Local Union’s growth and prosperity due to new ways to recruit talent

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Ken Broadbent

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Steamfitters Local 449 Business Manager Ken Broadbent joined the America’s Work Force Union Podcast to discuss the growth of Local 449 over the last 15 years and how they are planning to recruit younger men and women to join Steamfitters.

Steamfitters Local 449 covers approximately 15 counties in Western Pennsylvania, serving nearly 1,900 active members.

Broadbent talked about the Joint Apprenticeship Training Committee’s new, state-of-the-art training center. He credited the Local’s success over the previous 15 years to the JATC’s ability to increase the size of its apprenticeship classes. Apprentices, he added, now account for nearly a quarter (475) of the Local’s active membership.

To grow the size of the apprenticeship classes, Broadbent shared Local 449’s recruitment plans. He emphasized the role of certain social media platforms and the use of professionally produced videos that supplement traditional recruitment methods. Furthermore, the Local paid for commercials, which will air locally during March Madness, to help spread the word about the need for apprentices and the benefits of the earn-while-you-learn model.

Broadbent also spoke about Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro, a friend of organized labor.

He believes Shaprio will continue to pursue job-creating, union-friendly policies, which will benefit Pennsylvania workers.

Listen to the entire episode to learn more about these topics.

America’s Work Force is the only daily labor podcast in the US and has been on the air since 1993, supplying listeners with useful, relevant input into their daily lives through fact-finding features, in-depth interviews, informative news segments and practical consumer reports. America’s Work Force is committed to providing an accessible venue in which America's workers and their families can hear discussion on important, relevant topics such as employment, healthcare, legislative action, labor-management relations, corporate practices, finances, local and national politics, consumer reports and labor issues.

America’s Work Force Union Podcast is brought to you in part by our sponsors: AFL-CIO, American Federation of Government Employees, American Federation of Musicians Local 4, Alliance for American Manufacturing, Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield, Brotherhood of Maintenance of Way Employes-IBT, Boyd Watterson, Columbus/Central Ohio Building and Construction Trades Council, Communication Workers of America, Mechanical Insulators Labor Management Cooperative Trust, International Association of Heat and Frost Insulators and Allied Workers Local 50, International Federation of Professional and Technical Engineers, International Union of Bricklayers and Allied Crafts, International Union of Painters and Allied Trades District Council 6, Ironworkers Great Lakes District Council, Melwood, The Labor Citizen newspaper, Laborers International Union of North America, The National Labor Office of Blue Cross and Blue Shield, North Coast Area Labor Federation, Ohio Federation of Teachers, United Labor Agency, United Steelworkers.

Local Union’s growth and prosperity due to new ways to recruit talent

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