great profession that will allow them to become self-sufficient and no longer have to rely upon outside assistance.

Jeffrey Harshman’s daughter heard about the program in church and brought information home.  Harshman, 54, had owned a courier service in Washington, D.C. before he was forced to sell the business as electronic mail replaced the need for his messengers.

 A 14-year Calvert County resident, Harshman then worked as a crew supervisor for a construction firm that failed. He went to work doing electrical retrofits, but says he wasn’t being trained properly to safely expand his skill level. He says:

I have bounced around to find a new niche. But every time I find something, it disappears.

While he is the oldest student in his class and has life skills that many of his fellow students are just picking up, Harshman says:

I love learning.  The worst part about being unemployed is not having new experiences on the job.  I’m greedy for new knowledge and I would love to be able to enter the electrical apprenticeship program.

Harshman says he hopes the program will continue to include students who were turned away from the first class.

LaBorie observed the initial Calvert County class. She says: 

There was so much enthusiasm and Ralph Neidert, the assistant instructor, was so real and communicated so well. We are just thrilled.

Nancy Stange, 24 had been out of work six months and was cleaning houses to make ends meet when her mother-in-law e-mailed a link to the Calvert County program. Stange, whose father and uncle work as electricians for the county school board, says:

The program is a fantastic opportunity. It’s almost too good to be true. The instructors are straightforward and talk to us as adults.

Stange did some electrical work as a theatre student at Towson University and is looking forward to applying to enter the Local 26 apprentice program. She has already put her name on the list of students available to work.

Robin Brungard, the coalition’s director of programs, says:

The face of hunger has changed. Many of the residents served by the nonprofit are working at jobs that pay $10 an hour or more. But in Calvert County, If you’re not making $45,000 to $50,000 a year, you’re falling behind.

The coalition, says Brungard, identified three barriers to residents earning enough income to keep from sliding into poverty. The first was reliable transportation. Nearly 60 percent of residents travel to work outside the county and public transportation is virtually nonexistent. Second, was affordable childcare.  Many parents who have jobs don’t qualify for public assistance. But, after paying for childcare, they don’t have enough left to support their families.

The third barrier is lack of marketable skills. The partnership with Local 26 follows the nonprofit’s ideal model. “We don’t just ask for money,” says Brungard.The group asks auto repair shops, for example, to help provide labor to keep a resident’s car operable so they can get to work or asks groups and individuals to provide child care at reduced rates to working parents.

The electrical training program is a “game changer,” says Brungard, offering a bright opportunity for many residents to emerge from difficult economic and family circumstances into secure decent-paying, stable jobs. 

The training program is co-sponsored by grants from the Southern Maryland Tri-County Community Council.  Local 26 participates in similar programs in Prince Georges and Anne Arundel counties in Maryland. 

On Aug. 1, Local 26 was honored by the U.S. Department of Labor as part of a commemoration of the 75th signing of the National Apprenticeship Act. The DOL recognized the local union’s training program as a “trailblazer and innovator” for sponsoring the “D.C. Step-Up” program that puts district residents to work on federal prevailing wage and D.C.-funded projects for one year while they work to qualify to enter apprenticeship training. Says McCord:

Brotherhood goes far beyond the rank and file of the IBEW and many times we lose sight of that. We are about helping those that need help, in so many ways. Our partnership with End Hunger in Calvert County is giving people the chance to take advantage of an opportunity that they may never have been given before.  I am blessed to be a small part of that process.